Reviews

• “What Dark Clouds Hide is a very good novel, it raises important questions about prejudices, suspicions and the compulsion to at all times maintain a façade outwards. The portrait of the grieving and troubled mother Ellen is almost physically painful to read.”

• “A suspenseful plot with credible characters and compassion.”

• “I’m completely enthralled by the plot and the characters. The portrait of the young, shy and insecure police detective Henrik is compassionately and insightfully depicted /…/ Breathless suspense is cleverly interspersed /…/ I liked Arrhythmia, the dense medical thriller she co-wrote with her brother Even Holt in 2011, but What Dark Clouds Hide is even better, the best I’ve read by her. It is powerful, emotional and compassionate. It is upsetting and unsettling and the conclusion raises questions: what will Anne Holt do next? I'm eager to find out.”

• “A tragic family drama is skillfully pitched against the disaster on Utøya … Compassionate, humane and engaging.”

• “As usual, Anne Holt disappoints no one. … A real page-turner.”

• “The portrayal of Holmes’ alienation and frame of mind is one of the book’s highlights … Holt brilliantly portrays why it is so difficult to solve cases like these. The abuse and murder of helpless, trusting children is associated with the deepest kind of shame. All roads into society’s warm embrace are closed after misdeeds of this nature, which are as socially devastating as treason.”

• “Anne Holt’s crime novels are at the same time high end literary novels. Characterization, plot, themes and the fluid everyday language combine to make her books take hold of the reader. /…/ A suspenseful and human drama”

• “The author tells a very suspenseful story in a different, much more empathetic way. That makes the story grab an extra strong hold around mind and heart. … Anne Holt once again proves that she is one of Scandinavia’s very best in the genre. Well, speaking of the genre, Holt has extended the crime novel to be something more. If that in addition can help children in need, then all the better.”

• “A crime novel set on July 22nd 2011 in Oslo and based on the tragic Christoffer case: this sounds both speculative and risky. But Anne Holt solves it in a way that makes this a compassionate – if not criminally suspenseful – novel. /…/ July 22nd [Utøya] is a risky and inflamed subject, but Holt handles the issue with elegance. /…/ It wouldn’t surprise me if [Holt’s] next novel features the clumsy rookie Henrik Holme. After a decade of drunken anti-heroes like Varg Veum and Harry Hole, an Asperberger-like detective type is a welcome variation.”

• “An excellent, exposed depiction by Holt about the unveiling of the adult world’s total neglect … [Holt] twists the legal issues of the intrigue in a good and steadily suspenseful and propulsive way.”

• “Complex social thriller… [The July 22nd tragedy] is an effective contrast, and it feels completely right that Anne Holt includes the terror attack as a backdrop to the story. … A very engaging story until the last page. Anne Holt has an experienced grip of the crime novel format … We are thoroughly entertained the whole way through.”

• “Anne Holt writes well about the painful topic of child abuse … What Dark Clouds Hide makes a strong impression, both in the description of the victim and the polices’ neglect of the case.”

• “It is well written, accurate and reeks of crime scenes and tragedy. … Anne Holt creates a story that clearly displays all the classic features of child abuse cases. She does this in an elegant and trustworthy way. … Anne Holt has consciously used the [July 22nd] tragedy as an important literary tool in the novel, but the way she has done it never feels like a violation or anything close to being called speculative. The novel tightens towards the final scene and showdown, also that marked by the tragic nature of the event. It should be noted that Anne Holt offers a very dramatic and surprising end. What Dark Clouds Hide is a slightly different Anne Holt novel, but it has in return some fine qualities that also this time demonstrate the author’s strong involvement in the community.”