My Review of Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl (translated by Don Bartlett)

In Sister, Kjell Ola Dahl has come up with a wonderful slow burner of a novel. Former police detective Frank Frolich is now attempting to earn his living as a private investigator and is hired to find a missing woman, the sister of a refugee. Whilst he has little hope of success he makes a concerted effort and ends up being hired on the same case but from a different perspective which ends with another hire on another case and so on ... It's all perfectly plausible and allows events and cases to interweave and gradually become more complicated, and dangerous to Frank.

It's assuredly written and has a real sense of understatement that allows the reader to relax and know that they are in the hands of a master of their craft.

The characters are realistic and easy to invest emotionally in; the subject matter of immigration and a botched police enquiry into a ferry disaster resonate with similar situations in the UK. Dahl makes pertinent social comments as to the plight of refugees and how they are treated which forces the reader to confront our own government's policy towards foreigners and perhaps, for some, their own attitude towards ignoring what happens to refugees to assuage the guilt of impotence. Those of us old enough to remember the Marchioness disaster can't help but think of their families either. Dahl, however, never lectures the reader and never lets social comment come at the expense of a cracking read.

I loved this novel and would heartily recommend it.

Thanks to Anne Cater and Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books for inviting me onto this tour.