Death Deserved - Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger

 This seems to be the first of the Blix/Ramm series.   In other words, I have read the first three in the wrong order.   No matter.   They work perfectly well as standalone novels.

We start in 1999, with the incident that changed everything for Blix, his partner-now-boss Gard Fosse, and Emma Ramm.   Then, almost twenty years later, Blix is given a missing person enquiry.   Well know Nordic athlete Sonja Nordstrom, whose tell-all memoir is to be published today, has failed to show up to the various launch events.   Has she just taken herself off - or has she been kidnapped.

Eventually they find a body on a boat owned by Sonja.   It's not her.   Someone is playing with the police and killing second rate celebs in a warped countdown order.   Meanwhile Blix's daughter Iselin is appearing on Norway's big reality show, Worthy Winner.   Could she possibly be in any danger?  (Anyone who's read anything by Horst knows the answer to that one.)   Emma, as a celebrity news blogger, is obviously drawn in.   It's fascinating how the authors handle the realisation about the role Blix played in her life.   They do it really well.

It's a cracking book with a couple of really cunning twists at the end.   I didn't guess who the villain was, yet the answer was entirely credible.   No wonder the Blix/Ramm series has now extended to five.   I'm definitely on the lookout for Stigma and Victim.

Smoke Screen - Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

Another Horst/Enger collaboration in the Blix/Ramm series.   I can't decide if it comes before or after Unhinged (see below) and that's a good sign, showing you can start anywhere in the run.   It's another cracking idea: a bomb goes off in the centre of Oslo on New Year's Eve; Blix is on duty, Emma Ramm is there because she has a funny feeling.   Blix rescues one victim from the river.   She's carrying ID belonging to Ruth-Kristine Smeplass, whose daughter Patricia was snatched ten years ago and never found.   Patricia's father Christer Storm Isaksen killed a man who said he was involved; Blix was there when he did it.   Now Christer, in gaol but coming to the end of his sentence, has received a photograph which he believes shows Patricia now aged eleven.

Things get even more complicated.   Emma has suffered a personal loss in the bombing.  Only work can keep her occupied.   Blix believes Ruth-Kristine was the target of the bomber.   He digs deeper into the kidnapping.   It's a great yarn, effectively told.   The collaboration works really well.   It all builds nicely towards---

And then, I'm afraid to say, the climax is something of a disappointment.   Plot-wise, it is the only possible ending, but it is poorly done and a pointless epilogue doesn't help.   Even so, Smoke Screen was an enthralling read and not only will I read the next Horst/Enger when I come across it, I saw on social media yesterday that Enger has collaborated with someone else, a lead I shall definitely be pursuing.

Unhinged - Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger

 What is it with senior Norwegian police officers and their pesky daughters who keep getting kidnapped by the deranged?   I can explain that.   It's not Norwegians per se; it's Jorn Lier Horst's personal hang-up which he has brought over to this collaboration with Thomas Enger, one of whose books I read so long ago that I can't remember if he has any similar baggage.

That said, the device is taken considerably further in Unhinged.   Iselin Blix is a trainee detective, so her involvement is less awkward.   She lodges with her father's protegee Sofia Kovic.   Kovic is looking into a few cold cases.   Someone breaks into the flat and executes her.   He also attacks Iselin but she manages to fight him off.   Alexander Blix is giving a speech to a class of students, which means he misses a number of telephone calls about the attack.   He is late to the scene.   He takes charge of the investigation.

Emma Ramm is a news blogger who has obviously worked with Blix in previous novels.   She is friends with both Kovic and Iselin.   There is no suggestion of a romantic interest with Blix.   She is much younger than him.   Indeed he rescued her from something horrible when she was five.   In so doing, he killed one of her abusers. 

So Blix asks Emma to accompany Iselin to the regular police trauma counsellor.   The session finishes early and Emma is not in the waiting room when Iselin leaves.   Iselin wanders out onto the street and is snatched in broad daylight, bundled into a stolen car and driven away.   Emma and Blix both miss the speeding vehicle by seconds.

The outcome of all this is only one half of the book.  The first half is framed by Blix's interrogation by Bjarne Brogeland of Kripos, the National Criminal Investigation Service.   This is a proper grilling - Bliz is the one under investigation, having apparently shot and killed someone else.  The device is really well used and adds another level of intrigue and darkness to events.

The second half is the hunt for those behind the murders and abduction.   it is well enough handled and Emma plays a more significant role, but I have to say it is not as thrilling as the first half.   Overall, though, I really enjoyed Unhinged.   A proper police thriller that is properly thrilling.    I shall certainly look out for more.   Apparently Death Deserved was the first Blix/Ramm novel, Smoke Screen second.

PS: Scarred was the Thomas Enger novel I reviewed on this blog back in February 2015.   I didn't much like it but I did admire Enger's writing style.