Today I am super excited to be a stop on the Random Things Tours for the second book in Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger's fantastic Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm series, Smoke Screen!
Terrorism is everyone's first thought when an explosion rocks Norway on New Year's Eve. But when no group takes responsibility, Alexander Blix begins to wonder if there's another motive.
When it's revealed that one of the people injured is the mother of a girl who went missing almost ten years ago, Blix starts to suspect the two are connected.
Emma Ramm was there when the bomb went off. To deal with the fallout, she throws herself into work. And when she too learns the identity of the woman, she begins her own investigation.
As the police focus their efforts on finding the bomber, Blix and Ramm deviate and follow the leads connected to the missing person's case. But are the two actually connected or are Blix and Ramm allowing their own demons to distract them from the actual case at hand?
I am still finding an immense amount of relief from the real world with Nordic Noir these days! And it is still a guaranteed slump buster for me as well. Death Deserved, the first book in the Blix and Ramm series, was one of my absolute favorite books of 2020 and Smoke Screen proved itself to be a worthy successor and second outing!
I adore Blix and Ramm! They're an excellent team, though they're not a team in the traditional sense.
Blix is a cop through and through and has a soft spot for Ramm even though she's a journalist. And thanks to the events of book one, she's moved on from covering celebrity gossip to covering crime, in large part because of Blix's help.
Of course Blix has caught a lot of flack for that, which means he's a bit more careful in this second outing!
I was really lucky to have the time to "attend" the virtual launch earlier this week—the one good thing about our current situation really is the ability to attend events we otherwise would never be able to attend due to location! So I learned a little bit of background about the authors and this book. For example, the cold case that this book focuses on is based on a real missing person's case (not one I was familiar with before the interview).
Both Enger and Horst have written a number of solo projects but this is, as mentioned above, the second in their coauthored series. Enger was a journalist and Horst was an investigating officer for twenty years, which apparently kicked off the idea that their two lead characters would be an investigator and a journalist in this series!
A really cool aspect of the event is that they brought in the translator, Megan Turney, who talked about her own approach in translating. Smoke Screen was, according to the event, her first full length translation. I really must say, she's done a phenomenal job!
I really love this series and I cannot wait for book three to hit shelves next year. I'm also super excited that the authors announced there is a planned fourth book coming, too!
I highly, highly recommend these to anyone looking for a great new crime series to dive into! Trust me, you won't regret it :)
(Note, this one is out now in the UK. It's due out in the States June 1.)
1 comment:
Huge thanks for your blog tour support xx
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