A novel of melancholy set in RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
A macabre thriller set near OSLO
17th December 2024
Son by Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger. A macabre thriller set near Oslo.
Son is a great and macabre thriller set near Oslo. It has co-authors – Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger. Both are great crime writers in their own right… Johana, perhaps, specialises more in the macabre, and I suspect that she has probably had a greater influence over the storyline. She is French but now lives in Sweden. Thomas is Norwegian and a native of Oslo where the story is set. Again I would suggest that the authenticity of the location is more down to him than to Johana because he knows the city and its environs so well.. But, whatever the truth, the combination of the two authors really works well.
Kari Voss is an expert in memory and how it can be corrupted by external factors. She is a consultant with Oslo police. Seven years before the events in Son her young son vanished after a birthday party. He has not been seen since. Two teenage girls are horribly murdered on the eve before Halloween and their mutilated bodies are found in the house where they were preparing for a party. A suspect is soon identified. He is a young drug dealer and acquaintance of both – who had been in the house with them. He was also a friend of Kari’s missing son. So Kari knows him. He confesses to the murders, but Kari is far from convinced. She and the father of one of the murdered girls investigate further. And here it all gets pretty murky. Everyone she talks to appears to be lying in one way or another. This is not a straightforward case.
Eventually the murkiness clears and the killer is identified. The explanation of the motive is well handled and convincing. A final twist sheds light on what happened to Kari’s son. This is an involving and well crafted story.
Son is the first in a new series featuring Kari Voss. I look forward very much to the next one.
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