Where Monsters Dwell

December 16, 2013
Gruesome, nearly identical murders in the U.S. and Norway send detectives on both sides of the Atlantic on the hunt for a killer in Norwegian journalist Brekke’s underwhelming debut. Soon after the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Va., is found flayed and beheaded, the archivist of the Gunnerus Library in Trondheim, Norway, is found murdered in a similar fashion. The American and Norwegian sleuths assigned to the killings—respectively, newly minted homicide detective Felicia Stone and Chief Insp. Odd Singsaker, recently returned from an extended sick leave due to a brain tumor—begin working together after it’s revealed that both victims had been researching a rare 16th-century text, the Johannes Book. Crime fans may enjoy Brekke’s in-jokes, such as naming minor characters after real-life serial killers, but they will quickly tire of the lagging plot. Agent: Nicole K. James, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency.

February 1, 2014
Brekke's big-boned debut thriller, spanning two continents and 500 years, delves into the unholy connections between a pair of monstrous killings in Norway and the U.S. Efrahim Bond's tenure as curator in Richmond's Edgar Allan Poe Museum is abruptly ended when someone knocks him out with a crowbar, flays him alive and only then administers the coup de grace. Across the sea, librarian Siri Holm begins the first day in her new position at Trondheim's Gunnerus Library by discovering the flayed corpse of Gunn Brita Dahle, her predecessor, inside a double-locked vault that's heretofore been used only to store rare books. The two cases are clearly linked, but neither Richmond homicide detective Felicia Stone nor Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker, just back on the job after surgery to remove a brain tumor, has any clue that they are. Singsaker, who seems especially at sea, interrogates Gunn Brita's archaeologist husband, reminds Gunnerus security chief Jon Vatten that he was once suspected of killing his own vanished wife and son, and allows himself to be seduced by another suspect. While the two sorely tried cops toil on unaware of the big break that will bring Felicia to Trondheim, Brekke provides increasingly disturbing flashbacks to the creation of the Johannes Book, a 16th-century collection of aphorisms and medical information bound in human skin, which figures in both murders. The sleuths are sympathetic and the atmosphere suitably sinister, but far too many of the shivery complications turn out to be red herrings. Agatha Christie, whose example is noted at several points, would surely have disapproved. Grim and tense, but readers will want more payoff.

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November 15, 2013

Brekke makes his U.S. debut with this engrossing crime novel that was a best seller in his native Norway. A murder in the United States and one in Norway share disturbing similarities--both victims were flayed while alive and seem to have some connection to a 16th-century book called The Book of John, which is notable for being bound in human skin. In Virginia, Det. Felicia Stone investigates the murder of the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, while in Trondheim, Norway, Insp. Odd Singsaker searches for the killer of a librarian found dead in the library's rare book vault. When Stone realizes that her case may be connected to the Norwegian crime, she travels to Trondheim to work with Singsaker, and the chase for a sadistic killer ensues. VERDICT With grisly murders investigated by likable detectives, this mystery is perfectly grim without being bleak and is a welcome addition to the popular "Nordic noir" subgenre. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/13.]--Melissa DeWild, Kent District Lib., Comstock Park, MI

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2013
There's a bleakness to current Nordic noir that can make the reader wonder if the tone accurately reflects the Scandinavian soul, or if the authors (following Stieg Larsson) are being intentionally over the top. For example, a character in this Norwegian best-seller spends time, as he sips his morning coffee, closely observing a fly slowly die, noting that the fly's death has lasted through his third cup. This sets the tone for an unrelievedly bleak mystery. The fly gets off easy compared to the human victims, current and historic, recorded here. Two beyond-grotesque deaths occur, one at the Edgar Allan Poe museum in Richmond, Virginia; the other at the Gunnerus Library in Trondheim, Norway. The buildup to each murder is extraordinarily well done and almost unbearably suspenseful. What connects them is the journal (made out of human skin, naturally) of a medieval mendicant monk who was also a serial killer; Brekke gives us excerpts from the journal throughout. The investigation and investigators in the U.S. and Norway make this less of a horror story and more credible. On the whole, the novel lives up to the edginess of this genre. Brrrr.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)