Bitter Flowers – Gunnar Staalesen
Fresh from rehab, Norwegian PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues…
PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when a challenging assignment arrives on his desk.
A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Varg Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found.
As the threads of these apparently unrelated crimes come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Varg Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.
I am grateful to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host a leg of the Bitter Flowers tour. I was provided with a review copy of the book but I read a purchased copy.
Bitter Flowers takes us back to Bergen for another meet up with Private Investigator, Varg Veum. I have now read quite a few of the stories in this series and enjoy Veum’s understated but dogged determination. He he is a sleuth that grinds out results rather than dashing from scene to scene so the cases he investigates feel smarter and multi layered forcing Veum to dig deep and uncover information to progress his case.
In Bitter Flowers we join the story as Varg is being taken to his new job by his physiotherapist. He has been in recovery and slowly returning to full health, the alcohol he had been reliant upon is out of his systems and he wants to keep it that way.
His new role is to run a security check on a luxurious residential property and make the house seem occupied while the owners are in Spain. His physiotherapist has found him this post and she is taking him to the property for the first time. Veum also feels she may be flirting with him, they have been close during his rehab but she made it clear she had a boyfriend.
On arrival, while Veum looks around the large house, he has the feeling they are not alone in the property. Veum isn’t wrong – a body is floating in the indoor swimming pool. He hauls him out but by the time he is out of the water his physiotherapist is gone and a man has called the police. Who made the call? Where did his friend go?
His pursuit of answers leads Veum into the heart of an environmental dispute. The family that own a plant which produces toxic waste are central to his investigation but the family have their own problems, campaigners are mounting angry protests at the chemicals escaping from their factory.
In another surprise twist there also seems to be a connection to a famous cold case. A young child disappeared from her family home in 1979. Over seven years later (this story is set in the late 1980s) the girl has never been found. Now Veum finds himself chatting to her (divorced) parents and is uncovering new evidence.
His interest in multiple cases draws unwelcome attention though and he may not realise it but Veum is putting a target on his back.
Bitter Flowers felt the most accessible of Gunnar Staalesen’s books and I flew through this story in just two days. Translation thanks to Don Bartlett – the hand behind the previous Varg Veum books I have read – who has delivered another beauty with some devastating moments of poetic tragedy.
Lots to love in this series and I think this is my favourite so far.
Bitter Flowers is published by Orenda Books and is available in digital, paperback and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B099P8KXZ6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
