Without a Clue

It had been love at first sight when Sonja Dahlberg and Viktor Bj rnsen met in Norway. But two days after they married in 1940, German forces swept into the country and occupied their town. He was a local police officer, forced to cooperate with the invaders. When the war and the occupation ended, they decided to leave the horrible events behind and get a new start in America.

The story opens ten years later, in 1955, on the farm they had hacked from the dense forest on an island in Puget Sound near Seattle. Sonja is nervously picking up the telephone to call the sheriff. Viktor is missing. He has vanished without leaving the slightest clue.

At first, the investigator doesn't take it seriously. He assumes Viktor has simply abandoned his wife. But as he digs deeper, the trail leads back to Norway and some nightmarish events during the Nazi occupation and the Norwegian resistance movement.

David Perry Snelling is the author of mysteries, family sagas and historical fiction, all mixed with suspense and a large dose of intrigue. His novels typically feature strong female lead characters who drive the stories.

A career journalist, he worked on three metropolitan newspapers on the west coast as a reporter, copy editor, copy desk supervisor, wire editor and technology editor. As a reporter, he specialized in politics, including assignments covering presidents, cabinet officers, governors and visiting heads of state. He received awards from the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Press Club.

His new novel Without a Clue is a mystery based on events ten years after the German occupation of Norway during World War II. A former Norwegian policeman and his wife moved to Puget Sound near Seattle. The story opens when she reports him missing in 1955. He has vanished without the slightest trace. The investigation reveals some surprising twists and turns both in Norway and America.

Born in Chicago and raised in the Los Angeles suburbs, the author graduated from Long Beach State after a year as editor-in-chief of the campus daily newspaper. He earned a degree in journalism and minored in history. He has traveled extensively in Europe and Australia. He and his wife resided for a time in Geneva, Switzerland. He splits his time between homes near San Diego and north of Seattle.