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Anne Holt: Fear Not (2011)

Forestwood

Oslo fjord

This novel is the fourth in the Norwegian series with Johanne Vik and Adam Stubø as the husband and wife team, with Adam being the ‘gentle giant’ detective and Johanne, his wife who is an ex profiler with a nose for investigative leads.

Very soon in the novel, we are introduced to several different story threads:

Johanne´s vulnerable daughter, Kristiane, gets lost when the family participates in a wedding in Oslo, and if a mysterious stranger had not saved her, she might have been killed in front of the tram.

Bishop Eva Karin Lysgaard is found murdered on Christmas Eve in Bergen. She is a popular person, well known for her struggle to keep the church united despite the question of marriage of homosexuals.

The body of a seventeen-year-old asylum seeker is found in the harbour of Oslo. The young man was a prostitute, and soon after a homosexual woman disappears from a happy relationship.

Marcus Koll, affluent businessman, lives together with his partner Rolf and his son, Little Marcus. Beautiful and safe on the facade, but apparently Marcus fears he will be the next victim.

What do the crimes have in common? Are old family secrets behind all these crimes, or is the common denominator homosexuality? Johanne Vik is engaged in researching hate crime, and via her research she can point out the connection among the seemingly isolated events to the police.

There are many things to like in this series, but it seems to me that Holt has this tendency to involve Johanne and her children every time. Exciting for the characters, and fundamental to the storyline perhaps, but not very credible. But then it is fiction, isn’t it? So why quibble?

I guess that whilst I enjoyed this Anne Holt story, it does lack a little of the intensity I feel when I read the Hanne Wilhemson’s series. Perhaps I feel more for the character of Hanne, for her keen detective sense and her stoic, rigid and sometimes arrogant manner, than I do for Johanne Vik and Adam Stubo who seem to be awfully familiar to another couple in a similar detective series written by a Swedish crime writer.

If you are a Nordic crime fiction fan, you won’t be disappointed, but the bar is getting ever higherin the realms of Mordic crime fiction with many more excellent writers, emerging from the colder regions of the world, each year.

Rating: 7/10

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Something to Ponder About

Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, a writer and I enjoy photography and crafts, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

23 thoughts on “Anne Holt: Fear Not (2011)”

    1. You will like them, Ineke. Anne Holt is a former Minister of Justice in the Norwegian government! You can probably find her books in your local library. My favourite is Finse 1222. Starring the Hanne Wilhelmsen character.

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  2. I do love the movies made from Nordic Crime but haven’t really read many crime books. The last one I read was very good. The draw -back was that there were so many people involved I had trouble with who is who? Even so, Scandinavia generally keep things fairly simple. The ‘Bridge’ an example. Opposite that are the English crime TV shows that often become so complicated in plots diverging at so may tangents, I give up totally and read a good book instead.

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    1. I do agree Gerard. Sometimes it is all too complicated to follow and that diminshes the enjoment. Nordic crime: books or TV is great. They have the right mix of entertainment, twists and turns, dead bodies without gratuitous violence, mysteries, and detectives with personality. I think you would also like Håkan Nesser. He doesn’t have too many characters like Nesbø sometimes does, or the new book in the Millenium series. Nesser is a Swedish detective who has a hilarious dry humour that I think you would enjoy. Have you read any of Karin Fossum or Camilla Lackberg? If so, what did you think of them?

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    1. Thank for that flattering comment, Andy. I am not so sure it is that brilliant but I hope it will entice someone to discover the talents of Anne Holt. You have been busy away from the blogging world lately?

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      1. You’re welcome Amanda 🙂 And yes, I’ve not managed to get on the blogosphere very much at all since Christmas, hopefully over the next few months I’ll be back. I’ve missed chatting to you and everyone else on here 🙂

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  4. H,i Amanda. There were at least 5 books on the shelf even 2 in large print. I took out 1222. One can also read on line, they gave me the information. It stays on the devise for two weeks before it cancellce on its own.

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    1. 2 weeks is not long enough for me but I guess that you can renew it at least once? Finse 1222 is my favourite. You will love Hanne and I hope the snow and ice?. Finse is a real place in Norway. A railroad station and village only accessed by rail, and snowmobile in winter. I went past the station on the train to Bergen. If you google it, you can see images of the buildings and it will make the book come alive for you. Have fun.

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