Dreamless

The discovery of the body of an unidentified young woman with her larynx removed propels Brekke’s outstanding second novel featuring Chief Insp. Odd Singsaker of the Trondheim police department (after 2014’s Where Monsters Dwell). The one clue at the crime scene is an antique music box that plays a haunting lullaby, “The Golden Peace,” which was written by Jon Blund, a 17th-century troubadour about whom little is known. The inventive plot seamlessly moves from the contemporary case to a 1767 police investigation into Blund’s disappearance. While searching for the elusive culprit, the insightful Singsaker worries that recovery from brain surgery has compromised his acumen—and that his marriage to American detective Felicia Stone, whom he met while pursuing a serial killer in the previous book, was too hasty. Fans of bleak Nordic crime fiction will find plenty to like. [em]Agent: Nicole K. James, Chalberg & Sussman. (Feb.) [/em]