Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc

Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Winter is savage and cold in Lapland. When a priceless local relic is stolen from Kautokeino, a village in the middle of the isolated snowy tundra, detectives Klemet Nango – a familiar face in the rural community – and Nina Nansen, fresh out of the local police academy, are called to investigate.

There are just a few days until the locals will host a UN World Heritage conference, and Klemet and Nina are under pressure to retrieve the artefact, due to be presented to a world-renowned French scientist as part of the celebrations. When a local reindeer herder is found brutally murdered, Klemet and Nina immediately suspect that the two events are linked. But the villagers don't take too kindly to having their secret histories stirred up and the duo is forced to cross the icy landscapes alone in search of the answers that will lead them to a killer.

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The Sámis in Sweden, Norway and Finland has during century’s, just like other indigenous populations, been oppressed, and one thing the church did against them was burning their drums, there used to be thousands of them, now there are only 71 documented left.  I have been for years fascinated by the Sámis so that made the experience of reading this book so much greater. Because even though this is a crime novel, it’s also a glimpse into the Sámi world, both the present one and the one the high power was hell bent on destroying, when they sent up people to colonize and make Christians out of the natives.

This book was truly well written, I mean it took me days to get through because I just couldn’t skim any part, because it was so well written and interesting to read. Of course the characters was great even though the police for instance fell into the risk of being stereotypes, bad cop, good cop, a new cop, but I didn't mind that. One character I really came to like was Aslak, the reindeer herder that preferred the old traditional way of herding reindeer instead the modern way with snow scooters.

The only part that I didn’t like was the abrupt ending; suddenly the book was just finished and I wanted more. I hope Olivier Truc writes more books, because this, his debut book was marvelous!

Thank you Trapdoor for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!