Random Things Tours: Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen translated by Don Barlett

 

I don´t know how I survived intellectually without the magic of Nordic Noir thrillers, but I am doing my best to catch up. Although my efforts of learning at least one of the languages those thrillers are written are relatively limited for now, there are plenty of beautiful translations around allowing me to have regularly a taste of thrillers as no others.

From the many inviting titles published by Orenda Books recently, Gunnar Staalesen stands out as a classical crime writer whose stories resist the test of time. My latest, Mirror Image translated into English from Norwegian by Don Barlett is set at the beginning of the 1990s, and detective Varg Veum just got to know how to properly use a mobile phone for his investigations. There is no Internet to use for tracing possible social media activity of the possible victims and no Internet traces either. But his case is getting more difficult with the day. What looked as a simple case of tracing disappearing persons - Bodil and Fernando, at the request of Bodil´s brother - leads to terrifying cases that do connect illegal immigration with occurrences of toxic waste.

The cast of characters is impressive and so it´s the author´s capacity of coordinating different stories and timelines, while managing them within the same storyline. Besides the thriller story itself, this part is really fascinated, as it connects seamlessly so many disparate fragments and story details. 

This new encounter with a star writer of the Norwegian Noir only challenged me to continue my journey, hopefully any time soon. As for me, I am still dreaming about being able one day to read all those beautiful thrillers in their original language.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own