La fanta politica non mi piace molto, ma Anne Holt è riuscita come sempre ad affascinarmi.
Al quadro delle indagini intreccia le storie dei suoi personaggi, questa volta include quelle di entrambe le serie, e la caccia ai colpevoli si mischia abilmente alle vicende umane e sentimentali e ti costringe a restare incollata al libro fino all'ultima pagina. Chiaramente gli USA non hanno ancora avuto una donna Presidente, ma l'arroganza di questo paese nei confronti degli altri stati, le manie di persecuzione e le crisi che si scatenano con delle previsioni seppur fallaci, l'abilità di edulcorare i fatti e coprire anche ai media verità inconfessabili sono qui egregiamente descritte.
Indimenticabile la scena del doganiere Norvegese che riesce a disarmare un intero contingente di arroganti agenti della CIA: mi viene ancora da ridere. ( )

There are a few editing and plotting slips in this novel, not the least that between the covers the US President is Helen Bentley (not Barclay as stated on the dustjacket).

I had already "met" Joahnne Vik and Adam Stubo in a previous title in the series, and also Hanne Wilhelmson who becomes important in the second half of the novel in 1222.

The plot is an interesting one- the disappearance/kidnapping of the American President while on her first overseas state visit. Norway had been chosen because it was "friendly" and relatively small, but the President had chosen to come on Norway's National Day. In retrospect the visit was low key and the President was not accompanied by the huge entourage that had been expected. When she disappeared overnight from her hotel, the investigation becomes a struggle for power and control by the Oslo police, the FBI and the CIA. Sightings of the President are at first numerous and then she disappears completely.

Despite some plot threads that for me were not sufficiently resolved, an engrossing read. ( )

Death in Oslo, the third in a series featuring the profiler Johanne Vik, starts with an intriguing premise. A woman has just been elected president of the United States, and as the book opens with her thought: I got away with it. But of course, she hasn’t, really. Her first foreign trip is to a safe country, the home of her ancestors, Norway. But the unthinkable happens. Madame President disappears – on the 17th of May, of all days, Norway’s independence day and an occasion for raucous partying. Johanne is upset when her partner, Adam Stubo, is drafted to work on the crisis. Johanne has her reasons to avoid the FBI agent who is working on the case. She takes their small daughter with her to a secret retreat, the apartment of her mentor, wheelchair-bound Hanne Wilhelmsen (who features in a series that has mostly not been translated yet except for 1222). As Adam deals with the public side of the investigation, Johanne and Hanne come into it via a different route. And all the while, the reader knows who is behind the disappearance. We just don’t know how he pulled it off – or why.

Death in Olso is great fun. It’s a complex story with a lot of characters from all over the world, but Holt draws them so skillfully that it’s no trouble keeping them apart. She also does a nice line in puzzles and keeps us guessing, right up to the end – and even then, things aren’t tied up neatly. There is a whacking great coincidence on which much of the story hinges, but as hinges go, it’s not squeaky and moves very smoothly. I particularly enjoyed the consternation of Norwegian officials when the unthinkable happens, and the contrast between their response and that of American security agencies. All in all, it’s terrifically entertaining and is peopled with memorable characters I would like to meet again.

I liked, as usual, Anne Holt's creation of the characters. Even though some of them annoy me, this feeling just proves that her creations are lifelike and realistic. The general idea for the book (American president kidnapped, though no one know why, and a man we know is planning something, though at first we have no idea what and why) is really good and you don't really want to put the book down before you know the answers to all your questions.
However, I didn't like some of the answers and some of the twists of the plot. And I felt that the ending came a bit too soon and was a bit disappointing. And that made the book just average. ( )

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 . . . ."

Thus begins Death in Oslo, Anne Holt's intricately plotted third entry in the Adam Stubo-Johanne Vik series. This fast-paced thriller with Machiavellian overtones really takes off when President Bentley, on her first official state visit to Norway, disappears from her locked and guarded hotel room in the middle of the night. Immediately, the security forces of both countries scramble to find the missing head of state before the unthinkable happens. The task is complicated by territorial tensions between the two national security forces and infighting within the FBI. When Warren Scifford, head of a much-resented specialized team within the FBI, arrives on the scene to take charge of the American investigation, he requests that his former student, Johanne Vik, be assigned from Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service to help him. But Johanne doesn't work for the NCIS so Scifford instead asks for Johanne's husband, Adam Stubo. But Johanne has her own secrets from the past regarding her former FBI mentor and threatens Adam that, if he accepts the assignment to work with Scifford, their marriage is over. Adam, however, cannot turn his back on duty and reluctantly reports to work, angry that Johanne has chosen not to confide in him about this man from her past. Everyone, it seems, has "some little secret."

Anne Holt is a master at creating chilling characters whose scariest quality is their immense patience in stalking their victims. The international scale of,Death in Oslo ups the ante for the consequences of failure in the eternal war of good versus evil. The ups and downs of Johanne's and Adam's domestic life provide an effective counterbalance to the international feuding between nations. This is definitely a suspense thriller you'll want to read, even if you haven't read the first two. ( )