Police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm join forces to track down a serial killer with a thirst for attention and high-profile murders, in the first episode of a gripping new Nordic Noir series…

Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number ‘one’ has been pinned to the TV.

Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missing-persons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be carefully calculated … evidence of a bigger picture that he’s just not seeing…

Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop a merciless killer with a flare for the dramatic, and thirst for attention.
Trouble is, he’s just got his first taste of it…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for a review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the opportunity to join the Death Deserved blog tour.

To borrow a line from Taffy in the Captain Caveman cartoons….Zowie!  Death Deserved is more than a little bit good.

As soon I started reading Death Deserved it was the only book I wanted to be reading this week.  I normally juggle three or four titles at once but Death Deserved was the book I kept coming back to – nothing else got a look-in.  I make no secret of the fact I enjoy serial killer stories and that’s very much what I got from Death Deserved, even if that may not have been clear from the start.

Sonja Nordstrøm was due to publish a book.  As she reached her 50th year she wanted to lift the lid on a few secrets and scandals which she experienced or encountered during her highly successful athletics career.  But on publication day she failed to show for an interview, most untypical behaviour for Sonja. She is nowhere to be found and when celeb journalist Emma Ramm arrives at her home to try to speak with Sonja she finds evidence of a struggle.  The police are called and this brings Emma into contact with Alexander Blix.

Unbeknownst to Emma, Blix has previously encountered her family and that encounter changed the path of Emma’s life.  Although she is unaware, Blix recognises her name instantly and decides he will offer her stories and tips from inside the resulting investigation. The leads Blix feed Emma gives her the opportunity to work outside celebrity stories and interact with the crime reporters.  Sonja Nordstrøm’s kidnapping is very much the starting point of a fast paced and high intensity investigation which will see several celebrities meet a nasty end. It puts the police on a manhunt and we follow the investigation as they try to figure out the motive (and next victim) of a killer.  Emma contributes to this too as her background seems to give her a different focus on how to view the unfolding events and the insights she can offer become a benefit to Blix.

I really don’t want to reveal too much of the actual plot but at the same time I want to rave about how good this story was and how much I enjoyed it.  The best dilemma to be honest.  When I want to reveal and discuss everything I loved about the book it means the book got under my skin and into my head. I want to put copies of Death Deserved into the hands of my friends and implore them to read it and then hope that they enjoy it just as much as I did (which I am sure they will).  It’s a who-dunnit, a fast paced police procedural, it has great characters and the lead players are given time to grow and develop between the many twists and shocks the authors have sneaked into the chapters. So much fun to read and wonderfully executed (no murderous puns intended).

The story has been translated from Norwegian by Anne Bruce and she has done a magnificent job, the prose flows seamlessly the whole book was very readable. Some translated texts I encounter feel laboured, jarring or the dialogue stilted but none of these issues could be raised about Death Deserved.  Indeed, it was not until I read the author acknowledgements at the end of the book that I remembered that I was reading a translated novel.  Oh and the acknowledgments are fabulous – do not skip them!

Death Deserved was devoured in very short time.  I loved the Blix/Ramm dynamic and I sincerely hope the authors feel it is worth revisiting.  Soon would be good guys!  Sooner if possible?

Death Deserved 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/B07XBW6SFN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0