When you think of Scandinavian/Norwegian crime fiction – if you are one of those, like me, who likes their crime fiction dark, confronting and spine-tingling – you probably, immediately jump to Steig Larsson’s The Millennium Trilogy or Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series. If you’ve been a fan a little longer, you may know the woman Nesbo describes as The godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction: Anne Holt.
Holt, a former Minister of Justice, is the author of 18 books, including the Hanne Wilhelmsen series and the Vik &Stubo series. The title Modus is a TV series tie-in of Holt’s novel that was originally published as Fear Not. It is the fourth novel in the series about Criminal Researcher, Johanne Vik, and her Detective Inspector husband, Adam Stubo, first seen in Punishment, then The Final Murder and Death in Oslo.
Modus/Fear Not opens with a series of seemingly unrelated events. Johanne’s daughter, Kristiane, who suffers from an unidentified learning disability, walks out of a hotel into a busy street in the middle of Oslo where, fortuitously, a stranger saves her life. Subsequently, on Christmas Eve, a female Norwegian bishop is found murdered in Bergen, and a young asylum seeker and male prostitute is found dead in the Oslo harbor.
Stubo is dispatched to Bergen to investigate the Bishop’s murder. Meanwhile, Vik, researching hate crimes, finds indications that the killings may be connected and, unless something is done, is convinced the killings are just the beginning. Unlike her previous Vik/Stubo novels, which have been fictitiously suspenseful, Modus addresses the current all-too-prevalent issue of hate crimes and racial vilification.
Modus is a suspenseful read and a thought-provoking one at that, but the issue that raises its head is that of something being lost in translation, which can make the language a tad stilted, rather than free flowing. However, that is easily overlooked once the tension begins to build and the reader settles into the translation.
Whilst it’s also not essential to have read the preceding novels, it is a comfort to return to well-known characters, enhancing your reading pleasure, with a deeper understanding of the personal dynamics. With the last of this series to be released in February 2017, there’s plenty of time to make Anne Holt part of your Summer Reading set, immersing yourself in the cold Norwegian climate and criminal activities.
Reviewed by Glen Christie
Rating out of 10: 8
Released by: Murdoch Books/Allen & Unwin
Release Date: October 2016
RRP: $19.99 paperback
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