Burned by Thomas Enger

Remember a few years ago how we all walked about with the obligatory copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo under our arm? 

Henning Juul is an investigative reporter for a Norwegian online newspaper, 123News.com. He's been on leave for quite a while after a fire in his apartment tragically took his toddler son's life. His first day back and he is really conscious of his facial scars.  He is told to attend a press conference about a murder that occurred the prior night in Ekeberg Common, a public park. 

Henriette Hagerup was found by an early morning dog walker, in a tent, stoned to death, and her right hand missing. She was a talented screenwriting student at a local art college. The nature of the crime and the fact that she had a Pakistani boyfriend, Marhoni, makes the police think is was an honor killing. Henning is partnered with Iven Gundersen on the story, who just happens to be living with Henning's ex, Nora, and mother of their deceased child. 

The boyfriend is picked up, but won't say anything. Circumstantial evidence points an accusatory finger at him, but there are some aspects of the murder that don't sound like an honor killing to Henning. He canvases the art college to get a feel for who Henriette was from notes and memorials left on the grounds. One note grabs his attention from fellow film student, Anette, "I'll carry on your work."

Henning does some research on Pakistani immigrants. Marhoni has a brother in Oslo and Tariq has a bit of a history with a gang, BBB (Bad Boys Burning). So Henning decides to interview Tariq. The interview just gets going when a knock takes Tariq to the door where, upon opening the door, he takes 2 shots to the chest and 1 to the head. Henning jumps out the window and in now on the run from whomever it was he witnessed pull the trigger.

Henriette's murder, Marhoni's arrest, and Tariq's execution may be connected or a tragic coincidence. The police are trying to figure out if this was an honor killing,  connected with the BBB, or somehow related to the work Anette's note alluded to.

This is part I (copyright 2010) of the Henning Juul trilogy. Part II is Pierced that was favorably reviewed here at MRB. Never saw Burned anywhere so I went back to the good folks at Artria (a Simon and Schuster imprint) and they happily forwarded a copy. Again, a big high five to Atria Books!

Enger brings what we expect out of a Scandinavia mystery. A dark, foreboding story, full of twists and blind alleys. But once he's taken us to Henriette's killer, that dang book still had 50 pages to go. Ah, methinks there's a HUGE plot twist ahead. An excellent and satisfying mystery so all you folks who've suffered withdrawal symptoms after the Dragon Tattoo trilogy was done, don't despair. Start in with Burned.

But we still don't know what's behind the death of his son. We see what it has done to Hennig's psyche, but there must be more to the tragedy that underlies both Burned and Pierced.

East Coast Don