Where Roses Never Die

by Gunnar Staalesen, Don Bartlett (Translator)

Overview

The 25-year-old case of a missing girl sees Varg Veum dig deep into the past to find her kidnapper, as the secrets and lies of a tiny community threaten everything … Gunnar Staalesen’s award-winning, international bestselling Varg Veum series continues in this chilling Nordic Noir thriller.

***WINNER of the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year***

'Mature and captivating’ Herald Scotland

‘One of the finest Nordic novelists – in the tradition of Henning Mankell’ Barry Forshaw, Independent

‘Masterful pacing’ Publishers Weekly

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September 1977. Mette Misvær, a three-year-old girl disappears without trace from the sandpit outside her home. Her tiny, close middle-class community in the tranquil suburb of Nordas is devastated, but their enquiries and the police produce nothing. Curtains twitch, suspicions are raised, but Mette is never found.

Almost 25 years later, as the expiry date for the statute of limitations draws near, Mette’s mother approaches PI Varg Veum, in a last, desperate attempt to find out what happened to her daughter. As Veum starts to dig, he uncovers an intricate web of secrets, lies and shocking events that have been methodically concealed. When another brutal incident takes place, a pattern begins to emerge…

Shocking, unsettling and full of extraordinary twists and turns, Where Roses Never Die reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers.

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Praise for Gunnar Staalesen

'There is a world-weary existential sadness that hangs over his central detective. The prose is stripped back and simple … deep emotion bubbling under the surface – the real turmoil of the characters’ lives just under the surface for the reader to intuit, rather than have it spelled out for them’ Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue

‘Gunnar Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors. Operating out of Bergen in Norway, his private eye, Varg Veum, is a complex but engaging anti-hero. Varg means “wolf ” in Norwegian, and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin

‘Staalesen continually reminds us he is one of the finest of Nordic novelists’ Financial Times

‘Staalesen does a masterful job of exposing the worst of Norwegian society in this highly disturbing entry’ Publishers Weekly

'The Varg Veum series is more concerned with character and motivation than spectacle, and it’s in the quieter scenes that the real drama lies’ Herald Scotland

'Every inch the equal of his Nordic confreres Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo' Independent

‘With an expositional style that is all but invisible, Staalesen masterfully compels us from the first pages … If you’re a fan of Varg Veum, this is not to be missed, and if you’re new to the series, this is one of the best ones. You’re encouraged to jump right in, even if the Norwegian names can be a bit confusing to follow’ Crime Fiction Lover

‘With short, smart, darkly punchy chapters Wolves at the Door is a provocative and gripping read’ LoveReading

‘Haunting, dark and totally noir, a great read’ New Books Magazine

‘An upmarket Philip Marlowe’ Maxim Jakubowski, The Bookseller

‘Razor-edged Scandinavian crime fiction at its finest’ Quentin Bates

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910633090
Publisher:	Orenda Books
Publication date:	08/15/2016
Series:	Varg Veum Series , #18
Pages:	285
Sales rank:	530,459
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty-three titles, which have been published in twenty-six countries and sold over five million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim, and a further series is currently being filmed. Staalesen, who has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour) and the Petrona Award, and been shortlisted for the CWA Dagger, lives in Bergen with his wife.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/01/2016
While many current Scandinavian mystery authors produce procedurals featuring world-weary and emotionally disturbed police detectives, Staalesen follows the hard-boiled PI tradition, as shown by the stunning 18th entry in his series starring Varg Veum (after 2015’s We Shall Inherit the Wind). In 1977, three-year-old Mette Misvaer went missing from her home in a suburb of Bergen, Norway. Nearly 25 years later, as the statute of limitations approaches, Mette’s desperate mother asks Veum to see whether he can figure out what happened to her daughter. Veum, a former child-welfare officer, relentlessly tracks down clues, which oddly connect Mette’s disappearance to a jewelry store robbery in 2001. Meanwhile, Veum, who’s in his late 50s, battles incipient alcoholism and guilt over the loss of his lover, Karin, who has been dead three years. Having always felt that harming a child is the worst of crimes, Veum pursues what may be his most important case, one that proves the wry comment of his old adversary, Inspector Muus: “You never know what lurks behind closed doors.” Agent: Anne Catherine Eng, Gyldendal Agency (Norway). (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A Norwegian Chandler."  —Jo Nesbo, author, The Bat



"Gunnar Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors. Operating out of Bergen in Norway, his private eye, Varg Veum, is a complex but engaging anti-hero. Varg means 'wolf' in Norwegian, and this is a series with very sharp teeth."  —Ian Rankin, author, Resurrection Men


"Stunning."—Publishers Weekly 


"A thoughtful book that probes what it is to be an adult in a close community." —Kingdom Books Blog 


“Chilling, shocking and full of extraordinary twists and turns by a master of the crime thriller genre." —Midwest Book Review 

From the Publisher