Scarred by Thomas Enger

Part III of the Henning Juul (of what I thought was a) Trilogy. Maybe not.

What do we know so far about Henning:

• he's divorced, 
• his ex's new man is Henning's co-worker,
• Henning's toddler son Jonas was killed in a fire at Henning's apartment, 
• his face is disfigured from burns in that fire,
• a guy who may or may not have good intel on who set the fire dies suddenly, 
• Henning's mom pretty much hates him but allows him in her apartment because he brings cigarettes and booze, 
• Henning's sister Trine, and mom's favorite, is the Justice Minister, but they haven't spoken to each other for over five years. 

That about does it. Wonderful life Henning has.

We are a couple weeks after what went down in Pierced. A Sunday. Henning is trying to relax a bit doing what he normally does - sitting in a nearby sports park. His cell phone jolts him back to Oslo that will dramatically change his coming week. The assignment editor at 123News.no wants him to cover a murder at one of the local nursing homes.

Sounds dull. Nothing newsworthy comes from the initial review of the crime scene, but he goes. Erna Pedersen was found in her wheelchair, strangled. Odd since she was so close to death anyway. A wall photo is smashed and another is missing. Oh, and she was mutilated . . . her knitting needles were hammered into her skull through her eyes.

Trine, Henning's sister, is blindsided by the media with an anonymous report of a sexual assault by her on a junior politician shortly after she became the Justice Minister. She retreats to the family cabin on Norway's coast without so much as a word to her husband, communication director, Prime Minister, anyone. She goes off the grid as much as a cabinet minister can.

Erna Pedersen was a schoolteacher. And not a very well-like one at that. She was tough and was not above embarrassing a student in front of the class if some tough love was needed. Anti-Pedersen graffiti was common on the walls of her school. Her family seems to be in the clear so maybe it was a past student. With 30+ years as a teacher, that's a pretty big haystack to be searching for a needle.

A nearly middle age woman's apartment has been broken in to. Two weeks later, she is found dead at home. Obviously a struggle. And a former student of Pedersen. Then a guy who volunteers with a visitation group that stopped in where Erna was living is found dead. Only a couple of the cops think all the killings are related.

Henning needs to do some human interest stories on the victims for followup pieces so he talks to friends and neighbors of the victims. Piece by piece we see how Henning seems to stay a pace or two ahead of the police until the investigations by Henning and the police intersect just in time for a hostage situation to bring these two disconnected stories together.

This is a terrific series. I read them out of order, II, then I, then III. I don't recommend doing that. While any can be a standalone book, if you commit to all three, read them in order. It helps with the development of the continuing relationships, such that they are, within family Juul.

So is it a trilogy? I say nay nay. Why? Because is a trilogy, we'd have answers to questions like why does Henning's mom hate Henning and praise Trine? What happened between Henning and Trine to cause them (Trine mostly) to essentially disown each other? And most importantly, what happened that fateful night when Jonas Juul was killed in that apartment fire, who was behind it, and why? Enger gives us some snippets of info, but not the full nine yards. So, I'm going out on a limb and say there is more of the Henning Juul saga ahead.

And I for one, couldn't be more pleased. Enger is a masterful storyteller, which I think must be hard given the dark, foreboding nature of a story that is treacherously "claustrophobic with secrets and threats." I'm guessing that Henning should come face to face with the facts behind the fire very soon. Stay tuned.

East Coast Don