Nordic Watchlist reviews The Lake by Jørn Lier Horst.
Water washes away all sins the saying goes, but in Jørn Lier Horst’s latest Wisting novel, The Lake, an unusually hot Norwegian summer sees a dried lakebed become the stage for a masterfully woven mystery, where every secret unearthed reshapes the lives of those left behind
With water levels five meters below usual levels, all sorts of items become exposed on the lakebed, most chillingly a body that appears to have been taped to a motorcycle. Could the find finally solve the mystery of Morten Wendel, who went missing eight years ago after being accused of the brutal rape of his neighbour’s daughter?
Wendel isn’t the only missing person the drought may reveal the final resting place of. Local metal detectorist Evert Harting scours the lakebed in search of an ancient fort. Instead, he finds a gold necklace with the letter A – could this belong to missing tourist Annika Bengt who police believe was abducted four years previously?
For Detective Wisting, the lake, and the summer campers in their motorhomes who frequent the shores, provide plenty of potential suspects. Suspicion falls on several potential perpetrators, but as he speaks to colleagues across the border in Sweden the crime list may be longer than he first thought.
Lier Horst of course excels at character work, and so it’s no surprise that it’s not just bodies being unearthed alongside the mundane objects that have been dumped in the lake. Long suppressed suspicions and secrets are also uncovered, some with fateful consequences.
As you’d expect from Lier Horst, the plotting is intricate and masterfully handled. What is particularly effective here is the subtlety at play – this isn’t just one major crime, the Lake’s unexpected draining acts as a catalyst for multiple issues to come to the surface. Those multiple threads are expertly handled, the smallest family tension as important as the major crime.
With every subplot, The Lake reveals the fragile humanity at the heart of crime—families fractured, loyalties tested, and hope found in unexpected places. The family whose life has been torn apart by their daughter’s rape. The alleged assailant’s family similarly torn apart, the belief in the innocence of their son who has been denied the chance of a trial given his sudden disappearance. The metal detector enthusiast forced to come to terms with unsavoury behaviour of his own family. The local environmental campaigners seeing the emptying of the lake as just part of a bigger global problem.
Against all these overlapping issues we have Detective Wisting, an old hand whose taciturn personality belies the fact that he misses little in observation. Having already established Wisting’s character in earlier works, Lier Horst doesn’t need to spend time spinning a backstory here, yet The Lake is equally accessible to those new to the Norwegian Detective as to his long-time followers.
There is a sense here though that Wisting himself is slowing down. Perhaps it is because of the unseasonal relentless heat taking its toll, but this is a far more relaxed Wisting than of old, one more inclined to go where the investigation leads him. His detective brain is still as sharp as ever, still knowing when to ask that vital question to unravel hidden secrets, but this is a far more sedate Wisting than we’ve seen previously.
The Lake, with those beautifully intertwining threads, is a fine addition to the Wisting catalogue and testament to Lier Horst’s ability to blend suspense with emotional depth, making each revelation as compelling as the last.
Lier Horst remains the master storyteller and coupled with Anne Bruces’ translation, he transforms a summer drought into a riveting exploration of guilt, innocence, and the power of buried truths.
The Lake by Jørn Lier Horst, translated by Anne Bruce is out now, published by Michael Joseph.
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