Finished
The Caveman by
Jørn Lier Horst, 9th in his William Wisting, Laid-Back Non-Drunkard Norwegian Crime Solver, series. This was recently awarded the 2016 Petrona Prize, and used the starting point of how in an ostensibly social welfare-oriented nation, an elderly local man in a small community where everyone knew everyone else could be left alone to the point where his mummified body was only found by chance months after his peaceful at-home death, to build both a pleasantly complex and twisty case and commentary around the socially invisible people who slip through the cracks.
To go with this theme, there's also a secondary case built around the difficulties of positively identifying a visiting foreigner found
sans wallet and unhelpfully nibbled by the local wildlife in similar isolated straits, and Wisting and Line have very well done tandem investigations into each angle, with Wisting trying to get a positive ID for his body, and Line having the ID for hers as the basis for a story about Norwegian society, and each attempting to figure out how their respective deceased ended up in their particular circumstances. Without getting into spoilers (since the twists are extra-twisty and surprising in this one), there's an entertaining portrayal of how international co-operation in these matters works (or doesn't), and brief but fun guest cameo appearance by reporter Henning Juul from Thomas Enger's own Norwegian crime series.
Highly recommended as another strong installment in the series (and IMHO well worth picking up for the £1.99 it currently costs in the UK, especially with bonus Kobo discount couponage). This one starts with an interesting premise and uses it to launch one of the most complicated but fitting mystery plotlines I've read, with all the legwork and the following of new leads springing from the old and finally figuring things out believable and entertaining, even if it is a little more action thriller-ish than usual. I was wondering whether I wanted to break out one of my hoarded coupons and splurge on
Ordeal, the 10th and latest in the series, to read next or wait to see if they had a sale later, but lo and behold, it's actually discounted to just £0.99 right now at Amazon, so I just went ahead with the Kobo price-match procedure.
While I was browsing, I was also pleased to see that apparently the earlier books before the mid-series English pickup are being translated and released starting next year.
