The Man in the Window: A Thriller

by Kjell Ola Dahl and K.O. Dahl

Book Overview

A cryptic murder resurrects dark memories of past atrocities in this latest mystery from the master of Norwegian crime writing.

Award-winning author K. O. Dahl received international acclaim for his gripping debut thriller, The Fourth Man, which introduced readers to Detective Inspector Frank Fr lich and Detective Chief Inspector Gunnarstranda. Now the Oslo detectives are back.

It's Friday the thirteenth, the Norwegian capital is enveloped in freezing cold, and Reidar Folke Jespersen passes what will be the last day of his life.

The aging antique dealer leaves home and takes a taxi to a nearby caf . A few hours later, through the window of the caf , he watches his wife enter the door to a flat on the other side of the street, where her lover lives.

In the early hours of the following morning, Jespersen is found stabbed to death, sitting naked in an armchair in the display window of his antique shop.

Detectives Fr lich and Gunnarstranda are called to the scene. Their only clues are a numerical combination written in ink on the body of the dead man, a red string tied around his neck, a few missing World War II objects, and a number of people extremely satisfied with the news of the man's death. Questions of love and betrayal, loyalty and guilt consume the investigation, just as they fill the private lives of the investigators.

K. O. Dahl's dark and poetic writing moves through the shadows of one country's history---a country where victims, perpetrators, and even police officers are haunted by the past, still trying to cope with dark memories of the Nazi occupation. The Man in the Window, the second installment in Dahl's Oslo police mysteries, is an intricate and chilling detective story about love, revenge, and the inescapable past.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312605641
• ISBN13: 9780312605643
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellant Norwegican noir

Again, K. O. Dahl creates a unique Scandinavian mystery. The victim here has not only been murdered, but has been further humiliated by being exhibited in the nude in his shop window. We're given the last day of his life in detail, and then the methodical investigation by Norwegian inspectors Frolich and Gunnarstranda. We are led through a compolex labyrinth leading to a complicated solution with the requisite red herrings. The victim is an octogenarian and the investigation leads us back to the second World War as seen through Norwegian eyes.All in all, this is a quite satisfying book and one more example of Scandinavian mystery telling.

Brilliant Mystery

The characters are deep, the backdrop is engaging, but the mystery is the thing. The plot takes time to play out, getting thicker and murkier as it progresses. I found myself thinking about this novel much more than most mysteries. Mankell is the standard comparison for Scandinavian crime fiction, and his novels do have more breadth and finesse. However I never found his mysteries as engaging and puzzling as the one Dahl presents.