The Katharina Code: You loved Wallander, now meet Wisting.
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By Jørn Lier Horst, and and, Anne Bruce
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1 review
Set between the icy streets and dark forests of Norway, The Katharina Code is a heart-stopping story of one man’s obsession with his coldest case. Atmospheric, gripping and suspenseful; this is Nordic Noir at its very best.
You loved Wallander, now meet Wisting . . .
‘Horst, a former Norwegian police detective, is often compared to Sweden’s Henning Mankell for his moody, sweeping crime dramas’ NEW YORK TIMES
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Katharina went missing twenty-four years ago.
Each year on the anniversary of her disappearance Chief Inspector William Wisting visits her husband, the man he could never help.
He re-reads her files, searching for the answer he could never find.
The code he could never solve.
Until now.
This year is going to be different.
Another woman is missing.
And so is Katharina’s husband.
Wisting has to find him, but is he rescuing a dear friend, or playing a deadly game?
___________
SOON TO BE A MAJOR TV SERIES FROM THE PRODUCERS BEHIND WALLANDER AND THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
2018 Nordic Noir Thriller of the Year, Winner of the prestigious Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel & Longlisted for the CWA International Dagger Award
‘Up there with the best of the Nordic crime writers’ The Times
Jørn Lier Horst is one of the most brilliantly understated crime novelists writing today’ The Sunday Times
‘A well-crafted, atmospheric, character-driven thriller- I couldn’t put it down!’ Alex Dahl, author of The Boy At The Door
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The Katharina Code by Jørn Lier Horst is a cold case story in the William Wisting series. Katharina went missing twenty-four years earlier and her body has never been found. When the police arrived at the house after her husband reported her missing there were several oddities that have never been explained.
The code of the book’s title refers to a note that was found on the kitchen table, with Katharina’s fingerprints on it. Columns of numbers and letters which make no sense, and which even code-breakers haven’t been able to crack.
25 years on
Every year, on the anniversary of her disappearance, William Wisting visits her husband, Martin, in an effort to make some progress with the case that haunts him; and over time their relationship has turned into a friendship of sorts.
But this year things will change. Adrian Stiller, an investigator with the Kripos Cold Case Group has been tasked to re-open an unsolved kidnapping case and a re-examination of the ransom demand has revealed the fingerprints of Katharina’s husband. Stiller plans to use Wisting to draw Martin into confessing his guilt.
Why I liked it
This a human novel. You don’t learn anything much about Katharina or the young kidnap victim (who had never been found) but you get to know the other characters really quite well. Wisting is an enigmatic man – focused and a bit cold. In this book you don’t get much idea of how he relates to the other members of his team but his warmer side is revealed through his relationship with his daughter (Lena) and his granddaughter.
Stiller is driven – someone who is prepared to sail close to the wind to get the results he wants. And he doesn’t hesitate to push Wisting into an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous undercover role in order to force the hand of Katharina’s husband.
The slow build
The tensions in this book build slowly. There’s Stiller, on the margins, always pushing to speed things up, versus Wisting and his team trying to do things properly and methodically. When the solution to the crimes and the code are revealed it seems almost too simple, until you step back a bit and realise this was essentially a house of cards waiting to collapse.
I really enjoyed this story. The layers of mystery kept jabbing away at me so I didn’t want to put it down. 4.5 Stars.
Review by: Cornish Eskimo
