Reviews

• “In recent years, Norwegian crime writer Jørn Lier Horst has taken on the mantle once enjoyed by the late Henning Mankell. /…/ Horst’s latest in the series, The Night Man, […] demonstrates why he has become so popular. It also typifies what makes Scandi noir distinctive. /…./ The Night Man, like Horst’s other novels, is a conduit into a Norway few tourists will ever encounter. Early suggestions, based on her ethnicity, that the teenage girl has been a victim of an honour killing are overturned when a second body is discovered; what gradually transpires is just as dreadful, and with grim implications for young and vulnerable asylum seekers. /…/ Behind his plain, pragmatic style, the author’s anger is palpable. Introducing a believable cast of suspects, police, informants and peripheral characters who quickly assume a central role, he carries the story on with the vigour of someone who knows how police work proceeds. /…/ [The Night Man] offers a powerful portrait of a barbaric criminal underworld that exploits society’s most vulnerable, and brings shame on the West.”

• “It’s fascinating to see Horst flesh out his protagonist Wisting at an early stage in his career, before the setbacks he experiences in later novels. Nor is it hard to see why the series, with its reflections on migration and human trafficking, quickly became so popular.”

• “Belongs to the cream of Norwegian crime writers. /…/ Yet another outstanding crime novel from the well-informed author.”

• “The Night Man is an extremely well-crafted crime novel. Jørn Lier Horst begins with a gruesome incident, almost to scare the reader into engaging with the text, but then he doesn’t need many more shock effects.”

• “The Night Man is Jørn Lier Horst’s fifth book about the policeman William Wisting, and he has long been established as a solid craftsman of crime. As Horst himself is a police investigator, he has a good grasp of the professional aspects, and he is a clever narrator who builds up the mystery in an outstanding way.”

• “Wonderful suspense, grotesque crimes, pace and tension from beginning to end. Jørn Lier Horst’s new crime novel The Night Man has most. Let it be said at once: The Night Man is Lier Horst’s best book so far. And that says a lot, considering all the praise critics have heaped on his earlier publications.”

• “Yet another solid police novel to please crime-lovers.”

• “Well-written, important, and very thrilling!”

• “I have said it before, but I’ll say it again: I consider Jørn Lier Horst to be one of the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to writing crime novels in Norway.”