Authors: Jens Amundsen

Tags: #Crime, #Police Procedural, #Mystery, #Thriller, #Suspense

Sohlberg and the Gift

SOHLBERG AND THE GIFT:

AN INSPECTOR SOHLBERG MYSTERY

JENS AMUNDSEN

Published simultaneously in the USA and Norway.

Although inspired by real events, this book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any living person is purely coincidental except that specific references to real institutions and people (such as the late Ottis Toole and the serial killer known as
The Falconer
) are for historical purposes only.

SOHLBERG AND THE GIFT: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery.

A Vik Crime/Blue Salamander Edition 2012

Published in the United States by special arrangement of Nynorsk Forlag [Trondheim, Norway] with Nynorsk Forlag-USA/Blue Salamander [Seattle, WA].

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taking, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

An electronic format of this book has been specially priced to introduce readers to the best of Nordic literature dealing with crime, the criminal mind, the criminal justice system, and Scandinavian society.

FIRST U.S. EDITION.

Author and book information:

www.deadlybooks.com

www.jensamundsen.blogspot.com

Publisher information:

www.nynorskforlag.blogspot.com

Please send publisher and author inquiries to: [email protected]

Printed and Manufactured in the United States of America

Also by Jens Amundsen

[
Inspector Sohlberg series
]

Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy

White Death in Tromsø

Lost in Bergen

Skull Valley

The Trondheim Choir

ADVANCE REVIEWS FOR THE

INSPECTOR SOHLBERG SERIES

BY JENS AMUNDSEN

Inspector Sohlberg crime novels are thoroughly enjoyable police procedurals because they are suspenseful and realistic. Like John Le Carré, who captures the essence of spying, Jens Amundsen captures the essence of criminal investigations by police detectives. He also paints an honest and unvarnished portrait of Scandinavian society that is troubling because it will remind readers of their own countries.

— Alan Meade (U.S.A.)

Part murder mystery, part psychological novel Jens Amundsen’s novels deliver a unique voice that takes Nordic Noir to a higher level. What could be better than a juicy
and
thoughtful detective novel?

— Elise Palme (Sweden)

This fascinating homicide detective is brought to life by an accomplished author who’s no stranger to crime, criminals, homicide investigations, and the justice system.

— Lars Ødegård (Norway)

Compelling detective stories without page-filling fluff . . . language stripped to its bare essentials . . . real-life dialogue . . . each novel a psychological tour de force . . . Cormac McCarthy’s
No Country for Old Men
meets Georges Simenon’s
Inspector Maigret
meets Jim Thompson’s
The Killer Inside Me
.

— Tim Hughes (U.S.A.)

Jens Amundsen’s crime novels are a compendium of the human condition . . . dealing with the difficult but important issues of life and death.

— Tatiana Defforey (Great Britain)

To his credit, Amundsen writes in a unique and captivating style that requires more than a 3rd grade reading level. I appreciate Amundsen and other authors who don’t dilute police procedurals with irrelevant literary devices, such as “character development”. Who would want Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe to develop? For Heaven’s sake, police procedurals are a sub-genre of
crime
and
suspense
novels. If you want artsy literary fiction, then get thee to Austen, Brontë, Cheever, Flaubert, Franzen, Hemingway, or Turgenev.

— Elizabeth Brennan (U.S.A.)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sohlberg and the Gift
is about murder and the worst of betrayals.

It’s Christmas and Inspector Harald Sohlberg risks losing his recent promotion to Chief Inspector of the Oslo politidistrikt. Why? Because of a recent visit from a mysterious female—Astrid Isaksen. Her visit triggers a chain reaction of events that exposes the worst of betrayals. Because the greatest betrayal is from those closest to you.

Chief Inspector Sohlberg breaks into sealed court files. He sneaks into an insane asylum under false pretenses and likewise trespasses into the high-security mountain fortress holding the National Archives of the Norwegian government. He intervenes in another detective’s “open-and-shut” case.

The level-headed Sohlberg violates department protocol for his young visitor. Could the happily married detective be cheating on his wife? Even the straight arrow can bend or break.

C.I. Sohlberg puts himself at risk of getting disciplined or fired. Has he been duped into playing the part of an unsuspecting pawn? Regardless, he must take the blame and the inevitable fall from grace if he gets caught.

It’s Christmas: a season of hope and redemption and gift-buying and parties and vacations. It’s certainly not the best time for Chief Inspector Sohlberg to investigate a homicide case that is full of dead ends and not even his to investigate. After all, the case is considered “closed” and “over and done with” at the highest levels of the Norwegian Police Service.

ABOUT THE HARALD SOHLBERG MYSTERY SERIES

The Inspector Sohlberg crime novels by Jens Amundsen join Scandinavia’s best crime detective series, including the
Inspector Wallander
series by Henning Mankell,
Inspector Sejer
series by Karin Fossum,
Inspector Gunnarstranda
series by K. O. Dahl,
Detective Harry Hole
series by Jo Nesbø, and
Girl With
Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.

Jens Amundsen’s publisher, Nynorsk Forlag, is pleased to present his novels on Chief Inspector Harald Sohlberg. The Sohlberg novels masterfully blend the psychological novel into the crime, suspense, thriller, and detective genre.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife who courageously stood up to her own family’s awful betrayals.

This book is also dedicated to Torbjørn Aas, Benedicte Bjørnland, Håvard Gåsbakk, Geir Gudmundsen, Guttorm Hagen, Ellen Katrine Hætta, Jon Steven Hasseldal, Brian Jacobsen, Odd Tveit Jørgensen, Dag Rune Omland, Anne Rygh Pedersen, Hanne Kristin Rohde, Kaare Songstad, and other honorable members of Norway’s Police Service who pursue justice in the most difficult of circumstances.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The police officers listed above have not provided any of the information mentioned in this book. Information about criminal cases and law firms and the PST (Norway’s FBI) have been provided by other sources.

The political party mentioned in the book could just as well have been any other liberal or conservative party in any country.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Sohlberg and the Gift
came off the press in 2005 as a limited edition publication with extensive original artwork by the author. The book was more of a graphic novel and a “prequel” to the
Inspector Sohlberg
series. It was not until 2011 that our editors began to prepare the newly re-written and expanded edition for publication as a text-only crime novel.

The first edition of
Sohlberg and the Gift
was written six years before Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant shooting and bomb rampage of July 2011. We are pleased to present a book that takes an unflinching look at how easily judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers manipulate insanity pleas in criminal trials. The author also tackles head-on the issue of immigrants and radical Islam, which divide Norway and other countries.