Having enjoyed Wisting on TV I picked up one of the original novels with a few reservations. Often (Wallander) the TV versions are nothing like the originals, albeit later novels sometimes come to resemble the TV series (Wallander, again). The good news with Wisting? The two are exactly the same. 100% match.
I don't know if The Night Man has been adapted for TV yet. I doubt it, given the gruesome nature of the initial crime - the head of a teenaged asylum seeker is displayed on a pole in the Larvik marketplace. William Wisting and his ubiquitous reporter daughter Line investigate the same crime from different starting points. Line ends up as a potential victim.
What I particularly liked, which we don't get in the TV version, is the compelling depiction of provincial policing. I also liked that in this novel from 2009, Nils Hammer, Wisting's colleague, doesn't overtake the narrative (which he regularly does on TV, due to a charismatic actor). In fact, I had to concentrate to determine which one he was.
The story faces up to contemporary issues - refugees, prejudice, human trafficking and opiates funding international terrorism. Author Horst has clearly thought them through. Everything about the book convinces and compels. I enjoyed it a lot.
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