Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery (Inspector Sohlberg Mysteries)

BOOK: Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery (Inspector Sohlberg Mysteries)
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SOHLBERG AND THE MISSING SCHOOLBOY:

 

 

AN INSPECTOR SOHLBERG MYSTERY

 

 

by

 

 

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 Norway’s serial predator
Lommemannen
The Pocket Man) are for historical purposes only.

 

 

SOHLBERG AND THE MISSING SCHOOLBOY: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery.

 

 

A Vik Crime/Blue Salamander Edition 2012

 

 

New translation with added material by the author.

 

 

Published in the United States by special arrangement of Nynorsk Forlag [Trondheim, Norway] with Nynorsk Forlag-USA/Blue Salamander [Seattle, WA]. Originally published as
Death on Pilot Hill
by Nynorsk Forlag in 2011.

 

 

 

SOHLBERG AND THE MISSING SCHOOLBOY. Copyright (c) 2012 by Nynorsk Forlag.

 

 

Translation copyright (c) 2012 by Nynorsk Forlag.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

FIRST U.S. EDITION

 

 

Author information:

 

www.deadlybooks.com

 

www.jensamundsen.blogspot.com

 

 

Book information:

 

www.deadlybooks.com

 

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
]

 

 

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.)

 

 

DEDICATION

 

 

This book is dedicated to Kyron Horman and all the other missing and exploited children who must be found and protected or given a full measure of justice.

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

 

 

Chief Inspector Harald Sohlberg returns to the Oslo police district where his career started and almost ended in disgrace and scandal.

 

 

Although he is experienced with hardened and heartless criminals, C.I. Harald Sohlberg has never met as devious and brilliant a criminal mind as when he is called to investigate an unsolved case in Holmenkollen, one of Oslo’s sleepy and boring suburbs.

 

 

C.I. Sohlberg meets his match amid the beautiful homes and gardens of Oslo’s well-to-do professional class. An elementary school—Grindbakken Skole, Pilot Hill School—becomes Ground Zero for the most shocking and unforgettable of crimes.

 

 

Confronted with his own difficult and controversial past, Sohlberg must now find a missing 7-year-old boy who vanished while he was inside his school, surrounded by classmates, teachers, and parents at a science fair. The case brings back memories of Norway’s worst serial predator,
Lommemannen
The Pocket Man, and his predecessor, The Smiley Face Killer.

 

 

Chief Inspector Sohlberg has spent decades investigating Norway’s most devious criminals as a Police Chief Inspector in Oslo. Sohlberg has also hunted some of world’s most violent and ruthless criminals as an adviser to Interpol. Years of working abroad for Interpol have made him a stranger to his own country and people. Rumors of his wife joining a religious cult in America certainly don’t help.

 

 

The Harold Sohlberg crime novel series by Jens Amundsen joins Norway’s best crime detective series, including the
Inspector Konrad Sejer
series by Karin Fossum, the
Inspector Gunnarstranda
series by K. O. Dahl, and the
Detective Harry Hole
series by Jo Nesbø.

 

 

Dark undercurrents of Norwegian and modern society pull this classic of Nordic noir into new and uncharted waters that are as terrifying as they are thrilling. It’s time to enjoy
Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy
, the debut novel of Jens Amundsen. His novels on Chief Inspector Harald Sohlberg masterfully blend the psychological novel into the crime, suspense, thriller, and detective genre.

 

 

Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy
introduces the characters and situations that explode in
White Death in Tromsø
, the sequel to
Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy
.

 

 

This book includes the first chapter of
White Death in Tromsø
.

 

 

 

 

PART ONE: DEAD END

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1/Én
MORNING OF THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2/To
AFTER THE SCIENCE FAIR,
FRIDAY JUNE 4 AND SATURDAY JUNE 5

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3/Tre
SEPTEMBER 4, OR THREE MONTHS
AFTER THE DAY JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4/Fire
MIDSUMMER’S EVE, OR
THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR, OR
1 YEAR AND 19 DAYS AFTER THE DAY,
FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5/Fem
1 YEAR AND 22 DAYS AFTER
THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6/Seks
1 YEAR AND 23 DAYS AFTER
THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

PART TWO: THE INVESTIGATION

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7/Syv
MORNING OF 1 YEAR AND 24 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8/Åtte
AFTERNOON OF 1 YEAR AND 24 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9/Ni
HALDEN PRISON, AFTERNOON OF 1 YEAR AND
24 DAYS AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

PART THREE: DOORS OF PERCEPTION

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 10/Ti
MORNING OF 1 YEAR AND 25 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11/Elleve
AFTERNOON OF 1 YEAR AND 25 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12/Tolv
INTERROGATION OF GUNNAR HAUGEN,
AFTERNOON OF 1 YEAR AND 25 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 13/Tretten
INVESTIGATION FOLLOW-UP,
EVENING OF 1 YEAR AND 25 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4

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