A most bizarre murder.

The wife of Sigord Halvorsrud is found dead, her husband nearby, covered in blood. Halvorsrud is a prosecutor who had sent many men to prison. He says he watched while Stale Salvesen, a business man he'd sent away for insider dealing, attacked his wife brutally. He says Salvesen held a gun on him and he was afraid to move, to help his wife.

The story does sound fishy, yet Detective Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen tends to believe him. That hard police part of her, naturally, pursues Halvorsrud with as much diligence as she can.

The investigation involves Wilhelmsen's buddy, Billy T., an oversize detective with little hair and much macho. Before it's over they have uncovered more than an answer to the murder. We find ourselves deep within Hanne's personal life and discover that she is far from the tough cop she presents to the world.

I have mixed feelings about Hanne and Billy T. Billy seems like too much a caricature and I don't feel what I think I am supposed to feel about their friendship. Yes, they care about each other, but to me it is mostly words on a page. I'm not totally on board with this series because I don't particularly like anyone in it. ( )

When Chief Public Prosecutor Sigurd Halvorsrud’s wife, Doris Flo, is found decapitated in the Halvorsrud living room with the Chief Public Prosecutor covered with blood by her side, things don’t look good for him. He also waited an hour before calling the police. He says however, that he did not commit this heinous crime but knows who did…Stale Salvesen, a man he’s never met and has no idea really what he looks like. Upon initial investigation, the link between Halvorsrud and Salvesen is tenuous to say the least, and unfortunately for all involved, Salvesen can’t be found.

As the weeks pass, little to no new evidence is uncovered but what is uncovered is harmful to the defendant. When a second decapitation is discovered and Halvorsrud’s fingerprints are in the room, he is re-incarcerated, having been released due to family health crises.

Throughout Dead Joker, Anne Holt interweaves potential red herrings such as child molestation, bribery, unethical behavior, etc.

According to Series.com, the Online Guide to Series Fiction, “Anne Holt is one of the most successful Norwegian crime writers. Trained as a lawyer, Holt has worked in broadcasting as a journalist and anchor woman. She also spent two years working in the Oslo police force before opening her own law practice. She has written five novels in the Vik/Stubo series. Johanne Vik is a Norwegian-American psychology professor and former FBI profiler. She is the divorced caretaker of a mentally challenged six-year old. Adam Stubo is an Oslo police inspector who is recovering from the deaths of his wife and young child. Together they are a formidable team. Holt has also written a series of eight crime novels starring lesbian police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen. Scribner seems to be releasing them in the U.S, but not in the correct reading order. 1222 (Scribner, 2011) is the second book in the series. The Blind Goddess (Scribner, 2012, published in Norway in 1993) is the first. It introduces Hanne and tells how she became paralyzed. All of Holt’s mysteries are well-written and suspenseful.They feature fully drawn characters and plenty of Scandinavian atmosphere.”

Dead Joker is the latest in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series, published in 1999 in Norway and 2016 in the U.S. Hanne Wilhelmsen is police officer extraordinaire! She is aided by a half dozen officers, one of whom is Billy T., her best friend. She is under a lot of pressure both personally and professionally, and as a result gets away with treating these coworkers quite shabbily. Dead Joker, however, is not really a police procedural in the vein of, say Icelander Arnaldur Indridason’s Detective Erlendur series. There was not a lot of procedure in the book.

Dead Joker concentrates on interpersonal relationships…between Hanne and her partner, Cecile, between Billy T and his soon to be wife, between Karen Borg, an attorney, and Hanne, etc. I cold keep going. However, having never read a Hanne Wilhelmsen book before, not knowing the backstory detracted from understanding what was going on, especially between Hanne and Cecile. As per Series.com, the “characters do seem fully drawn and there is plenty of Scandinavian atmosphere”, however, some backstory would be helpful for the uninitiated.

So, now I’m moving on to another Scandinavian (Icelandic) author, Yrsa Sigurdardottir. and her first book, Last Rituals. The books seem to be published in order in the U.S. and not with decades between the Scandinavian and U.S. editions. I’ll let you know how that goes. ( )

Thank goodness the earlier books in this series are now available, because understanding Hanne Wilhelmsen requires back story. Especially now as it's hard to avoid a sneaking suspicion that there's just a little bit of her in Saga Norén. Maybe only a little, but still bells are ringing.

A classic slow burning Scandinavian thriller with some balance between the personal and the professional, there is a lot of back story in DEAD JOKER. Which fans of this series may appreciate, whilst some readers might feel it just creates a lot of pages. Personally, this reader loved the chance to fill in so much of what makes Wilhelmsen tick, where she struggles, and the colleagues she's closest to - including the wonderful Billy T. Everybody really needs a friend like Billy T, although he might sometimes wonder why he has a friend like Wilhelmsen.

The crimes and investigations at the centre of DEAD JOKER involve a couple of horrific, violent events, particularly in the case of Halvorsrud's wife, where he has been an enforced witness to his wife's awful death. For the longest time the investigation team struggles to find any connections between the two killings, or to explain how it is that their chief suspect has a very good alibi (any more on that would be way too much of a spoiler).

Combine the hefty personal components with some interesting sidelines into the workings of the Norwegian justice system and DEAD JOKER obviously isn't supposed to be a thriller, or a rapid, superficial read. All the book's in this series I've been fortunate enough to read thus far require commitment, and concentration. They aren't trying to be just entertaining, they are deep, introspective, thoughtful and often confrontational. They are built around real characters for whom life often goes pear-shaped (and that's not just the victims). And they are absolutely fascinating and worth every minute of your reading time.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-dead-joker-anne-holt ( )

I think this was one of the single most depressing books I ever read. I liked it, but not a single good thing happens in this story.

It was a very quick read - I absolutely love her style. Her language is very clear cut and really gets to me. Which is kind of the problem, I suppose. It wasn't just the case, although it was extraordinarily gloomy. At the beginning it just looked as if Hanne Wilhelmsen, the leading detective of the book, just had problems in the relationship department - she and her lover seem to have grown apart, hardly ever talk, etc. I could have handled that. But then the lover is diagnosed with cancer and deteriorates throughout the course of the book until she dies in the end. I am not kidding when I say that not a single good thing happens in this book. There are moments of odd peace, but they are weaved with melancholy at best. It was a beautiful book, and I enjoyed it, but it was very depressing. ( )