Lead Review

• Book: Where Roses Never Die
• Location: Bergen
• Author: Gunnar Staalesen

Review Author: Tina Hartas

This author, to my mind, is one of the fathers of storytelling, he brings together a good plot, with credible twists and a sense of place that is evocative. You can rely on his writing and the breadth of story he creates, you are always in a safe pair of hands.

The novel opens with a raid on a jewellery store and we see how that feeds into the main thrust of the novel as the narrative unfolds. PI Varg Veum is looking into a cold case before the statute of limitations kicks in, in just a few months time. This, of course, adds pressure onto any person investigating the ‘cold case’ and in this instance it is The Mette case. The disappearance of a little three year old girl in 1977 and her fate is still a mystery. Perhaps she was abducted, perhaps a motorist had run her over and disposed of her body. Nobody seems to know but of course someone must have knowledge.

Varg Veum is looking over the case that took place in the early 2000s, at the behest of Mette’s Mother, who is still desperate to know what befell her daughter. He is a solid character with a flaw or two (he likes a bit of alcohol, understandable given his experiences in the past) and he goes about his investigations in a methodical and focussed way, interviewing people who lived in the residential enclave where Mette and her parents lived, talking to police investigators, who were active on the case all those years ago.

You get a nice sense of the city, the harbour, with, for example, a shout out for Bryggen and a bit of its history. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and well worth a visit for anyone keen to realise their literary adventures.

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