The Writing on the Wall

＂A Norwegian Chandler＂ JO NESBO
＂In the best tradition of sleuthery＂ The Times
＂One of the finest Nordic novelists in the tradition of Henning Mankell＂ BARRY FORSHAW, Independent

Bergen, Norway. Teenaged girls, many from privileged backgrounds, are being drawn into drugs and prostitution at an astonishing rate. When the local magistrate is discovered dead in a luxury hotel, clad only in women’s lingerie, the mystery deepens.

Called in by anxious parents to search for a missing girl, private investigator Varg Veum uncovers clues that lead him deep into Bergen’s criminal underworld.

As Veum begins to lift the thin veneer of normality that hides a society on the brink of collapse, it becomes clear that this time he may not escape with his life.

Translated from the Norwegian by Hal Sutcliffe

Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the early age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence. In 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series, an upmarket Scandinavian Philip Marlowe in true whodunit tradition. The Varg Veum novels are immensely popular and have been translated into twelve languages. Two of these have been published in English, All Wolves are Grey (Quartet) and Yours, Until Death (Constable). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.