Lene Lauritsen Kjølner
Christmas in Sandøsund
The Starfish 1

Sofie loves her life as a bookseller and café owner on the waterfront in Sandøsund, where her friend Linn helps her, when she’s not translating books.
When Aunt Agathe move to Spain to join a collective of cutural ladies, she gives her creaky old villa to Sofie as a gift. Sofie throws herself whole-heartedly into Christmas decorations, preserves, fried crullers, and Christmas yucca plants, aided and abetted by her father and Marcel, who runs the most charming hotel in the world.

But the hotel’s new chef, Francois, sets Sofie’s heart beating in time with Linn’s chopping of almonds. It’s just a shame that Sofie’s glamorous sister, Tilde, also has her eye on him. Francois has a past, but the most thrilling past – and future – may lie in the boards of Sofie’s new house.

"It's the cutest, most funny and happiest I have read for a long time!"

Unni Breen Vinge, librarian

"The author is a master at creating moods which creeps in and settle in the reader. I have enjoyed myself tremendously."

Monica Wang, librarian

Lene Lauritsen Kjølner

Photo: Kristine Hellemo/Cover: Emma Graves design

My debut novel "The Man in the Shiny Shoes" is the first in the Island Mysteries series featuring Olivia Henriksen, private detective. It won the Maurits Hansen prize - New Blood - for best debut in 2014.

There are now nine books in the series, described as unique in a Norwegian context, but which have been compared to Alan Bradley, Agatha Christie, Alexander McCall Smith, Maria Lang ...

This cosy crime series is set in the Norwegian archipelago, garnished with wit and humor, and some self-deprecation.

Lene also write feelgood- and Christmas-novels featuring Petra, Sofie, Petronella and Kitty - all from the same area, fifteen titles published so far. This is a Sofie-novel.

My husband, Per Fredrik, is a guitarist and songwriter, I have to sons and a cat, was born at Nøtterøy, but lives outside Tønsberg. I used to work in the aviation industry, but now work full time as an author and translator. And I'm proud to be the director of the renowned Fagervik publishing house!