The Lazarus Solution by Kjell Ola Dahl (translated by Don Bartlett)

Today is my blog tour stop for The Lazarus Solution by Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett. My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy.

The Blurb

Daniel Berkåk works as a courier for the Press and Military Office in Stockholm. On his last cross-border mission to Norway, he carries a rucksack full of coded documents and newspapers, but before he has a chance to deliver anything he is shot and killed and the contents of his rucksack are missing.

The Norwegian government, currently exiled in London, wants to know what happened, and the job goes to writer Jomar Kraby, whose first suspect is a Norwegian refugee living in Sweden, whose past is as horrifying as the events still to come…

Both classic crime and a stunning expose of Norwegian agents in Stockholm during the Second World War, The Lazarus Solution is a compulsive, complex, richly authentic historical thriller from one of the godfathers of Nordic Noir.

The Lazarus Solution is published by Orenda Books and comes out on 27th of this month.

 

My Review

I had only read one other book by this author, The Courier, and that was a wee while ago, so it was good to get reacquainted with his writing. My knowledge of what was happening in Sweden and Norway during the second world war was also lacking so it was interesting to learn a bit about that too. 

After a courier working for The Norwegian Legation in Sweden is found dead and the papers he was carrying are missing, writer Jomar Kraby, much to his surprise, is tasked with finding out what happened. Meanwhile, Kai Fredly, newly arrived in Sweden from Norway, is looking to find out about the death of his older brother. Told from their alternating points of view, the story that follows is interesting and complex, leading to a tense and exciting denouement. 

 

I liked Jomar. By his own admission, he's a man past his prime, perhaps mainly due to his love of alcohol. It's been some time since he wrote anything of note and nobody is more shocked than him when he is asked to investigate Daniel's murder. But the Norwegian government, future exiled in London want someone low key, not noteworthy and with no real connections to the Legation, where leaks are suspected. So Jomar comes across as very human, fallible and relatable with a dry sense of humour and a bluntness I found charming. 

Kai often comes across as a young man in too deep, being swept along by events he can't control. Whilst he hadn't been particularly close to his brother, in fact their beliefs were very different, he was all the family Kai had left and he wants to know what happened to him. There aren't many women in the story and of those that are a few are quite enigmatic, untrustworthy. Sara was a standout for me, a richly described character. 

I must confess that I did get a bit confused as to what was happening in Sweden (because So many Norwegians were there) and Norway but that was entirely down to me, not because of the writing. Once I got my head around that I really enjoyed following both investigations, and thought the way the storylines wound around each other before dovetailing together was great. 

But what really made The Lazarus Solution stand out for me were all the small details, the scene setting and the historical stuff -  drunk German soldiers singing political songs on a Swedish train, the politics of the day, the social events, everything. The text is well researched and richly layered, making it easy to picture the scenes, to imagine yourself there. A great story to immerse yourself in, with engaging characters and a tense, exciting denouement. 

And a big shout out to Don Bartlett for his brilliant work here. Translators are ace, I'm so grateful to be able to enjoy fantastic foreign works because of their hard work. 

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 fourteen 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.