Smoke Screen – Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger
Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion, and the city is put on terrorist alert.
Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Smeplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier … and never found.
Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…
My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Smoke Screen Tour. I am reading a purchased copy.
Book two in the Blix and Ramm series. Last year the duo were introduced in the brilliant Death Deserved which I really enjoyed. Smoke Screen had been on my watch list for a good while as there is nothing better than reuniting with characters you enjoy. No need to have read Death Deserved before starting on Smoke Screen (but it’s a great read and background is always good to know).
The two books felt different to read. My memory of Death Deserved was of a fast paced and constant peril read where Smoke Screen (despite an explosive opening) was more measured and methodical. This may sound like a negative comment but it really is not – I enjoyed both books immensely and a slower pace for Emma Ramm in Smoke Screen is very appropriate as she is shouldering a tragic burden in this story.
I mentioned the Explosive Start. On New Years Eve in Oslo a crowd had assembled in a city park to cheer in the New Year and watch the fireworks. A bomb has been placed in a waste bin within the park which detonated and killed several bystanders. The police and emergency services are put on full alert but Blix and Ramm were already near the scene.
One survivor of the blast was a former person of interest to the police, the mother of a kidnapped toddler. Around ten years earlier Patricia Smeplass had been abducted and was never found. Patricia’s mother was investigated as a potential suspect. She did not have full custody of her daughter at the time as her mental health and substance dependencies had been problematic. No evidence was found to suspect Patricia’s mother has been involved in her daughters kidnapping. However Blix is not convinced her presence at the scene of the explosion is coincidence and wants to dig further. The problem is the woman is critically ill in hospital and appears unlikely to recover consciousness.
A comprehensive investigation begins and readers are treated to a slick police procedural with a dogged journalist pursuing her own leads.
A second bomb explodes in another park but Blix is still determined to dig deeper into the kidnapping some ten years ago. He remains convinced the explanation behind the current incidents lies within the kidnapping story.
Smoke Screen spins the reader a tale rooted within tragedies. Secrets and lies left to fester will resurface with devastating consequences. There are threads of hope interwoven through the story too and the characters of both Blix and Ramm are given a chance to develop in this second outing.
The Horst/Enger partnership is looking mighty strong at this stage and the cherry on the cake is the post-novel “chat” between the pair which rounds off the reading. Joyous.
Smoke Screen is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DTHMGJS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
