Hell Is Open

Sixteen years ago, rookie cop Tommy Bergmann was on the scene when a teenage girl’s mutilated body was discovered in the woods. Schoolteacher Anders Rask confessed to the murder, along with five others. He was sentenced to live out his days in a mental institution outside of Oslo, and the case appeared closed. That is, until now…

Amid a brutal Norwegian winter, now-detective Bergmann is called to the scene of the assault of a young Lithuanian prostitute. Her injuries bear a shocking resemblance to those of Rask’s victims. Tommy cannot ignore the unsettling questions this crime raises: Is Rask involved or, worse, inspiring a copycat? Or is the real serial killer still out there, roaming the shadowy, frigid streets of Oslo, poised to commit another murder?

Faced with the new attack and Rask’s recently recanted confession, Tommy is forced to reopen the old case that still haunts him and confront the demons of his own grim and complicated history. As he works to untangle the complex web of connections between the past and present, his closed case just might become a cold case—with a truth more chilling than he could have imagined.

Gard Sveen is an award-winning crime novelist who divides his time between writing and working as a senior adviser to the Norwegian Ministry of Defense. The Last Pilgrim, his debut novel, was originally published as Den siste pilgrimen in Norway and is the first in the series featuring troubled police detective Tommy Bergmann.

The novel was an instant hit with critics and readers, and it went on to win the Riverton Prize in 2013, the prestigious Glass Key in 2014, and the Maurits Hansen Award, also in 2014. Sveen is the only author to date who has received all three honors for a first novel. The only other author who has managed to win both a Riverton and a Glass Key for their debut novel is Jo Nesbø.

Sveen is currently working on his third book in the Tommy Bergmann Series.