1222

This is the 2nd book I have read by Norwegian author Anne Holt; see my post for What Never Happens, also. Apparently she has written 7 previous novels in this, the Hanne Wilhelmsen series (see Wikipedia , etc. for lists of her other novels). Given that in this book Hanne is in a wheelchair from a bullet that severed her spine several years earlier, I feel compelled to do some back tracking in my reading. Apparently Holt has worked as a police officer and a lawyer so she has a good grasp of the procedural details that come to bear in this case.
A freak blizzard has derailed the train to Oslo with 269 people on board. The conductor is killed, but the rest are rescued through the valiant efforts of a handful of staff from a nearby mountain resort hotel and brought to stay there until help can come from the outside. The blizzard continues with screaming winds and feet of snow, promising some significant delay before that happens. People start to die--a baby who was injured in the wreck, an elderly man from a heart attack, death from a gun shot wound and stabbling with an icycle take out two more-- and Hanne can't help but take charge, in a roundabout way, to try and determine who the killer is. She is reluctant at first, having secluded herself from virtually all friends, family, former colleagues, and society in general for the intervening years since she was shot and paralyzed from the waist down. But two of the hotel staff and an interesting dwarf doctor named Magnus Streng bring her onboard and assist with her inquiries. There are so many complex interpersonal dynamics going on in this book that I could not begin to do them justice.
For example, there was an extra train car added just before departure that has been kept totally separate from the others and the passengers have also been sequestered in a separate wing of the hotel with guards posted to keep people out. Hanne tries to befriend what is apparently a runaway boy in his late teens, but his response is mixed--first adversarial, then more accepting, and then once more cutting her off. The young Goth-character woman he takes up with will play a significant role in the story. Berit, the hotel manager, emerges from her somewhat mild-mannered initial presentation to become a force to be reckoned with. We hear indirectly about Hanne's partner, their daughter, and her housekeeper. The storm itself is a character here and we feel its threat and challenge to life. This is largely a story of Hanne starting to re-engage, in a very limited way, with the world and particularly with the job that was both highly stressful and intensely satisfying.
So far, I have found Holt's work to be very well-written with complex, well-developed characters. Hanne will not strike you as particularly likable, but certainly compelling. If you are at all a fan of Scandinavian mysteries, check out Holt. ( and if anyone can find a home page for this author, send me the link!)