#BlogTour – #BookReview of #MirrorImage by #GunnarStaaleson @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #RandomThingsTours #VargVeum #NordicNoir

calturner

Aug 30

I'm excited to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for fantastic Nordic Noir thriller Mirror Image (Varg Veum Series) by Gunnar Staalesen. Thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

About the book:

Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers.

Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty- six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car into the sea, in an apparent double suicide.

As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost…

About the author:

Granite Noir fest 2017. Gunnar Staalesen.

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four countries and sold over four million copies.

Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour) and Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted in 2019. He lives with his wife in Bergen.

Translated by Don Bartlett.

Don Bartlett completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbø and Gunnar Staalesen's Varg Veum series: We Shall Inherit the Wind, Wolves in the Dark and the Petrona award-winning Where Roses Never Die.

He also translated Faithless, the previous book in Kjell Ola Dahl's Oslo Detective series for Orenda Books. He lives with his family in a village in Norfolk.

My Review:

Available for the first time in English, Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen is the latest book in the Varg Veum series of books. Superbly translated by Don Bartlett, this book reads incredibly well as a standalone as it sees Varg investigating not only a missing person case but also a ship which is carrying unknown cargo and is heading towards the Norwegian coast.

Nordic Noir is one of my favourite genres to read and there is no one better at writing it than Gunnar Staaleson, who always somehow manages to draw you into his fast paced and intelligent thrillers. And Mirror Image is no different, with Don Bartlett's stunning translation once again bringing an intriguing and immersive thriller vividly to life.

As Varg is pulled deeper into the investigations it begins to become apparent that the two cases are somehow linked - and that there are uncanny similarities to events that took place many years ago when a woman and her lover drove their car into the sea…

What follows is a brilliant and complex thriller that really did keep me on my toes. Tense and at times shocking, Mirror Image is yet another outstanding addition to the series that could easily be read as a standalone if you haven't had a chance to read any of the previous books featuring Varg Veum yet.

As this series of books has only recently been translated into english and was written some time ago, there's a retro feel to the story which is quite refreshing. Varg has to rely on old school detective work, with no modern technology other than a very basic mobile phone to be seen, which adds an extra layer and element of danger to these crime thrillers that I love.

Gunnar Staalesen's writing is top notch and Mirror Image is an intriguing and stylish thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. I love the complicated but likeable character of Varg Veum more and more with every book and look forward to seeing even more of him in the future.

Mirror Image is Nordic Noir fiction at its very best and is a book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen is available to purchase now: