#BlogTour: WOLVES AT THE DOOR by Gunnar Staalesen @OrendaBooks @annecater

Publication: 13th April 2019 (eBook); 13th June 2019 (paperback) – Orenda Books

One dark January night a car drives at high speed towards PI Varg Veum, and comes very close to killing him. Veum is certain this is no accident, following so soon after the deaths of two jailed men who were convicted for their
participation in a case of child pornography and sexual assault … crimes that Veum himself once stood wrongly accused of committing.

While the guilty men were apparently killed accidentally, Varg suspects that there is something more sinister at play … and that he’s on the death list of someone still at large.

Fearing for his life, Veum begins to investigate the old case, interviewing the victims of abuse and delving deeper into the brutal crimes, with shocking results. The wolves are no longer in the dark … they are at his door. And they want vengeance.

**********

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today, I am so happy to kick off the blog tour for WOLVES AT THE DOOR, the new suspenseful novel by Gunnar Staalesen. A big thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

I discovered Gunnar Staalesen’s novels and its protagonist, private detective Varg Veum, exactly a year ago when I read Big Sister. It kept me glued to the pages and I was happy to go back to the dark and atmospheric Norwegian setting and immerse myself in this new captivating novel.

After being wrongly accused of child pornography, Varg Veum is investigating the sudden death of two men. Nobody hired him and the police doesn’t think their deaths are suspicious, so why is he so interested? Because the two men were accused of abuse and child pornography at the same time he was, and now it seems that someone is after him as well. Varg Veum questions their families and discover a past that it’s darker and more disturbing than he thought.

I am so happy Varg Veum is back. He is a fantastic and well-developed character. He feels real and likable. His calm and composed demeanour leads people to talk to him and reveal secrets they haven’t revealed before.

The author addresses the theme of child abuse and I found some of the scenes described in the novel very disturbing, especially when the abuse was inside a family. If you can’t trust your own parents, who can you trust? The way the author describes the effects of the abuse on the victims, how it affected their lives even years and years later created a few emotional moments.

WOLVES AT THE DOOR is dark, slow-paced, and suspenseful, another irresistible read from one of my favourite Nordic authors.

Follow the rest of the blog tour:

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty-three titles, which have been published in twenty-six countries and sold over five million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim, and a further series is currently being filmed. Staalesen, who has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour) and the Petrona Award, and been shortlisted for the CWA Dagger, lives in Bergen with his wife.