Punishment

This decidedly creepy thriller is based on the abduction of a series of children and goes back and forth between perspectives: abductor, abductee, investigator... Holt paints a chillingly normal portrait of all the characters - the villain, reluctant hero, police, children are all just normal folk. Their motivations and ultimate actions are occasionally shocking, but the characters feel like someone you know.

Although there are strands of many stories woven expertly in this novel, the main thread concerns an academic who is a reluctant expert on psychological profiling. Johanne's sought out by the Oslo policeman Adam Stubo to help him find the man who has abducted several children and delivered two of them dead to their parents, while show more finding the motivation for the crimes. Johanne reluctantly joins the investigation and a multi-level partnership begins between her and Stubo. The richness in the story, though comes from the emotional outpourings from characters in several of the side stories: the man who was falsely accused of child abuse many years earlier, the elderly woman who tried to clear his name, a mother with a painful secret about her son. Each character is believably drawn. show less

In present day Norway a nine-year-old girl has disappeared, presumed kidnapped, then a younger boy disappears and his body is found soon afterwards. There’s a sinister note found with the body but no one is sure if the boy’s disappearance is related to the girl’s. The police inspector in charge of the case, Adam Stubo, seeks help in solving the cases from Joahnne Vik: a lawyer and psychologist. Johanne is reluctant to get involved for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact she is, at the same time, becoming intrigued by an older case. Many years ago a man called Aksel Seier was sent to prison for raping and killing a young girl but was released a few years later under odd circumstances and Johanne is looking into the show more case on behalf of an ageing lawyer who never believed Seier was guilty.

Thinking about it now this was quite a complex story but it never felt like it while reading it as all the components were drawn together well. Even though there were two quite separate threads for a majority of the book I never found either difficult to follow. I found it quite fascinating to read about horrid events unfolding in a place where such things are rare as there was a noticeable difference in the language used and the reactions ascribed to the various players than would be the case if the book had been set in the US. The ending to the story was a bit disappointing though because it relied too much on a string of coincidences and left a couple of things completely unresolved. These elements (which I can’t be more specific abouot without giving away spoilers) appear to have been forgotten about rather than deliberately left to the reader’s imagination but I could be wrong about that. Either way it was a little annoying to be left in the dark.

The characterisations were generally good although I did tire a bit of the relationship between Johanne and Adam which was a ‘should we sleep together or not’ kind of thing. I just wanted them to either get on with it or shut up about it and found it difficult to imagine two grown adults with no ties would behave as immaturely as they did (surely one of them could have been a grown-up). However there were many other elements to both of their characters which were much more satisfying to watch develop and there were a string of minor characters who were also thoughtfully and artfully depicted. Emilie, the first child to be kidnapped in the story, made me weep.

This book had a high degree of what I like to call unputdownability (i.e. it made me late for work) and, overall, the annoyances were forgivable. I can’t help thinking I’ll be remembering some of these characters for a long while yet which is always the sign of a good read. show less

Norway is in the grip of terror as children are abducted, murdered and returned to their parents bearing the message You got what you deserved. Police Superintendent Adam Stubo leads the hunt for the killer, but has very few clues to go on. Desperate for progress he calls on university researcher Johanne Vik, who has a background of working with the FBI as a criminal profiler.
A nice bit of Scandi Noir that kicks off a trilogy which I shall definitely follow through on. Punishment introduces us to Vik and Stubo who are an unlikely partnership brought together unwillingly to solve heinous crimes. It was a good read with some nice characterisations, good detail and not too much of a focus on gore and unpleasantness. This is how a murder show more mystery should be. show less

“Now you've got what you deserved,” states the note attached to Kim Oksøy's body when it is mysteriously returned to his home. Five-year-old Kim had been taken from his bedroom during the night just six days after eight-year-old Emilie Selbu disappeared while walking home from school. Even more puzzling, Kim's autopsy failed to find a cause of death while Emilie's fate remains unknown.

Detective Chief Inspector Adam Stubo of the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) very much wants lawyer/psychologist Johanne Vik to serve as profiler on the case. After all, Vik had taken an FBI profiling course in the U.S. several years ago and came highly recommended by her F.B.I. Instructor. She had also authored a research show more paper on sexually motivated crimes. But Vik wants nothing to do with these disappearances. As the single mother of a four-year-old, she doesn't want to think about crimes against children. Yet she is currently working on a project to prove the innocence of Aksel Seier, a man convicted of the brutal murder of an eight-year-old girl more than thirty years ago who was released from prison without explanation after serving just a few years of his sentence. A former attorney who worked on Seier's parole application has been haunted by his case and would like to confirm his innocence before she dies. Vik has agreed to find Seier and investigate his case.

With What Is Mine, Anne Holt has crafted a riveting mystery told from multiple perspectives in which much of the information about the crimes and characters is scattered among several narrative threads. Holt proves an expert storyteller, dangling details in just the right tantalizing amounts to create a great page-turner whose two central characters have lives that extend beyond the plot to form narratives of their own. Readers should not miss this complex and satisfying mystery. show less

En spännande deckare. Yngvar Stubø, kriminalinspektör, vill att en forskare ska hjälpa honom med ett fall som rör försvunna barn. Denne är dock kallsinnig till detta då hon känner att hon har mer än nog med sitt eget liv. Men Yngvar är inte den som ger sig. Ytterligare barn försvinner och lämnas sedan döda. Parallellt med dessa fall så finns ett gammalt mordfall som eventuellt har dömt en oskyldig man. Det var svårt att släppa den här romanen. Välskriven och mycket bra. :

Master story-teller

Well written and or translated, this is a superb story, gripping from first to last page,atmospheric clever descriptive intelligent and exciting with quality characters. A terrific mystery with some totally surprising twists that had me staring at the page open mouthed.

Not an outstanding mystery. The stakes are innately high since the victims are children, but the story is a little lackluster because of all the talking and thinking and pondering; there is a lot of "tell" and not enough "show" for my taste. The main characters are likeable, but the romantic tension (which I assume should be there) is boring at best and I find myself not caring about them or their relationship. Also, the ending is tied up in the neatest little package I've read in a long time and it really put a damper on my reading - deus ex machina is not a plot device that any writer, especially a mystery-writer, should ever use.