The Mean Streets

What Never Happens*

by Anne Holt

Grand Central Publishing

February 2008 (24.99)            

*Full Review first published in Mystery News (April-May 2008)                                  

What Never Happens is the second novel by Norwegian author Anne Holt to be published in the United States. Oslo police Detective Inspector Adam Stubo is stymied by a series of gruesome murders; the kind of ultra-violent, high-profile crimes that only happen – or should only happen – in America. First a talk show host is found strangled to death, her severed tongue posed delicately (and incongruously) in a beautifully constructed origami flower. Next a powerful young Norwegian politician is crucified in her bedroom with a copy of the Koran placed conspicuously and quite suggestively on her person. When an irascible literary critic is stabbed in the eye and killed, the pressure and the publicity really start to mount.

Weeks pass, Stubo and his partner, Sigmund Berli, have no leads, no suspects and no real prospects of uncovering either. It’s only when Stubo’s wife, Johanne Vik, who is at home caring for the couple’s newborn, takes an interest in the case that the police begin to catch a glimpse of a motive and a pattern. Vik, trained as an FBI profiler, recalls dimly a lecture she heard years earlier in Quantico, Virginia. Unbelievably, the murders currently taking place in Norway bear a striking resemblance to the cases that formed the basis for that instructional workshop from long ago. If Vik is correct, the next victims will be a police officer and his or her family!

What Never Happens is a brooding and intense crime novel. Deftly, complexly plotted, the characters are also drawn with great care and emotional depth. While the narrative structure – interspersing scenes from the perspective of the killer as well as from the victims – is at times confusing and somewhat distracting, the end result is that the reader is given a fairly detailed snapshot of Norwegian society, culture and politics. Indeed, Holt’s achievement in that regard is on a par with what Henning Mankell does for Sweden and what Ian Rankin does in terms of bringing modern Scotland to life.

As if all of that were not enough, the author also creates an utterly believable villain … no mean feat when it comes to writing about serial killers where each one seems more “over-the-top” and outrageous than the one before. Here, the banality of the killer’s personality and background is set contrapuntally to the utter originality of his/her methods and motives. The rationale behind the seemingly irrational crimes is painstakingly, meticulously developed. In fact, if the novel has a flaw it’s in the fact that so much time is taken to bring to light and to describe in step-by-step fashion the killer’s chilling, almost philosophical motivation – no longer content to wait for “what never happens,” the killer decides instead to ‘make it happen.” There are times where What Never Happens moves ponderously, almost tediously. Combine that with the fact that the novel ends in truly anticlimactic fashion and, well, readers with patience and a rather refined literary palate will be the ones who most appreciate this book.

But make no mistake; there is indeed much to appreciate in the pages of this novel. It’s easy to see why Anne Holt has the reputation that she does. Those willing to wade their way through the text will be rewarded by a story that “sticks” … and one that takes more than a few risks and dares to be different. What’s not to like? Now that’s something that never happens!

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