Thriller set in Sandefjord, NORWAY

2nd July 2018

The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl, thriller set in Sandefjord, NORWAY.

The author wrote this debut whilst spending a year living in Sandefjord with her two children. This is a lovely little town, idyllic and peaceful, but her novelist’s mind immediately imagined less pleasant stories beneath the perfect facade.

And so she wrote The Boy at the Door, the story of Cecilia Wilborg, who is happily (so it seems) married in the town, living in a beautiful house, with 2 beautiful children and a solicitous husband. Her house – the largest and most imposing in the neighbourhood – is tastefully and luxuriously furnished. From the outset, she is not shy about ruthlessly honing her image and that of her family. It’s gleaming and air-brushed, all of it.

In general, in Norway, it seems that women have a strong presence in society – the law requires that 40% of board members of big companies are women (check out this article “Lessons from Norway“). In the novel women come across as hugely competent, taking all their societal roles in their stride, at times there is quite some pressure to perform and conform.

Beneath the veneer of perfect presentation there lie, of course, festering secrets….

Window display, Daunt Books, Holland Park

Cecilia is at the swimming pool one day with her two daughters Hermine and Nicoline, and at the end of the session she is asked to take an abandoned little boy, Tobias, to his home. Upon arrival there is no-one to meet him and the house itself is a wreck, so she decides to take him home herself and settle him down for the night in the bosom of her family. He is easily integrated into her family life, as he is quite biddable; we discover in fact that he has been witness to some shocking abuse at the hands of his most recent parents/carers, Anni and Krysz.

The story is told from different viewpoints and Cecilia’s personality is excellently vile, perfect for alienating the reader. She is self absorbed, vainglorious and determined to guard a secret, all the while showing her calculating and sociopathic tendencies. Her character reminded me of Juliette in Karen Hamilton’s recent thriller “The Perfect Girlfriend“.

Cecilia’s carefully crafted backstory soon starts to unravel and there are consequences for both family and friends. The adage “Whatever you create will come back and give you the attention it deserves” soon comes to haunt her every move…

Alex and TF’s Tina at the launch

The book is an interesting construction, it moves around in time and perspective which could be jarring, but it’s not. She pieces her story together with care. I take the view that the book is an expression of the disconnect that can be at the heart of mental health conditions, whether caused by drug misuse (of which there is plenty in the book) or by episodes in a life history. It therefore feels like a jagged tale of people on the edge. It hangs together well despite the construct.

The author had, somehow, to get little Tobias into the heart of Cecilia’s family in order to build her story. I did wonder about social services in Norway, who actively seemed to support Tobias staying in her family – not a whiff of safeguarding in sight, no vetting of the family, which would be key factors for social service involvement here in UK. So, maybe just a little question mark there….

As the story progressed, I did feel that I was in this little town (with outings to Sweden and Poland) and the weather was certainly pretty inclement, it rained a lot, with plenty of snow. It made for an interesting foray to Norway in terms of story and of TripFiction.

This is publisher Head of Zeus’s lead thriller debut of 2018 and there are plenty of discussion points as a book club choice.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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For more books to transport you to Norway, just explore the TripFiction database and drill down by genre! And of course if you know of any books we should add to the database, go ahead and add them!

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