The Final Murder (by Anne Holt)

It seems I've been hooked on Scandinavian crime fiction lately! That's because I somehow manage to stumble on the books almost all at once at the library. I decided, ahhh well, let's check them all out & enjoy myself.

The latest Scandinavian crime fiction I read, "The Final Murder", has a Norwegian flavour, written by Norwegian author Anne Holt. And the story is set in, well, Norway. I'm starting to fall for Nordic novels!

And what do we have this time? Some ghastly killings in Oslo, Norway. First, Fiona Helle, a TV talk-show host, was found murdered in her home, her tongue cut off & left on her table, with the front of the tongue split off in two. Shortly after, Vibeke Heinerback, a politician with right-wing affiliations, was found crucified to her bedroom wall, with a copy of a religious book shoved up between her thighs. After this, Superintendant Adam Stubo was called from his paternity leave to lead the investigation into the killings. Both Helle & Heinerback were well known in Norway. Hence the lingering question: Is there a celebrity killer out there? Then a third person was found dead: an outspoken literary critic, whom few had liked, stabbed in the eye.

Stubo's partner, Johannes Vik, formerly with the FBI, agreed to provide some help, even though she was busy with their newborn baby. Vik began to see a pattern, which goes back to her FBI days. Then a fourth person is murdered - this time, an unpopular professional biathlete. This fourth victim conformed to Vik's pattern & heightened her fears - if her suspicions are correct (& Vik was convinced they are), the fifth & final murder victim would be Stubo. Finding the murderer proved to be extremely difficult - no matter what Stubo & his colleague tried, the murderer was always a step ahead.

I found it to be not a bad read. But for me, even though the 4 murders were committed in cold blood, I didn't find "The Final Murder" to be as thrilling as the axe murders in Hakan Nesser's "Borkmann's Point". In fact, I found the ending to "The Final Murder" to be very anti-climatic & somewhat disappointing. That is my only "gripe" with the novel - I didn't particularly like the way the ending was written (it didn't seem real) & would have preferred Anne Holt to have done it differently. Apart from that, I thought the book was reasonably good, & I would consider reading another Anne Holt novel in the future.