Requiem

Pedestrian prose and overly familiar situations undercut this twisted tale of revenge, the first novel from Tangen, a Norwegian crime book blogger. In 2014, jaded journalist Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson (an Icelander working for the Haugesund, Norway, newspaper) receives a series of emails describing murders that copycat lurid scenes in well-known Nordic crime novels. Viljar helps Chief Insp. Lotte Skeisvoll, who has the requisite family problem to distract her (a sister with a drinking problem), investigate the serial killings, with mostly unwanted contributions from grouchy, old-fashioned Kripos detective Olav Scheldrup Hansen. The main narrative alternates with short, creepy peeks into the psychopathic killer’s warped brain and excerpts of the four-year-old backstory of Viljar’s big scoop and a bad mistake that caused his fall from journalistic fame and his consequent psychological deterioration. Scandinavian noir fans have seen all of this before. [em](July) [/em]