#BookReview Täcknamn: Hilde (Code Name Hilde) by Kjell Ola Dahl (SWE/ENG) @Bokfabriken @ko_dahl

Täcknamn: Hilde by Kjell Ola Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SWEDISH REVIEW

Med en nutida ramberättelse, en huvudhandling förlagd till Oslo senhösten 1967 och med tillbakablickar till krigets 1942, skriver Kjell Ola Dahl fram en elegant och trovärdig historia som 2015 tilldelades både Rivertonpriset och Bragepriset för bästa kriminalroman.

Ett speciellt judiskt armband dyker upp på en auktion. En kvinna känner igen armbandet, som en gång varit i hennes ägo, och bestämmer sig för att stoppa auktionen. Hon kommer dock aldrig att få tillgång till hela den fruktansvärda historia som armbandet är en del av - den som läsaren till slut får klarhet i.

1942 blir den judiska kuriren Ester med täcknamnet Hilde förrådd och undgår med nöd och näppe att arresteras av Gestapo genom att fly till Sverige. I Stockholm möter hon motståndshjälten Gerhard Falkum. De är redan bekanta från Oslo. Han har flytt från tyskarnas misstankar om att han skulle ha dödat sin fru Åse. Esters bästa vän.

Strax därpå omkommer Gerhard i en brand. Men så, 1967, efter att ha varit dödförklarad i ett kvarts sekel, dyker han upp på nytt. Han vill återuppta kontakten med dottern som han fick med Åse. Men varför nu, nästan tjugofem år senare?

Krigets händelser griper tag i Ester på nytt. Hon tvingas gräva i det förflutna och plocka fram färdigheter som hon inte har använt på mycket, mycket länge.

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Jag har tidigare läst en nutida kriminalroman av Kjell Ola Dahl (en bok som jag verkligen gillade) och var nyfiken på att läsa en historisk kriminalare denna gång. Handlingen i Täcknamn Hilde äger rum både nu och under 60- och 40-talet. Den nutida berättelsen är den historia som boken börjar och slutar med. Handlingen inledes med att en äldre kvinna som läser i en tidning om en familjen klenod som ska auktioneras bort och hon svär på att stoppa auktionen. Det är efter detta som berättelsen förflyttar sig tillbaka i tiden och handlingen börjar växla mellan 40- och 60-talen och vi får veta sanningen om armbandet, en berättelse som den gamla kvinnan aldrig kommer få full klarhet i.

Jag var så uppslukad med 40-talet och 60-talets historier att jag glömde bort armbandet tills det dök upp i berättelsen senare. Täcknamn Hilde är en spännande och engagerande bok som jag kände kunde ha varit lite längre. Jag ville veta mer om Esters liv efter andra världskriget om hennes son i Israel och vad som hände under åren efter händelserna under de händelserika dagarna på 60-talet. Boken må vara en fristående bok, men jag skulle inte ha något emot att läsa mer om Esther.

Täcknamn Hilde är en fängslande roman. Jag gillade speciellt att läsa om Norge under andra världskriget och nazisternas invasion och vad det hade för konsekvens för judarna. Jag rekommenderar boken varmt!

Tack till Bokfabriken för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

Present time. A special Jewish bracelet appears on an auction. A woman recognizes the bracelet, once in her possession, and decides to stop the auction. However, she will never have access to the whole terrible story of which the bracelet is a part - the one that the reader finally gets clarified towards the end of the book.

1942, Jewish courier Ester with the cover name Hilde is betrayed and she avoids being arrested by Gestapo by fleeing to Sweden. In Stockholm, she meets the resistance hero Gerhard Falkum. They are already familiar from Oslo. He has fled from Norway after the Germans started to suspect that he killed his wife, Åse. Esther's best friend.

Immediately thereafter Gerhard dies in a fire. Then, in 1967, after being declared dead for a quarter of a century, he reappeared. He wants to resume the contact with the daughter he got with Åse. But, why now, almost twenty-five years later?

The war's events get hold of Ester again. She is forced to dig in the past and pick out skills that she has not used for a very long time.

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I have previously read a contemporary crime novel by Kjell Ola Dahl (a book that I really liked) and was intrigued by the prospect of reading a historical crime novel this time. Code Name Hilde story takes place both in present time, during the 60s and 40s. The present time story is the story that the book starts off with and also ends with. The story starts off with an older woman recognizing a family heirloom that is about to be auctioned away and she vows to stop the auction. It's then the story moves back and forth between the 40s and 60s as we get the whole story told, a story that the old woman will never get the full scope of.

I was so caught up with the 40s and 60s storylines that I pretty much forgot about the bracelet until it showed up in the story later on. It's such a thrilling and engrossing book that I felt that it could have been a bit longer, I wanted to know more about Ester's life after WW2, about her son in Israel and what happened during the years after the events during the eventful days in the 60s. This may be a stand-alone book, but I wouldn't mind reading more about Ester.

Code Name Hilde is a captivating novel. I especially liked reading about Norway during WW2 and the invasion of Nazi Germany and the peril of the Jews in the country. I recommend the book warmly!

Thanks to Bokfabriken for the review copy!

#BookReview Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl #BlogTour

Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When the body of a woman turns up in a dumpster, scalded and wrapped in plastic, Inspector Frank Frølich is shocked to discover that he knows her—and their recent meetings may hold the clue to her murder. As he begins to look deeper into the tragic events surrounding her death, Frølich’s colleague Gunnarstranda finds another body, and things take a more sinister turn. With a cold case involving the murder of a young girl in northern Norway casting a shadow, and an unsettling number of coincidences clouding the plot, Frølich is forced to look into his own past to find the answers—and the killer—before he strikes again. 

Dark, brooding and utterly chilling, atmospheric page-turner marks the return of an internationally renowned and award-winning series, from one of the fathers of Nordic Noir.

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I have lately found myself quite interested in reading books by Nordic authors. Since I'm Swedish is this perhaps not that strange, but I have previously not read that much Nordic crime books. I have just preferred American och British authors. Faithless intrigued me with its stunning cover and interesting blurb so I couldn't resist agreeing to do this blog tour. And, I'm glad I joined in because Faithless is really good.

This book starts off with a simple arrest of a woman who leaves a house of a suspect that Frølich is staking out. She has drugs on her, but she denies that it's hers. What Inspector Frank Frølich didn't know at the time was that the woman is the fiance of a man that was once his best friend. He only finds this a little later one at the birthday party for the friend. Then, she ends up dead. What happened? Who killed her? Frølich and his colleague Gunnarstranda has to unravel this mystery. And, then Gunnarstranda finds a body while investigating the case. Has the killer struck again?

Faithless is one of those books that hooks you from the start, the writing pulls you in and the story keeps your interest up all the way until the end. There are interesting side stories in the book as well, like the disappearance of a foreign student that Frølich is quite obsessed to find. And, then there is the murder of a girl that happened years ago, could that murder have connections to this case?

All and all is this book terrific. The book different stories, different cases that all interested me, and I found myself quite liking both Frølich and Gunnarstranda. The ending left me wanting the next book, a bit of a cliffhanger situation that made me wonder what will happen next...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. 

In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.