As the snow fell – and kept falling – it seemed like fate [well, at least it would have done if I believed in fate!] that I should be reading a book in which the cast of characters find themselves trapped in a remote and mountainous Norwegian hotel after a heavy storm of, you guessed it, snow. It should be pointed out that this snowstorm is considered extreme even by Norwegian standards, and far outstrips the few inches of snow that is currently sitting outside my window [I’d imagine that most Scandinavians find Britain’s inability to cope with snow highly amusing]. When the train they are travelling on crashes, the 269 passengers are forced to take refuge in a nearby hotel, Finse 1222 [the numbers are a reference to its elevation above sea level]. But upon waking the next morning, the group discovers that one of their number – a priest – has been murdered during the night and left in a snowdrift outside the hotel. Soon the feeling of togetherness and community that had bonded the passengers immediately after the crash begins to falter and Holt expertly captures the way in which mob/crowd dynamics work and how fear and anger can quickly turn people against one another. With the deaths mounting and the storm keeping them effectively imprisoned, it falls to wheelchair-bound ex-police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen to try to find the killer in their midst – a task that she undertakes reluctantly. Spiky, sarcastic and often rude, Hanne is at first a difficult character to like – something that I actually found refreshing in a literary protagonist. And I really enjoyed that Hanne is forced to use her brain and ingenuity to try to make progress – there is no forensics or recourse to criminal databases to slim down the [rather large!] suspect pool. It feels very much like Holt is paying homage to the sleuths from the ‘Golden Age’ of detective fiction. Indeed, the snowed-in hotel scenario is itself an intriguingly original take on the classic ‘locked room’ scenario, as well as bringing to mind the snowbound Overlook Hotel from Stephen King’s The Shining. And Holt slowly and cleverly uses the setting and elements to build up the feeling of claustrophobia and tension that threads its way through the novel. Holt [who used to be the Norwegian minister for justice] is the foremost female crime author in Norway, and her experience – 1222 is the eighth in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series – is evident in this novel. And, whilst it’s a shame that the previous Hanne novels haven’t been translated into English yet, 1222 is such a good book that it works effortlessly as a stand-alone. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of Hanne, although I hope that they don’t bring any more snow with them – my room’s too chilly! *** 1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn't worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne's growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

La exitosa abogada Karen Borg ha sacado a pasear a su perro cuando se tropieza con un cadáver. ¿De quién? Solo Dios sabe, el cuerpo ha perdido su cara. Hanne obtiene una confesión de un sospechoso vendedor de drogas quien también confiesa a Karen después de pedirle que le defienda. El sendero conduce a la cima de la profesión jurídica. En esta primera entrega de la serie se presenta a los personajes -la brillante y también arrogante Hanne Wilhelmsen y sus colegas- y el escenario -un mundo en el que la diosa de la justicia lleva los ojos vendados-. La tarea del equipo de Wilhelmsen es destapar los ojos de esa diosa ciega. La trama parte de un asesinato que desata una investigación de una red de corrupción y drogas. A lo largo del libro se va descubriendo las partes implicadas en ésta y finalmente se conoce que ciertos miembros del cuerpo de la policía, así como del departamento de Justicia, participaron en la misma. El motivo: financiar las operaciones de los servicios secretos noruegos

En Oslo el verano promete ser largo y caluroso. Las elevadas temperaturas del mes de mayo han sorprendido a los noruegos; entre ellos a Hanne Wilhelmsen, que ha sido enviada a investigar un macabro escenario criminal: una caseta abandonada en los arrabales de Oslo regada, literalmente, de sangre. En una de las paredes destacan ocho dígitos escritos también en sangre. No hay rastro de la víctima. Aunque tampoco es seguro que haya una víctima humana hasta que se verifique la procedencia del fluido. Una semana más tarde, también un domingo, se reproduce la misma escena sanguinaria, esta vez en un párking. Y de nuevo, los ocho dígitos y ni víctima, ni testigos, ni motivo aparente. A Wilhelmsen le inquieta el tema, pero no tiene a qué agarrarse. Además, hay otro caso que ocupa su agenda estos días: una violación. Curiosamente, ésta ha coincido en un domingo en el que no se han repetido los desagradables episodios anteriores. Pero Hanne no es la única interesada en el caso, el padre de la chica violada está dispuesto a todo para dar con el culpable. Bienaventurados los sedientos es la segunda entrega de la serie protagonizada por la subinspectora Hanne Wilhelmsen y su equipo. La serie se caracteriza por la interesante descripción del trabajo cotidiano de una jefatura de Policía que Holt conoce bien por sus años como asesora legal de la policía noruega. El primer libro de esta serie, La diosa ciega, recibió el prestigioso premio Riverton. «Hanne Wilhelmsen es una detective brillante que domina el humor y las formas duras características del género, sin caer en la parodia de una mujer con gabardina». Politiken

"Anne Holt is the godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction." – Jo Nesbø From the internationally acclaimed author of 1222 comes the suspenseful tour de force that started it all – the unforgettable debut of Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen in a stunning literary skein of corruption, drugs, and murder.Norwegian author Anne Holt has become one of the hottest writers of dark, sophisticated mystery fiction in the world today. Blind Goddess is the international bestseller that introduced readers to the brilliant and enigmatic Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen, whose fascinating evolution over eight books lies at the heart of the series' success. Blind Goddess opens with the discovery of a dead drug dealer on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Within days Hansa Larsen, a lawyer of the shadiest kind, is found shot to death, and police officers HÅkon Sand and Hanne Wilhelmsen establish a link between the two crimes. The case is soon complicated by seemingly unrelated developments, including a coded message hidden in the murdered lawyer's apartment, ominous rumors from the drug underworld, and a Dutch suspect found wandering confused and bloodied in central Oslo who refuses to talk to anyone but an obscure civil lawyer. As the officers investigate, they uncover a massive network of corruption involving the highest level of government whose exposure may well get them killed