In Norway’s land of the midnight sun it’s not just secrets that are buried…

Chief Investigator of Nordland Police, Jakob Weber is drawn into a complex case when a teenaged girl goes missing in Northern Norway, and a second woman disappears from a remote island in similar circumstances … FIRST in a compelling, dark new Nordic Noir series.

Book blurb

When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend. For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.

But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, hundreds of miles off the Norwegian coast, in the wild ocean.

Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies. But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something.

And another murderous spree may have just begun…

My thoughts

A young woman out for a run in Bodø, a town in the far north of Norway, goes missing.

A high profile influencer also goes missing this time on Røst a tiny island far off the Norwegian coast.

There are similarities between the two disappearances and with incidents from decades past. But, are they connected? Could it be the same perpetrator?

It’s the job of Jacob Weber to find out helped by his colleagues Line, Armann and the newest member of the team Noora. Will they find the perpetrator and more importantly save the young women?

This is a dark story with some great characters that are well written, have depth and grab your attention. They have their own stories beyond the actual investigation which are nicely woven into the narrative though not completely told leaving more to come in later. This is after all the first book in the series so plenty of time to properly get to know them. It’s not just the investigators that are well drawn we have another voice which comes into the story and we have an insight into the perpetrator. The structure of the book ensures that the reader is drawn into this intriguing, complex story quickly and ensures that this series is, by me and I hope by you, well received and certainly worth reading.

This is a police investigation and so, of course, we have what may well have become a rather slow, mundane read but the way in which the chapters are written ensures that there is a tremendous amount of tension building up thus creating a faster sense of pace, a greater sense of urgency ensuring the reader that this is a absolutely gripping read.

This is a deliciously dark and complex tale which has been nicely written and whilst it does cover some difficult topics it is not overtly explicit or gratuitous. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would certainly recommend it.

Thanks

Many thanks to Anne at RandomThingsTours for the invite to join the Into Thin Air BlogTour and to Orenda Books for an eCopy of Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson for review purposes all thoughts are my own.

BlogTour

Like to read more about Into Thin Air then take a look at these fabulous blogs and then pop down to the links below to get your own copy of this compelling first book of the Arctic Mysteries series.

Information

Fiction Book of the Year in Verdens Gang (VG)

Nominated for the Riverton Prize

Published: ORENDA BOOKS | 16 JANUARY 2025 | PAPERBACK | £9.99 | 300pp

Buy: Orenda Books | Hive UK | Bookshop.org (Affiliate link) | AmazonSmileUK | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Author

Ørjan Karlsson (b. 1970) grew up in Bodø, in the far north of Norway. A sociologist by education, he received officer training in the army and has taken part in many missions overseas. He has worked at the Ministry of Defence and is now head of department in the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection. He has written a wide range of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime fiction, and been shortlisted for or won numerous awards, with a number of his books currently in production for the screen. He lives in Nordland, where the Jakob Weber crime series is set, and Into Thin Air is his sixteenth book and the first book in this his first detective/police procedural series.

OrjanKarlsson’s website | @Orjankarlsson | Instagram @orjan_nk | facebook.com/orjan.karlsson.

Books

The Jakob Weber/Arctic Mysteries series

Into Thin Air | The Night Travels Alone | Quiet As Snow

Other Books

Team Alpha/Ida Vinterdal series | The Marko Eldfell trilogy | The Foundation trilogy | The Bifrost series | The Lance series | Fabel original audiobooks