The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl translated by Don Bartlett #Review #Giveaway

My thanks today go to Orenda Books for my place on the Blog Tour for Kjell Ola Dahl's historical thriller, The Assistant. I am delighted to say that I have a print copy for you to win. Details of this Giveaway are at the foot of this post.

A seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity leads a PI and his ex-con assistant on a murderous trail, in a sophisticated, riveting historical Nordic Noir thriller set in interwar and prohibition-era Norway.

Oslo, 1938.War is in the air and Europe is in turmoil. Hitler’s Germany has occupied Austria and is threatening Czechoslovakia; there’s a civil war in Spain and Mussolini reigns in Italy.

When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske, he and his assistant –his one-time nemesis and former drug-smuggler Jack Rivers –begin a seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity.

But all is not what it seems, and when Jack is accused of murder, the trail leads back to the 1920s, to prohibition-era Norway, to the smugglers, sex workers and hoodlums of his criminal past ... and an extraordinary secret.

Both a fascinating portrait of Oslo’s interwar years, with Nazis operating secretly on Norwegian soil and militant socialists readying workers for war, The Assistant is also a stunningly sophisticated, tension-packed thriller –the darkest of hard-boiled Nordic Noir –from one of Norway’s most acclaimed crime writers.

My Thoughts

As I read The Assistant, I was struck by the flawless plotting as the narrative moved between two decades in the 20th Century- the 1920's and the 1930's. It never jarred but as each period alternated, you could see the effects of earlier days on the central characters, as secrets and betrayals were gradually uncovered. When you meet the PI Paaske and his assistant, Jack Rivers, they are on opposite sides of the fence. The 20's were prohibition years in Norway and Jack's criminal past brings him into contact with the police officer, Paaske. Fast forward a decade to the pre-war years and you find them both working together. Paaske is now a PI and it seems that he has employed Rivers as his assistant: an odd couple indeed. Who trusts who?

    Although very much a crime thriller, with the twists and turns you would expect, there are some interesting historical threads within this standalone story. You explore the effects of political decisions on everyday life and of course in the chapters devoted to the 1930's, you come up against the rise of the German state, its incursion below the surface into daily life and at the other end of the spectrum, the communism which took a quite different view of the place of the state. It feels authentic and the social commentary never intrudes on the novel's direction but rather illuminates characters' actions. For a thriller which is character driven and full of surprises, give this a go!

In short: Characterisation and plotting are first class- as usual!

    

    

About the Author

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.

You can follow Kjell Ola Dahl on Goodreads  |  Twitter

 

Book link: Amazon UK Kindle  |  Amazon UK Paperback  

Publication day is May 13th 2021.

Thanks to Karen Sullivan and Anne Cater of Orenda Books for a copy of the book and a place on the blog tour. 

 

                                           Check out the rest of the tour!

 

Giveaway (UK only) 

 

 

 

To win a print copy of The Assistant, just Follow and Retweet the pinned Tweet at @bookslifethings and good luck!

 Closing Date is May 13th 2021 and there is one winner.

*Terms and Conditions –UK only.  The winner will be selected at random via Tweetdraw from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.