Easter is mystery book time in Norway. It’s been speculated that it all started because people went off to do skiing in the mountains, and they needed some light reading for the evenings (or when they were snowed in), but I guess it’s just One Of Those Things: A thing happens randomly, and then it gets attention, and before you know it, it’s a national holiday.
But this is one of those sacred traditions I adhere to, so I’m reading mysteries this week.
This is an old book by Anne Holt, who was the minister of justice for like a couple of months a few decades back. (Or something.) This is a very appropriate book — it takes place at a snowed-in hotel in the mountains, and then a couple of priests are killed! Who could it be!
I like Holt’s books, but this is pretty annoying. The only way she drives the plot forward here and maintains tension is by having everybody be interrupted all the time. So someone will come up to the protagonist and say “I know who killed that priest! It’s… it’s… Oh I gotta go!” OK, there’s one other trick she uses: Vagueness. A guy will come up to her and go “You know that guy? Well, he and I… Oh, I gotta go!”
So it’s really, really bad, and I guessed who the killer was halfway through (there was really only one candidate), but still: It’s pretty entertaining? It’s corny as hell, but it’s fine.
1222 (2007) by Anne Holt (3.35 on Goodreads)