Our first book review of 2025 is Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson.
Norway – a picturesque land where crime is virtually non-existent and what little crime there is confined only to the urban surroundings of Oslo. Like the Norse tales of old, this though is just a fairytale idyl and in reality evil and crime can be found in the most photogenic landscapes.
It’s a premise that Ørjan Karlsson develops well in Into Thin Air, the first of his Arctic murder series. For Jakob Weber, Chief Investigator of Nordland Police, the scenic setting of the Lofoten islands around Bodø doesn’t provide immunity from the horrors that lurk in the darkest of souls.
What initially seems a fairly simple case of a domestic dispute between boyfriend and girlfriend takes a much more sinister route as the girl’s disappearance shows uncanny links to a second disappearance on the remote island of Røst, 100km away across the frozen sea.
Remote it may be, but when the second victim also happens to be one of Norway’s leading Social Media influences, the eyes of the world’s media soon turn towards the wild north.
The two cases bear a similarity to an unsolved case decade earlier, do the islands have a copycat killer or has a serial killer been biding their time until their next victim?
Told with multiple narrative voices, this is the perfect introduction to a corner of Norway perhaps as yet unknown to English language readers.
The start of any new literary series always has to walk the tightrope of providing enough backstory and character development alongside a plot gripping enough to want us to come back for future instalments and in Into Thin Air, Karlsson exceeds at both.
Like any good Nordic Noir detective, lead investigator Jakob Weber has his own secrets that are teased in this initial instalment. A troubled childhood, loss, and a newly discovered family provide plenty of dramatic potential, though in Karlsson’s accomplished hands these threads are woven with skill in a way that makes the reader think we already know Weber.
Of course, any good series needs more than one character and through Into Thin Air we’re introduced to a whole cast of characters with their own complexities that offer much for future works. Noora Yun Sande who has transferred to Northern Norway from Oslo may have other reasons for the move apart from career development, what is the history between her and the Oslo detective sent to Bodø to help with the investigation? Heading up the investigative department is Superintendent Konrad Råkstad. Known to his team, but only behind his back, as The Crow, does his dominating behaviour, verging on bullying, hide some other secret?
All these characters to introduce and establish could so easily come at the cost of plot, but Karlsson weaves them into the narrative naturally, so it adds to the depth of storytelling, rather than diminish from it.
The plot itself doesn’t flinch from the brutality at work here. Having one of the narrative voices as the perpetrator of the crimes gives us a chilling insight into a tortured mind. Karlsson doesn’t ever excuse the brutality however, the crimes are shown as a product of a deeply troubled mind. Who that tortured mind belongs to soon becomes a hectic race against time as the police investigation fans out across the remote islands of Nordland before another victim is claimed.
Ian Giles’ translation keeps the pace fast and the detail rich, hooking readers in for the ride. While this may be the first English language version of Karsson’s works, it is easy to see why his works in his native Norway have proved so successful. With two more works in this Arctic Mysteries series already published in Norwegian (of a planned ten-book series) and plenty of avenues left to explore at the end of Into Thin Air, there’s much still to enjoy from this new addition to the must-read series.
Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson, translated by Ian Giles, is published by Orenda Books on January 16 2025
