The Serbian Dane

First published in 1996, Davidsen’s taut, disciplined thriller pits professional assassin Vuk, a Serbian raised in Denmark, against Det. Insp. Per Toftlund. Toftlund is charged with protecting Iranian dissident author Sara Santanda while she’s visiting Copenhagen. Sara has a $4 million price on her head after a fatwa is issued against her in her home country. Meanwhile, tough cop Toftlund falls hard for Lise Carlsen, the married arts reporter for a liberal newspaper. As the chair of Danish PEN, Carlsen seeks maximum publicity for Santanda while watching her marriage disintegrate. Davidsen skewers Denmark’s double-dealing politicians in his dissection of the Balkan ethnic cleansing that created the nightmare-obsessed (but eerily appealing) Vuk, who hopes killing Santanda will be his last assignment in the schizoid post–Cold War world. The author suggests that this appears to be about as likely as Denmark’s chances of repairing the cracks in its vaunted welfare state that some feel have come with immigration. (Jan.)