Death in Oslo is a special and very interesting crime fiction novel by Norwegian writer Anne Holt. It is a book where the author lets the first female US president, Helen Lardahl Bentley – a woman with Norwegian ancestors – be kidnapped by terrorists in Oslo.

Washington D. C., January 2005, Helen Lardahl Bentley takes the oath of office as the first female president of the United States. As the crowd cheers, President Bentley is thinking, “I got away with it . . . .”

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, businessman Abdallah al-Rahman is watching the inaugural event on television from his soundproof exercise room. To no one he says, “She actually thinks she got away with it!”

And in Oslo, Norway, watching the televised event, Hanne Wilhemsen speculates about the new president’s spotless past to her friend, former FBI profiler Johanne Vik, and muses, “But there’s always something . . . some little secret . . . .”

This is how Death in Oslo begins. Helen Lardahl Bentley beat George W. Bush. And she wants Norway to be the first country visits as President. Moreover, she wants to be there on the 17th of May – on the day when Norway celebrates its independence and first constitution. Both she and her advisors consider Norway to be one of the safest countries for her to visit.

But soon after she arrives, she disappears – is kidnapped – in the early hours of the morning of May 17th. This has never happened before – no American President has ever been kidnapped.

Death in Oslo is interesting for another reason as well. Followers of Anne Holt will know that she has written two series of crime fiction books. One of the series features the Norwegian police detective Hanne Wilhelmsen (this is the series I favor), and the other featuring the couple Johanne Vik (a profiler trained by the FBI) and her husband Adam Stubo, a detective in the Oslo police. However, in this book Anne Holt puts all her heroes in play! So, in a sense, this is a book where the two separate series intersect.

The disappearance of the President forces the Norwegian police, Secret Service and FBI to work together – not, of course, without friction and differences of opinion. Can the US President really just disappear into thin air? And it soon becomes clear that the Secret Service this time has overlooked several important factors while preparing the President’s stay. And far away, in a Middle Eastern country, a man knowing about a dark secret President Bentley has been protecting for decades, has been able to successfully exploit a weakness and carry out an unprecedented act of terrorism.

Working on several fronts and with huge resources, the progress in the investigation is very fast. Multiple leads are pursued. However, the leads go nowhere. The huge forces trying to locate her are left in total ignorance of the President’s whereabouts, as well as how and why she was kidnapped.

And then she is found, by an ex-prostitute now working as a governess in a posh house in Oslo hearing faint cries from a closed room in a dark basement. And this is where Holt’s two heroines enter the stage – the crippled, discrete and very smart Hanne Wilhelmsen and the well-trained Johanne Vik. Two women with secrets of their own trying as hard as they can to help another woman with a secret.

I enjoyed reading Death in Oslo. It is an interesting and in some ways remarkable book. The crime fiction plot rests on a couple of coincidences, but is actually quite good even so. And the writing is good, the story-telling very taut and quite convincing. Death in Oslo is a great read!

Links to books by Anne Holt at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

The news about the supposedly great Hollywood remake of The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo keep pouring in. And I have to admit that I am interested. I actually seek them out. But don’t get me wrong – I am interested but not the least excited.

Yesterday I read in PopcornBiz (how appropriate) that David Fincher would sacrifice “Pawn” for “Dragon Tattoo”. That is, instead of his planned movie about the mad chess genius Bobby Fischer he will first make the movie about That Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo. I am not able to see how Fight Club and Benjamin Button, or for that matter Bobby Fischer-plans should make me feel confident he can make a Scandinavian thriller? Rather the opposite!

Then, today, I read in VG that Kristen Stewart is a distinct possibility for the role of Lisbeth Salander (see picture). Do you already understand why I am interested by not excited? Does she look like a Goth? A hacker?

Well. A couple of weeks ago I watched another Hollywood movie about another superb Scandinavian crime fiction book. One of the best ever, in my opinion. The wonderful and Edgar-winning novel The Laughing Policeman, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. And the movie I watched was the Hollywood movie with the same name – The Laughing Policeman. An old movie, from the 70s – 1973. Featuring Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, and Louis Gossett Jr. And it was so bad! And so totally wrong!

There was nothing Sjöwall and Wahlöö at all. Filmed in San Francisco, with American houses and streets, and big American cars. And with Walther Matthau chewing gum as only Matthau can, instead of Martin Beck. Made by producers with no sense of Sweden, directed by a guy with seemingly no sense of cultural differences, played by actors looking American and probably having not a single clue about how Swedes behave, dress and speak. All sense of time and place was completely gone. And the movie totally violated the book!

So, I am interested but not at all excited. Rather the opposite. I feel more or less as I would have felt if it had been Bollywood that had bought the rights and would make the movie in New Dehli starring a local Indian-version Goth.

I assume that I will continue to read the news. And wait for the Hollywood destruction of yet another foreign book. But I will not be excited. While we all wait, I recommend that you go and watch the Swedish version. It is Swedish. It feels right.

A number of Scandinavian crime autors have been mentioned in the news lately. Stieg Larsson’s books are still generating hype. A recent post discusses The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo, and reports that it has now sold 7.5 million copies. Another reviewer, Joyce Pines, clearly fell in love with Stieg Larsson and Lisbeth Salander. She writes:

I did not want “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” to end. I was just getting to know the talented young woman of the title and I was intrigued by her and wanted so spend more time following her around Sweden, but author Stieg Larsson pulled the plug.

Another writer, at Book Hound, is  also fascinated with Lisbeth Salander, and finds comfort in the fact that The Girl Who Played With Fire is arriving, and writes that it is much better than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo because:

The focus in the second book of the trilogy shifts squarely to Lisbeth Salander, whose looks pass for elfin and whose computer hacker skills are off the charts, and we learn far more about her origins, the staggering damage inflicted upon her early on, and why her past plays a central role in the present as she finds herself a suspect in a murder inquiry.

Indeed, even in India there are people fascinated by the Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson! If you’re interested in more info about Stieg Larsson, there’s also a pretty good Q&A about him in Library Journal, as well as book reviews of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Angela Youngman and Laureen Walter! As well, ScandinavianBooks has reviews of the books!

Henning Mankell is another Swedish author that has been receiving considerable attention internationally lately. The movies recently shown on TV in the US and elsewhere have no doubt contributed to a renewed interest in this wonderful author. Thus, The Genteel Arsenal, for instance, recently brought a review of Menkell’s Sidetracked. The author of the review says he is ” intrigued by Swedish crime fiction at the moment”. He is not alone!

Also, a piece of good news for fans of Jo Nesbø (who is Norwegian rather than Swedish): I recently read that Jo Nesbo‘s new novel about Harry Hole, (will probably be) titled “Leoparden” (The Leopard)(the title ended up as Panserhjerte – Panzer Heart) is to be released in Norwegian, most likely late in September this year. This is his eight book about the somewhat miserable Harry, who introduces himself as “My name is Harry. Harry Hole” instead of “My name is Bond. James Bond.” For a long time I have been worried that he might have given up on Harry Hole and instead would be writing more Head Hunters novels.

In Panzer Heart (Panserhjerte), two women are found dead in Oslo, both have drowned in their own blood and have been stabbed in the mouth. The police have no technical traces to work on. They decide to get hold of Harry Hole, who has left the country and lives in Hong Kong, where he drinks and drugs himself while hiding from his creditors. The Oslo police offers to help him with his debts, and also informs him that his father is very ill and probably dying. Hole accepts, and takes on a case that turns out to be the most difficult he has had so far. As well, he is faced with new, tough opponents inside the police force, and even though he has been weakened by his own severe abuse of his body, he must fight several enemies simultaneously.

Also, Anne Holt is publishing a new book in Norwegian this fall, and Karin Fossum’s tenth book about Inspector Konrad Sejer, (Norwegian title Varsleren), is to be published in Norwegian in August.

In the sad news department, a Swedish Internet site gives a summary of an interview with Håkan Nesser (who has recently published his new book Maskarna på Carmine Street) where he states that he  only will write four books more, and then stop writing! That may not be all that important to American fans, since the US publishers are so slow in translating and publishing his books that they are approximately 20 books behind already (they probably will not finish publishing even the Van Veeteren series until 2020-25), but for Scandinavian and European fans it would be sad if Hakan Nesser stopped writing! Time will show, I guess?

More Scandinavian literary news at ScandinavianBooks.