2023
The Cold Case Quartet #1
It’s that time of the year. For the twenty-fourth time, William Wisting gets out the papers from when Katharina Haugen disappeared. The case was never solved, and every year since Wisting has called on Katharina’s husband, Martin Haugen. The steady contact between the police inspector and the bereaved husband has over the years developed into a friendship. But this year, Haugen’s house stands empty and dark when Wisting arrives. On the anniversary of his wife’s disappearance, Martin Haugen has gone missing.
The same day, Kripos investigator Adrian Stiller comes to see Wisting. A young cold case investigator for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), Stiller has uncovered a connection between Katharina’s disappearance and the missing person case he’s working on. The two must join efforts, but the collaboration with the complex Stiller will be a challenge for the experienced Wisting. The two driven investigators must all the same find a starting point they can agree on, and use their combined capabilities to solve the case.
The Katharina Code is the first installment in Jørn Lier Horst’s compelling and already critically acclaimed new crime fiction series, the Cold Case Quartet.
The suspense is carefully escalated, piece by piece, clue by clue. It’s liberating to read a crime fiction novel where the painstaking police work is at the center, and conveyed in Lier Horst’s quiet, flowing, and unaffected prose. /…/ The novel vibrates with anticipation all the way to the finish.
Jørn Lier Horst has written a novel that leaves a mark. The author has employed literary devices one only rarely finds in a crime fiction novel. And he’s succeeded marvelously. /…/ "The Katharina Code" is the best and most ingenious [novel] that Jørn Lier Horst has written thus far.
With "The Katharina Code" Jørn Lier Horst again delivers an excellent crime fiction novel with a credible plot. /…/ All that remains is to declare that Jørn Lier Horst impresses again. That he’s counted among one of the country’s foremost crime fiction authors is no surprise.
Jørn Lier Horst has truly done it this time. /…/ Exceptionally well-executed.
Believable and thrilling criminal mysteries from Horst.
Jørn Lier Horst
Anton Soggiu
