I thought that this is a really good Scandi noir read. There is enough complexity in the main character and a dark atmospheric setting and plot. I really liked the short chapters and the writing style. I would definitely read more about Thorkild Aske.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I;m afraid I found this book very hard going and the main character quickly comes across as very complexed and not particularly likeable. I thought it would improve but it didn't sadly. I love Scandi books but this one wasn't for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bloomsbury Publishing - Raven Books, for the ARC.
This is a dark and atmosphere-driven story of ex-Chief Inspector Thorkild Aske's search for missing 27yr-old Rasmus, believed drowned off the coast of Northern Norway.
Aske worked for Internal Affairs and during an investigation fell in love with Frei - the girlfriend of an officer under investigation. A car crash kills Frei and disfigures Aske, with him being imprisoned for driving under the influence of drugs. Following a failed suicide attempt in prison, he is now released with the support of Ulf Solstad (himself an ex-con), a psychiatrist who keeps Aske supplied with countless pills.
Frei's cousin Rasmus had been renovating an old lighthouse on a small island off the Northern coast; an accomplished diver, he has been missing for 5 days but one day ago the local police recovered his dive boat, finding no equipment, nor navigation system. They ruled it a diving accident. Through Ulf, Frei's uncle Arne insists Aske goes to the island and does all he can to bring Rasmus's body home - he owes it to the family.
The local police chief, Bendiks Bjorkang and his Sgt. Arnt Erikson know all about Aske's past when they meet, but accommodate him by showing him Rasmus's boat.
A local mussel farmer takes Aske out to the island in atrocious weather. The buildings are being renovated, there's new furnishings and equipment ready to be installed, there's Rasmus's sleeping bag and personal items in the bar area. But no Rasmus.
A body washes up to the shore - but it's not Rasmus.

With all the pills Aske takes, he has hallucinatory episodes where he convinces himself Frei returns to him. So - is he really sure he saw a body on the shore? Is he really sure he saw somebody else at the base of the lighthouse?

Well, as said, this story is extremely atmospheric. However - I did find it extremely confusing at times where surrealism, horror and insanity seemed to merge incomprehensibly and, in my view, completely unnecessarily.
Yes, it does have a mystery, a plot which only reveals itself at the end, but I felt at times the story went rather off-piste for my liking.

I was very excited to read this. Another Nordic Noir but this time it seemed even mroe chilling, more remote and more unsettling than ever. That cover for starters made me shiver. That lone boat, the rippling dark water and that title......brrrr

It didn't start well however. Central cop Thorkild Aske likes his drink and has troubles. He's also a drug user and during one of these sessions, he killed a woman and has been in prison. Tried to commit suicide and is hated by almost all of his colleagues. Still got his investigative bones in his body however and when he's asked to find a missing man, he set off to find him. The whole story starts off slow, but this is like a pot coming to the boil...all of a sudden.....

This case is not going to be easy as the police think that he's simply drowned but his mother is not that sure. He has to go to a very remote spot in Northern Norway to work on the case however. Stay in a lighthouse. Could this place be any creepier or isolated?

The investigator Thorkild Aske has a failed suicide attempt and three years in prison behind him. Drug-influenced he killed a woman and now he is hated and ejected by his colleagues. Ashes are persuaded to move to a lighthouse far up in Norway to help search for a lost young man, whom the police have written off as drowned, while the mother still believes that he is alive.

The story from this point on is not your normal Nordic Noir.  It's para ...normal. Sorry but it had to be done. There are battles with ghosts past and present and the feeling that there is a presence in this raw, wild place. The unforgiving landscape, the blustery cold weather, the remoteness, the claustrophobia and that dilapidated lighthouse. One small light in the dark...

There's lots to like here - ghosts, unreliable narrators, a creepy raw landscape and a blustering chilly wind to create the perfect mix for Nordic Noir