SMOKE SCREEN by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst
Orenda Books; 2/18/21 (UK Paperback Edition)
CBTB Rating: 4/5
The Verdict: A gripping Nordic thriller
The writing partnership between Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst is the stuff that Nordic Noir readers’ dreams are made of. Enger and Horst, both acclaimed crime writers in their own right, are now dominating Norwegian bestseller charts with their gripping thriller series featuring police officer Alexander Blix and journalist Emma Ramm. This pacey, page-turning Nordic crime series blew me away with its first installment, DEATH DESERVED, which found a serial killer at work in Oslo, Norway, committing a series of very public murders. This month, Blix and Ramm are back with the second installment in this inspired crime series. SMOKE SCREEN finds our two protagonists on the heels of a very different kind of villain: a bomber who disrupts the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display with his own deadly spectacle. Blix and Ramm find themselves independently drawn into the investigation, and it isn’t long before they each discover the shadowy connection between this bombing and a decade-old missing persons case. How do these events fit together? And what is the motivation behind this bomber’s horrific acts? SMOKE SCREEN delivers another intricate, page-turning thriller from two of Norway’s most acclaimed crime writing talents. Long may the partnership between Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst continue—the Blix and Ramm series is a fresh, engaging addition to any Scandinavian crime fiction reader’s library, and a series I hope to be reading for years to come.
Plot Details:
Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion, and the city is put on terrorist alert.
Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Semplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier … and never found.
Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…
I’ve always been fascinated by writing duos. The idea of writing a novel sounds daunting enough to me, and the idea of two authors writing a novel together? It sounds downright impossible. But impossible it is not, and Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst’s co-authored series is proof that it can be done, and it can be done very well. The Blix and Ramm series relies on both Enger and Horst’s unique strengths as authors, and allows their distinct talents to shine on the page. Both DEATH DESERVED and SMOKE SCREEN blend clever police procedural plotting with page-turning pacing and endearing, vividly-crafted characters. The authentic and realistic portrayal of police investigations found in these books are pure Jørn Lier Horst; the series’ memorable characters and thrilling pacing are Thomas Enger through and through. I love both of these authors’ work individually, and I love the way their co-authored thrillers shine a unique light on the qualities of their writing that have earned each author their dedicate fans. Readers of Nordic Noir will love seeing two of their favorite authors join forces in this thrilling, page-turning series.
On the heels of serial killer thriller DEATH DESERVED, Enger and Horst take their sophomore thriller SMOKE SCREEN in a new direction. Picking up where the events of DEATH DESERVED left off, SMOKE SCREEN begins in the heart of Oslo on New Year’s Eve, where a crowd has gathered by the harbor to watch the annual fireworks display and ring in the new year. But the sounds and sights of the fireworks are quickly drowned out by a massive explosion that has nothing to do with the New Year’s Eve festivities. A bomb has been detonated by the harbor, critically wounding bystanders. On the scene are Emma Ramm, a journalist, and Alexander Blix, a police officer. As the night descends into chaos, Emma and Alexander witness a survivor being pulled from the harbor: a woman who made national headlines ten years ago when her young daughter, Patricia, was kidnapped… and never seen again. Is it a coincidence that this woman was harmed in the blast? Could there be a connection between the cold case surrounding her missing daughter and this horrific present-day attack? On a hunch, Alexander Blix begins digging into the possible connection, and discovers a shocking web of lies and long-buried secrets. Racing against the clock to catch the culprit behind the New Year’s Eve bombing before they can strike again, Blix is drawn headfirst into a case with far-reaching implications—and, at the same time, Emma Ramm is conducting her own investigation as she chases down the biggest story of the year.
There’s something so engaging about crime novels featuring unlikely crime-solving duos, and the unexpected partnership between Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm is my favorite element of Enger and Horst’s crime fiction series thus far. Blix and Ramm are a sort of star-crossed duo, two very different individuals whose fates have been tied together by a tragic event in the past. Now, in the present, the two have reconnected and formed an endearing and compelling bond. Alexander Blix is a hard-working, conscientious police officer who does his best to fulfill the responsibilities of his job dutifully. But against Blix’s better judgment, he has become a police informant for journalist Emma Ramm. Emma is a woman who has been to hell and back and lived to tell the tale. She is independent and somewhat introverted, having learned to rely on herself through a series of personal tragedies in her past. Emma works as a journalist for a large news organization in Norway, and has come to rely on Alexander Blix for irreplaceable intel on ongoing police investigations. The relationship between Blix and Ramm is almost akin to a father-daughter relationship, and the back-and-forth between these characters brings an endearing element of humanity to this thriller series. In SMOKE SCREEN, Enger and Horst cleverly use the characters of Blix and Ramm to give readers two perspectives on the book’s central mystery. Through Alexander Blix, readers are given a more traditional police procedural plotline, following the inner workings of the police investigation into the bombing in the Oslo harbor; through Emma Ramm, readers are given an outsider’s perspective on these same events, one marked by Emma’s fearlessness and willingness to put herself in the middle of the action to get to the truth. As the intricate mystery central to SMOKE SCREEN takes its numerous twists and turns, readers will love following both protagonists on their relentless pursuit of justice.
In tone and pacing, SMOKE SCREEN falls somewhere between the slow-burning grit of traditional Nordic Noir and the page-turning entertainment of a thriller. Where the series’ first installment was a true thriller through and through, SMOKE SCREEN feels slightly more aligned with traditional Scandinavian crime fiction, though it ultimately builds to the punchy, gripping pacing that I loved so much in its predecessor. What begins as a more slow-burning crime novel, one focused on police procedure and Blix’s hunt for the culprit behind the New Year’s Eve bombing, takes a sharp turn when a shocking plot twist shifts our understanding of the story as a whole. From there, SMOKE SCREEN takes off, delivering a relentlessly engaging thriller about long-buried secrets, grief, and the lengths people will go to free themselves of the past. Moving from the heart of Oslo to the surrounding towns and beyond, SMOKE SCREEN delivers the kind of meticulous and intricate plotting that readers of the Nordic Noir genre expect from their crime novels. This is one of those books where it’s nearly impossible to discuss the plot without spoilers, so I will just say that I loved the unexpected, heartbreaking turns that this story took as it progressed. In SMOKE SCREEN, nothing is as it seems, and Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst lead readers down a twisty, thrilling road in their latest Blix and Ramm thriller. I am already looking forward to the next installment in this gripping Nordic crime series to be translated into English.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.
Book Details:
Publisher : Orenda Books (June 1, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 276 pages
ISBN-10 : 191319356X
ISBN-13 : 978-1913193560
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