The Final Murder

An Oprah-eske celebrity is brutally murdered, her tongue cut out after her death and placed in a delicate, red origami box. Another celebrity, a controversial journalist, is found murdered, his favorite pen shoved into his eye socket. Have I got your attention yet?

A series of celebrity murders have the police baffled, including Adam Stubo of NCIS, called back early from paternity leave. Through conversations with her husband, profiler Johanna Vik becomes first interested, then obsessed with the crimes, all while clearly still suffering some postpartum effects. The two work together (most of the time) to puzzle out this intensely complicated case, or is it cases?

Anne Holt has created something a bit unique with Stubo & Vik, I think. Not show more only are they generally happy people, but they have a relatively normal family life (or try to). The reader gets to see how that functions with the same elements other literary detectives are put under. It's a bit refreshing. But don't think this dilutes the crime storyline at all, because it doesn't - the crimes are sensational, the mystery wonderfully complicated, and the reasoning out of the killer/s profile/s intensely psychological. Although I would rate this installment just slightly less than the first ([What is Mine]) and most recent ([Fear Not]), it's still a very satisfying crime novel. show less

What Never Happens is the second offering in Anne Holt’s series featuring Johanne Vik, a former profiler trained by the FBI, and Adam Sturbo with Norway’s NCIS Unit. When the story opens, Johanne and Adam are now married with a brand new baby girl. Adam is at home on a month’s paternity leave, helping his wife care for their expanded family which also includes his stepdaughter, Kristiane, who suffers from an undiagnosed autistic-like disorder. However, when a television celebrity host is found dead in her suburban home with her tongue cut out and neatly displayed in an origami wrapping, Adam is lured into assisting with the case. He also convinces his wife to contribute her profiling skills to the case, which quickly expands to show more include several more well-known victims.

If you approach this series expecting a mystery featuring a truly professional profiler, you will be disappointed. (I sometimes think Holt uses the character of Johanne Vic to surreptitiously poke fun at the whole profiler craze that has swept through crime fiction.) But if you read a mystery series as I do, as much for the ongoing story of the crime-solvers as for the mystery plot itself, then you will enjoy sharing in the struggles of Johanne and Adam, two people who are emotionally haunted by past disappointments but finding new hope through each other. The various family relationships—with Johanne’s parents, her ex-husband, Adam’s son and grandson–form an even larger part of the story in this book than in the first, as does Johanne’s past with the FBI. The murderer’s motivation also raises some interesting questions for the reader to ponder, while the end is truly a cliffhanger.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series enough to purchase the third, A Death in Oslo, with the alternate title of Madam President, from an online book broker. show less

Adam Stubo is aware that there is no-one on his murder investigation team who is as capable of detailed criminal profiling as his wife Johanne. But Johanne has recently given birth to a new daughter and really needs her rest. Adam is delighted when she agrees to work through the case notes with him at night at home. But Johanne is fearful about the threats to her family's safety and to Adam himself this case might pose.

It took me a while to settle into this book. The style of the opening chapters felt a bit heavy but by mid-book things were flowing smoothly. A bit predictably, each of the victims has secrets, and the police investigation struggles to decide whether there is a single killer or whether these are separate crimes.

The reader show more knows more about what is happening than the investigators do, but why these murders are happening is kept from us until the very end.

I thought Johanne Vik's constant anxiety about her new-born daughter felt very authentic. show less

My first read at Anne Holt and I kept putting it aside and going back to it, not because it wasn't gripping, which it is on may levels, but because I feared—perhaps from the cover art—that something dreadful was going to happen to characters I had come to feel I knew. Masterful handling of a claustrophobic setting and situation. I do think the Scandinavians do dark crime best.

My first read at Anne Holt and I kept putting it aside and going back to it, not because it wasn't gripping, which it is on may levels, but because I feared—perhaps from the cover art—that something dreadful was going to happen to characters I had come to feel I knew. Masterful handling of a claustrophobic setting and situation. I do think the Scandinavians do dark crime best.

Eine beliebte Talkmasterin wird mit gespaltener Zunge tot aufgefunden, eine junge Politikerin hängt gekreuzigt an der Schlafzimmerwand: Sorgsam inszenierte Ritualmorde, die es in der Vergangenheit schon einmal gegeben hat – wieder beginnen Kommissar Yngvar Stubø und die Profilerin Inger Vik fieberhaft zu ermitteln. Doch was, wenn der Mörder ein raffiniertes Spiel spielt und kein herkömmliches Motiv vorhanden ist? Ein meisterhafter Thriller, in dem Anne Holt die Abgründe menschlicher Eitelkeiten erkundet.

När TV-stjärnan Fiona Helle hittas mördad börjar man genast söka efter mördaren i kretsen av hennes närmaste. Sättet hon bragts om livet på, brutalt och starkt symboliskt, tyder på att gärningsmannen kände henne väl.
Men så inträffar flera mord på kända människor och alla följer samma mönster; våldsamma, välplanerade och tydliga budskap till eftervärlden.
I jakten på mördaren tvingas kriminalkommissarie Yngve Stubø ta hjälp av sin hustru Inger Johanne Vik, psykolog och jurist med ett förflutet inom amerikanska FBI. Inger Johanne har just fött deras gemensamma barn och tvekar inför uppgiften. Men då upptäcker hon något som får henne att inse att hon inte kan släppa fallen.