No Echo: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel

Edgar-finalist Holt’s impressive second collaboration with Reiss-Andersen, the sixth in Holt’s Hanne Wilhelmsen series (after Dead Joker), explores a crucial episode in the life of her talented Oslo police detective, who’s emotionally crippled by feelings of guilt that she uses to keep people away and conceal her real self. By the time an elite chef is found stabbed to death in Oslo, Hanne has been living for six months in a run-down monastery hotel near Verona, Italy, recovering from the death of her lover of nearly 20 years, Cecilie Vibe. Hanne’s police team, now led by the colorful and conflicted Billy T., wishes Hanne, with all her idiosyncrasies, were back. Arriving in Oslo, fresh from meeting a Turkish mathematics professor who becomes Hanne’s new lover, Hanne begins uncovering unpalatable secrets. Transcripts of witness statements alternate with Holt’s penetrating psychological analysis of human desires, weaknesses, and essential decency, unveiling unexpected dimensions of her series characters. (Sept.)