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Summary
Summary
When bombs explode at the Islamic Cooperation Council's headquarters in Oslo, detective Hanne Wilhelmsen is on the case in the ninth and penultimate installment of the award-winning series from Norway's bestselling crime writer Anne Holt--"the godmother of Norwegian crime fiction" (Jo Nesbo).
On an early April afternoon, a bomb goes off in the Islamic Cooperation Council's offices in Oslo, killing twenty-three people. The Police and Security Service suspect an extremist organization to be responsible for the attack, a suspicion that grows stronger when threats of yet another, bigger explosion during the planned celebration of the Norwegian constitution reach the authorities.
As a special adviser on cold cases, Hanne Wilhelmsen has cut all of her official ties to the Security Service and lives contentedly--or at least as contentedly as someone like her can manage--in solitude with her partner Nesir and their young daughter. A small computer monitor is Hanne's only window to the outside until the day of the attacks, when her closed-off world is broken open. Hanne is approached by her long lost friend, Billy T., whose son Linus has undergone some disturbing changes recently. As the mood of the city darkens, Hanne tries to help Billy T. reach out to Linus and realizes that Oslo is up against forces far more terrible and menacing than ever before.
Author Notes
Anne Holt is Norway's bestselling female crime writer. She was a journalist and news anchor and spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway's Minister for Justice in 1996 and 1997. Her first novel was published in 1993 and her books have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold more than 7 million copies. Her novel 1222 was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. She lives in Oslo with her family.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in Edgar-finalist Holt's outstanding ninth Hanne Wilhelmsen novel (after 2016's Beyond the Truth), Billy T., Hanne's old friend and police partner, visits Hanne, who was shot in the spine in the line of duty and is now gingerly returning to police work, at her Oslo apartment. As Billy T. is telling Hanne about his troubled and alienated son, Linus, they hear a nearby explosion. A bomb has shattered the office of the National Council for Islam in Norway, a moderate Islamic group, killing 23 people. In the wake of this tragedy, there is an outbreak of flaming anti-Islamic rhetoric from Norway's right-wing Progress Party and hate-filled radical Islamic videos claiming responsibility for the bombing. Billy T. laboriously traces Linus's apparent flirtation with radical Islam, while Hanne and an oddball detective, Henrik Holme, probe a cold homicide case with ties to young Pakistani immigrants. On the personal side, Hanne faces potential conflict with her partner, Nefis, a Turkish Muslim who's now nominally an atheist but whose faith is still intact "deep inside." Holt sheds a vital humane light on one of today's most lethal social problems. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
This is the ninth and penultimate installment of the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. Many fans may have feared that Hanne was dead at the end of Beyond the Truth (2016), but she did survive the shooting and is confined to a wheelchair. Note that the series was not translated in chronological order, so those who had read 1222 (2011) were already aware of this fact. Eleven years have gone by, and the indomitable Hanne has no sooner agreed to serve as a special adviser on cold cases for the police when there is a major attack on the Islamic Cooperation Council's headquarters in Oslo. The mystery unfolds within a realistic portrayal of Europe's burgeoning immigrant population and the violent extremism on both sides this phenomenon has engendered. One key recurring character is sacrificed in this book, but a fascinating new character in the person of Hanne's new assistant, Henrik Holme, is added. Readers will want to read more about him. Jo Nesbø calls Anne Holt the godmother of Norwegian crime fiction. She has been writing three series concurrently since 1993.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2017 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Eleven years after she's sidelined from the Oslo police department by a bullet to the back, retired DI Hanne Wilhelmsen rejoins her old friend Billy T. to root out a particularly virulent cell of terrorists.Considering how long she's been in a wheelchair, Hanne (1222, 2012, etc.), who still consults with the police, is suddenly suspiciously popular. Officer Henrik Holme seeks her help in a cold case: the 1996 disappearance of teenager Karina Knoph. Closer to home, Billy T. wants to know why his son Linus has been acting so strangely remote lately. Ever since the bombing of the offices of the National Council of Islam in Norway killed 23 people, Billy T.'s been worried that Linus might have gotten in with the wrong crowd. But although Linus makes no secret of his hatred and contempt for the father who sired him along with five siblings scattered among five different mothers, he assures him so passionately that he'd never have anything to do with Islamists that Billy T. has to believe him. As talking heads on Norwegian TV solemnly weigh in on the problems of immigration and nativism, police discover the corpse of Abdullah Hassan, the best friend of missing suspected bomber Mohammad Awad, poisoned and dismembered, and learn that over 100 pounds of C4 has gone missing from the army's stockpile. Billy T. works himself into a frenzy over his son; Deputy Chief of Police Hkon Sand goes toe-to-toe with his brazenly unapologetic childhood friend Lt. Col. Gustav Gulliksen over the missing explosives; but it's young Henrik Holme who'll carry off the honors for detective work. Pray that his labors, and everyone else's, are enough to do the job. A prophetic counterterrorist procedural whose bold central conceit is likely to grow more depressingly plausible with every passing week. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Odd Numbers CHAPTER ONE A racing pigeon flew over Oslo. His owner called him the Colonel because of the three star-shaped marks on his chest. He was a small, squat bird, almost twelve years old. Age and experience had made him confident, but also extremely cautious. He flew low to avoid birds of prey. Watchful, he darted through the air, swooping in from the fjord between the city hall towers, before veering slightly to the east. A high-rise block was covered in scaffolding and tarpaulins. The Colonel prepared to land. He had flown a great distance. Homesickness gnawed within his broad gray chest, with its insignia so distinct and beautiful that at the time he had been bought as a fledgling, he had cost his owner more than his pedigree alone would merit. His parents were ordinary working stock. Tender care and great expectations had nevertheless made a racer of the Colonel, and this was one of Northern Europe's most prizewinning racing pigeons, now perched on top of the tower block that had been destroyed one July day less than three years earlier. The Colonel wanted to go home. He was eager to reach Ingelill, his mate of more than ten years. He longed to hear his owner's whistle at feeding time and the soothing cooing of the other pigeons. The old, sharp-eyed gray bird felt drawn to the pigeon loft in the orchard and the nesting box where Ingelill was waiting. He knew exactly where he was headed. It was not far now--only a few minutes if he took to his wings and soared. High above, between the Colonel and the cold April sun, a bird of prey was hovering. It was still so young that now and then it migrated from the forests north of the city to feast on lethargic collared doves in city-center parks. It caught sight of the Colonel at the very moment the gray veteran softly shook its wings and plucked its plumage in preparation for takeoff. The hawk pounced. An emaciated man was standing below, outside the cordon around the half-dead building, using his hand to shade his eyes. A hawk, he noticed. A sparrow hawk, he felt certain, even though this was a rare sight here in the city center. The man lingered. The sparrow hawk, with its shorter, powerful wings, did not normally hunt like this. It depended on hilly terrain to conceal itself: the sparrow hawk was a stealthy killer rather than a fighter pilot. Now the bird swooped quickly and suddenly, homing in on something the man could not see. As he stood there, still with his hand held level above his eyes, he was aware of his own rank body odor stinging his nostrils. He had not washed in more than a week. It still embarrassed him to be so unclean, even after all these years scuttling between drunkenness and night shelters and the Church City Mission. It must be a pigeon the hawk had caught, he decided as a little cloud of gray feathers descended from the edge of the roof high above him. Skoa liked pigeons. They were sociable birds, especially in summer when he chose to sleep outdoors in the main. He dropped his arm and began to walk. A good way to die, he thought, as he shuffled off in the direction of Karl Johans gate with his hands deep inside his pockets. One minute you're enjoying the view, the next you're somebody's lunch. When all was said and done, Lars Johan Austad wished he had suffered the same fate. Shivering in the April chill as he reached the shadow cast by the Ministry of Finance building, he realized it was time to find something to eat. It was midday and he could hear the clock strike at city hall. A brass bell tinkled. "Come on, Colonel! Peeep!" His whistling made the other pigeons coo restlessly. It was now approaching evening, and feeding time had finished some time ago. "Colonel! Peeeeep!" "I think you'll have to give that up for today." A slender woman arrived along the flagstones, picking her way between the patchy remnants of snow that still lay in dirty brown heaps across the lawn that led down to the pigeon loft. "Colonel!" the man repeated, whistling once more, before ringing the little bell. The woman slid her arm carefully around his shoulders. "Come on now, Gunnar. The Colonel will find his way without you having to attract him, as you well know." "He should have been here by now," the man complained, rocking stiffly from one foot to the other. "The Colonel should have been here hours ago." "He's just been delayed," the middle-aged woman comforted him. "You'll see, he'll be back here in his box when you wake tomorrow. With Ingelill. The Colonel would never let his little Ingelill down, you know that. Come on now. I've made some tea. And scones. The nice ones that you like best." "Don't want to, Mom. Don't want to." Smiling, she pretended not to hear him. Grasping his hand discreetly, she drew him up toward the house. He accompanied her with some reluctance. "It's your birthday tomorrow," the woman said. "Thirty-five years old. Where has the time gone, Gunnar?" "The Colonel," the man whimpered. "Something must have happened to him." "Not at all. Come on now. I've baked a cake. Tomorrow you can help me to decorate the cake. With cream and strawberries and candles." "The Colonel--" "Where has the time gone?" she repeated, mostly to herself, as she opened the back door and pushed her son into the warmth. Excerpted from Odd Numbers by Anne Holt All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.