Christoffer Petersen

Greenland Resist!
Review of the Aarluuk Press Kindle eBook edition (November 12, 2019) released almost simultaneously with the Aarluuk Press paperback (November 9, 2019)

She’d seen it before. Europeans – mostly Danes – struggling to understand why the Greenlanders didn’t do what they expected them to do? Failing to understand that autonomous was another word for separate, self-governing, and that it wasn’t just the country that was autonomous, but its people too. A different culture,

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a different way of life, a different way of living.

[3.5 rating bumped to 4]
I've had a revitalized interest in ScandiNoir and other translations from Scandinavian languages lately and I joined the very informative GR group English Translations of Scandinavian Nordic Mysteries Thrillers as a result. The group identifies a rather shockingly high number of translations every month for potential reading e.g. January 2023's list was 15 books.

A few recent releases by independent author Christoffer Petersen caught my eye and I went back to search for Arctic State (2019), the first of his Guerilla Greenland series. Guerilla Greenland is an alternative timeline/speculative fiction series which features one of Petersen's regular protagonists, Constable David Maratse, from the Greenland Crime series.

As explained in the novella's Afterword, the idea for the alternative timeline series arose from then U.S. President Trump's speculation about a future purchase of Greenland which met with various reactions of disapproval and opposition from Greenland and Denmark. Petersen's series assumes an actual purchase has gone through with the result that a network of native Greenlanders begin to form a resistance movement to the occupying U.S. Forces and Administration.

See map at https://i0.wp.com/christoffer-petersen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Greenland-...
Map of Greenland with locations for the Greenland Crime series which features Constable David Maratse. The same map would work for the alternative timeline series of Guerilla Greenland. Map image sourced from the author's website.

The setup was intriguing as it combines issues of indigenous peoples land claims, dystopic futures, imperialistic colonialism, human rights activism, possible Arctic resource exploitation a.o. Arctic State itself is more of a prequel novella, in that it primarily consists of flashbacks by Constable Maratse as he is being interviewed by U.S. authorities for possible acceptance in the new regime's police forces. In the flashbacks we learn that Maratse has likely been politicized for the Greenland independence movement when he was involved in the apprehension of a senior Greenlandic activist Inniki Rasmussen (she also features in one of Petersen's regular timeline books Narkotika. The book thus acts as a setup for the future possible guerilla actions of the independence movement, but none of that actually happens yet. So this is more of a tentative rating based on this prequel story.

As best as I can determine, Christoffer Petersen writes in English and there is no indication that these books are translated from Danish or Greenlandic. Several Greenlandic words and phrases appear in the text and a glossary is provided for those. show less

A year ago a boy on the northern western coast of Greenland disappeared. When new constable Petra answers her first phone call, she finds she’s become the missing persons department at Nuuk. With the help of an elderly shaman and his young daughter, Petra follows the leads to find the boy—the first hint being that he took a narwhal’s rare double tooth and may be trying to sell it. An excellent start to this series.

When the author starts his introduction of a novel with the sentence "This is not a book", one starts wondering what exactly they are going to read. The explanation after that makes it clear that the book is designed as a Scandinavian Julekalendar - usually a radio or TV series which runs in the first 24 days of December and lead into Christmas (and usually contains at least a hint that the holiday may not actually happen).

Set in 2042 in Greenland (the author also makes sure to tell you show more that it is not science fiction (because there is not enough technology - which a) is not necessary and b) is not true), it uses a lot of characters known from the author's other works (he claims that there are no spoilers but a quick look at his other books show that this is not entirely true either). I am not sure if it was a good place to start with the author's books but that's what I had so that's what I started with.

Petra Jensen, the Police Commissioner in Nuuk, Greenland is grieving - her partner had recently died so she is on leave. But then a murder seems to be connected to her - so she gets called back to assist. Meanwhile, Greenland is voting for its independence, the Dutch colony is trying to make a life for themselves after fleeing their flooded motherland and the Chinese are doing their own thing in their own established community connected to the local mines. Due to the structure of the novel, there is a single event happening in each chapter/day - a found body, a conversation, a reveal. It made the novel both episodic and fast moving - which was interesting to a point but did not allow the development of more complex lines of inquiry - leaving the plot somewhat simplistic despite all the shifts and surprises.

There is a certain charm in the way the story is told - I am still not sure if it is enough to offset the restraints that the structure enforced. I found myself wanting more details in places - in some places it felt that the police is slowing down just because moving fast was impossible. But if you read the novel with that structure in mind, it works... to a point.

I will probably pick up some of his other books - Greenland is a fascinating setting and the local details are fascinating (and are probably closer to reality in the books not set in the future). Not sure I would recommend this novel as an introduction though - unless you are interested in or curious about the format. show less

A random selection - in a review for The Dark by Emma Haughton, which was redeemed only by descriptions of the Arctic winter, this Greenland police novel was recommended and was only 99p on Amazon, which was all the persuasion I needed! And apart from the brevity of the story, at only just over 200 pages, I did enjoy reading about Detective Maratse and learned a lot about Greenland, the largest island in the world, and loved the chilling descriptions of the Arctic conditions:

An iceberg show more bigger than a shopping mall blocked their view of the mouth of the fjord. Gaba directed the driver around it. The cold air peeled off the iceberg in thick, heavy layers, and the spotters on the deck and the roof shivered in the breath of ice. Petra’s hair turned white at the tips, and Maratse felt the familiar tickle in his nose, as the temperature dropped.

The storyline reminded me a lot of The Chestnut Man, with a Lincoln Rhyme-esque invalided police officer working as a freelance detective alongside a young female sergeant. The daughter of the First Minister is murdered just before a big election, but is her death about politics or a baser crime altogether? Retired detective Maratse, who has recently moved to the Minister's remote hometown to recover from his injuries, is called in to assist the police, much to his relief.

I enjoyed my visit to Greenland (although I struggled with the place names!) and will definitely read more of Maratse's cases. show less