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GYLDENDAL AGENCY
A presentation of Jørn Lier Horst’s DREGS by Anne Bruce
Jørn Lier Horst: DREGS /Bunnfall / publication early September 2010
Dregs by Jørn Lier Horst is the sixth instalment of the Wisting crime series set in
southern Norway, and it is an outstanding addition to the ongoing saga of Police
Inspector William Wisting, his journalist daughter Line, and the team of criminal
investigators at Larvik police station.
The author, who has himself several years’ experience as a Norwegian policeman,
brings his knowledge to bear on the descriptions of police procedures and methodical
detection work, while using his linguistic dexterity and impressive authorial technique
to build up tension, delineate character and make excellent use of dialogue to bring
the twists and turns of this narrative to life, engaging the empathy of the reader and
ensuring that the novel is a memorable, taut and realistic thriller.
The story begins with a series of descriptions that catch the reader’s attention and
introduce a number of narrative elements – the police report giving place and time,
the introduction of the main character, William Wisting, and the first hint of his health
worries, the seascape on the Norwegian coastline that will play such an important part
in this novel, and the gruesome detail of the training shoe washed up on the sand, still
containing a severed foot from the victim’s body.
Already the reader is hooked. The tension mounts with the revelation that this is the
second deadly shoe to be washed up on the shoreline, and the unexpected twist that it
is the second LEFT foot to be found. What is the explanation for this? Has there been
some kind of terrible accident at sea? Does it indicate the killing and dismembering of
two victims? Is there a link with the unsolved mystery of a number of disappearances
in the Larvik area in recent months? The theories are numerous and the media frenzy
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intense, but Jørn Lier Horst shows us that it is solid and methodical police work that
will get to the bottom of this crime. And so the story unfolds, with the various strands
woven together into a seamless mesh that gradually tightens around the identity of the
killer.
The “dregs” of the title refers to what has been dumped at the bottom of the sea.
Wisting uses the skills of the marine biologist and the leading-edge technology of the
search submarine to make progress in his relentless quest for clues and evidence in
order to make sense of this perplexing case. While the novel has a unity of time and
place which helps to build up the tension and increase the pace, the roots of the crime
go far back into the past and its tentacles have drawn in a number of innocent victims.
The police investigation has to be far-reaching and their net spread wide to draw
together the various facets of the crime and its consequences.
The author again uses Wisting’s daughter as his foil in the story. This time, she is not
actively involved in the investigation, but her journalistic research for an newspaper
feature on murderers and the impact prison has had on them, provides important
background information that in turn sheds light on Wisting’s manhunt, and also
illuminates the social concerns of the author and his questioning of the justice system
and the purposes of crime and punishment in a civilised society.
The novel also develops the character of Wisting in compelling ways, providing him
with a hinterland that makes him more sympathetic and human, in this narrative
pursuing a back story of his concerns about his health, which underlines the pressure
under which the police are routinely working, and the long-term consequences of
stress, as well as using a lighter touch to delineate his growing relationship and
romantic involvement with Suzanne Bjerke – the scenes of domestic life serve to
ground the whole narrative in reality, as well as provide the dramatic relief that the
tension of the fast-paced action of the book requires.
Wisting’s daughter, Line, also provides some dramatic relief and the story of her
romance with Tommy Kvanter is further developed here, but her interviews with
murderers who have been released from prison after serving their criminal sentences
provide an additional dramatic counterpoint to the police murder investigation, and
she is drawn in to the denouement of the action too, unwittingly coming to the rescue
of her father as he finally confronts the murderer.
The contrasting personalities among Wisting’s colleagues in the police department are
used to good effect in the novel, emphasising the team effort that good police work
involves, but also pointing up the various foibles and human characteristics that make
the characters in the novel believable and engaging. Wisting’s own personality tries to
balance his own preference to work alone and pursue his own train of thought with his
realisation that team-work is of utmost importance and that it is the gradual build-up
of layers of investigation and uncovering of clues, some superficially seeming
unimportant and unrelated, that ensure all the pieces of the jigsaw finally fall into
place, revealing the whole picture.
“DREGS” has a fascinating and unusual story line, in which the events of the past
have an unexpected influence on the present day. The narrative twists and turns
contain a number of surprises, with meticulous attention to detail and excellent skills
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of narrative and description holding the reader’s attention throughout. Jørn Lier Horst
here demonstrates his fully developed abilities as a writer as well as his originality in
finding new ideas within the tried-and-tested police procedural formula. His
thoughtful and questioning attitudes towards the social dilemmas of crime and
punishment ensure that the book makes a strong impact on the reader and is truly a
cut above contemporary run-of-the-mill crime fiction.
Reviews of Jørn Lier Horst’s “Dregs”
AftenPosten, Norway
Bull’s Eye Again for Horst by Terje Stemland, 8/9/2010
Jørn Lier Horst has, right from his debut in 2004, set a sensationally good pace in his
crime novels, and has today gained entry into the circle of our very best writers in that
genre.
‘Dregs’ is his sixth crime novel, and he has continued to stay within Vestfold, where
Chief Inspector of Police William Wisting maintains law and order. For the most
part, he takes it with stoic calm that he is subordinate to a Chief Superintendent hot
for PR and continually evading responsibility. However, the one thing to which he
most certainly cannot reconcile himself, and here it is permissible to surmise that the
investigation leader Jorn Lier Horst of Vestfold Police District would agree:
“It was probably reaching the point where crime was beginning to pay. Criminality in
the country was growing faster than ever before, and he saw no sign of effective
counter-measures. On the contrary, the police and courts of law continued to corrode.
The rule of law in society was in the process of capitulation.”
Beached left feet
It is midsummer in Stavern, and in the course of a few days four training shoes are
washed up on the shore, each one containing a severed foot. NB: Only left feet!
Those who recall the scenario in the author’s last book, “The Night Man” (2009),
when a woman’s head was placed on a stake in Larvik, will be familiar with the fact
that he has no scruples about resorting to the grotesque, but it is hardly a drawback to
point out sensation-seeking in his writing methods. Here we encounter insightful
reflections about punishment and atonement, the price of taking a person’s life, the
media and politics, accidents, coincidences and connections. At his best, the author is
both a sociologist and a philosopher. In addition, he knows an awful lot about old
bank notes!
At the same time as the police are sharpening their wits on incomprehensible
discoveries of feet, Line, William’s daughter, is working on a series of articles about
the purpose of punishment. She is interviewing criminals who have been released
from prison after serving long sentences. Quite apart from the fact that important
approaches to the problem are aired, the reader understands that her work will, in one
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way or another, come to impinge on her father’s investigation, perhaps shed light on
it, and with a definite point of connection.
Well founded and filled with suspense
Yes indeed, Jørn Lier Horst has once more written a well-founded and tense crime
novel, with space for both the expected and the downright surprising.
“At his best, the author is both a sociologist and a philosopher.”
Norwegian Book Club, Crime and Thrillers Main Selection September 2010
‘Dregs’ by Marius Aronsen, Editor of Norwegian Book Club, Secretary of the
Riverton Club, 20/7/2010.
Chief Inspector of Police William Wisting has investigated murders and serious
crimes for a number of decades, but has never experienced anything like this. Can the
feet really come from four different murder victims?
It is midsummer in Stavern. The idyllic little town in Vestfold, Norway, is ready for
the annual influx of summer visitors when a terrible discovery is made. A severed
left foot in a training shoe is washed up on the beach. And then another foot turns up
– it is also a left foot. Do they result from an accident, or has more than one person
been murdered, cut up and dumped? Can they have drifted into the area from a
distant place? But it doesn’t stop there – in the course of one week in summer, yet
another two left feet are found in the Larvik area. These morbid finds turn the
summer idyll upside down in Jørn Lier Horst’s ‘Dregs’.
Missing persons?
Wisting has a feeling that the discoveries might be connected to several missing
persons cases in the region – elderly men have disappeared without trace from their
homes or from a care home, and a couple of women too, one of whom was employed
at the residential nursing home where some of the men were staying. As Wisting
begins to draw up the threads, he has no idea how many ramifications this case has.
Greed, wasted lives and reckless thirst for vengeance provide the impulse for a
mystery that seems to be almost unfathomable.
Crime and punishment
Wisting’s daughter, Linda, is a journalist with the Oslo daily newspaper, Verdens
Gang, and she comes home in connection with a feature she is writing, for which she
is interviewing murderers who have served their prison sentences. The theme of the
article is whether punishment and atonement have a rehabilitative effect. Linda
interviews Ken Ronny Hauge who has been released after serving 16 years in prison
for murdering a policeman, a murder that, moreover, he never admitted and that
remains a mystery. She asks him whether he feels that he has become a better person
as a result of his prison sentence. He looks her straight in the eye and says no – “On
the contrary.” It is an answer that isn’t completely dissimilar to the thoughts that
William Wisting has also been having during the course of the investigation. The
development of the case will cause him to pose questions that have fundamental
consequences for his own police work.
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In the force of the elements
The mystery is, in its entirety, cleverly thought out, and it is solved in a shrewd and
believable way. Jørn Lier Horst writes extremely well, and there isn’t much
unnecessary padding here to get in the way of the plot or its direction. This is a wellbalanced crime novel, and the depiction of events, characters, plot and setting, all
relate well to each other. Take for example how the surroundings come to life – Horst
allows nature to play a part in the mystery in an understated and fine way: “This case
was like the waves out there, he thought. Impossible to catch hold of. It was like
something that was lying amongst the rocks on the shore, washed in to land and then
pulled back out again.”
Just as good are the descriptions of the characters in Jørn Lier Horst’s book. They are
nuanced and interesting, absolutely human. Many have known it for a long time, but
now it ought to be acknowledged as a truth for all Norwegian readers of crime fiction:
William Wisting is one of the great investigators in Norwegian crime novels. He can
bear comparison with Thygesen, Sejer and Isaksen (in the best-selling novels of Jon
Michelet, Karin Fossum and Unni Lindell).
Readers’ evaluation: 4.8/5, based on 42 votes
Jørn Lier Horst produces a thriller with creative finesse
Last year I was at a captivating lecture given by author and criminal investigator Jørn
Lier Horst. He took us behind the police tape at crime scenes, and showed examples
of discoveries that helped to lead the investigation forward bit by bit. And the
surprising clues that brought about a quick resolution. It was, to put it mildly,
fascinating to hear about cases he had worked on, and not least about how they had
been cleared up through tiny, small details that the investigators managed to piece
together and put into a new perspective. At the same time, it was clear to me why
Jørn Lier Horst writes such good crime novels. He knows what is demanded to create
tension in the reader. Investigation is his profession. He also knows that even the
most seemingly insoluble mystery can be solved if you can find the right angle of
thinking. All the same, I am impressed once again that he has created such a sterling
crime mystery as ‘Dregs’. For he hasn’t only made use of his comprehensive
knowledge, he has also done it with creative finesse.
ØstlandsPosten, Norway
New solid crime thriller from Jørn Lier Horst by Svend E. Hansen, 26/8/2010
William Wisting is faced with a new murder case.
Jørn Lier Horst opens his new crime novel – the sixth in the series of books about the
likeable Chief Inspector William Wisting – with a macabre discovery. It is no
coincidence that the author has chosen a crime scene at Fredriksvern Shipyard,
literally in the field of vision from his writer’s study. The fact that the story this time
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also takes place in Stavern and its surrounding area gives an extra dimension to the
experience for local readers.
Once more the Larvik region is the arena for murder and dark deeds, and once again
Wisting, now somewhat burned out, uninspired and overworked, confronts a
seemingly insoluble criminal mystery.
Several shoes containing severed left feet will eventually wash up on familiar and
cherished places along the coast of Stavern and Brunlanes. Wisting and his limited
team of investigators at the police station in Larvik link the finds to unsolved
disappearances from the autumn of the previous year. Three male pensioners and a
mentally ill woman have been reported missing, and it will turn out that they are
linked to each other in different ways.
The relationship between the three pensioners goes far back in time, to the days of the
Cold War and the secret “stay behind” groups, a kind of semi-military intelligence
group whose existence was revealed in the wake of the so-called Gjeterøya-case at the
end of the 1970’s. But why would anyone want to kill them now, several decades
later? Has one of their descendants, for example the grandson of one of the group who
has been jailed for murder, anything to do with the case?
Wisting winds up the threads slowly but surely. The case takes a few surprising turns
on the way before the whole thing comes to a climax in a particularly dramatic
conclusion.
Once more Jørn Lier Horst has produced a sound criminal narrative with an intricate
plot, an action-packed story with Chief Inspector William Wisting as a credible
central character. Jorn Lier Horst has the great advantage of his own experiences as a
police investigator, and is able to bring real authenticity to such aspects as
investigative methodology and tactical planning. And so “Dregs” falls in line
alongside the series of crime novels from Lier Horst’s pen, all well worth
recommending.
However, Wisting’s talented journalist daughter’s continual ability to become
involved in her father’s cases and to pop up in dramatic scenes during the
investigation, is not quite so believable.
Previous criminals found guilty of murder and who have served long prison
sentences play a part in this book. In the publisher’s launch brochure the author
himself explains that after meetings with prisoners, he has thought a great deal about
what punishment does to a person. According to the publishers, “Dregs” is a novel
about crime and punishment. Considered as a crime novel, this is an example of solid
craftsmanship. As far as the intention being also to discuss the purpose of long prison
sentences, it nevertheless falls short. For that, the action is too superficial and the
arguments on the theme, expressed unchallenged in the dialogue, are too simplistic to
contradict.
If we look at “Dregs” as a story that is not for amusement only – and I choose to take
it as that – then it receives very good pass marks. And of course it is the main book in
the Book Club’s Crime and Thriller Section, and I would think that this will be a
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good step forward to the Riverton Prize for the long-established crime-writing
policeman from Larvik. There have been six books with William Wisting as the main
character since his debut in 2004. Along with a steadily increasing readership, I am
already looking forward to the next one.
Sample translation from Dregs
Translated by Anne Bruce
CHAPTER 1
The report was phoned in to the police switchboard in Tønsberg on Tuesday 22nd June
at 09.32 hours.
William Wisting was the third policeman at the discovery scene. He had just come
out of the doctor’s surgery and sat down in the car when the assignment was sent out
over the police radio. Now he was standing with fine-grained sand in his shoes, using
his hand to shade the sunlight from his eyes.
The waves crashed against the shore and rolled back to sea in front of him. The bare
rock faces stretched out, polished and slippery wet, on either side of the sloping bay.
Two uniformed policemen had cordoned off the western side of the bathing beach. At
this early time of morning there were only a few people who had found their way out
here. The small group of onlookers comprised no more than twelve or thirteen people,
mostly children. One of the policemen had taken aside a heavily built boy with red,
bristling hair and a face full of freckles. The boy was trying to keep control of a small
black terrier on a lead with the one hand, while pointing and gesticulating with the
other.
Some seagulls flew in wide, sluggish circles over the bay. Wisting let his eye come to
rest on one of these, as if he wanted to take a little break before he filled his lungs
with salt sea air and brought his concentration to bear on what was going to be a
lengthy and demanding task.
The training shoe on the water’s edge rolled backwards and forwards. It looked as
though it was going to be pulled out to sea again each time the sand slid underneath it,
but it was thrown back on to the shore with each new wave. Algae and seaweed had
entangled itself tightly around the laces, which were still tied. The sole had a
covering of brown algae. The remains of a human foot protruded from the shoe.
Shrimp fry and other small forms of sea life crawled around, catching hold wherever
they could get a grip.
Wisting let his eye take flight again and stared at the thin, grey line that separated the
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sea from the sky. Out on the misty horizon he could make out the outline of a cargo
ship. A little van drove on to the grassy plain at the back edge of the shore and came
to a halt beside the police patrol car. Espen Mortensen stepped out, then bent inwards
again to the driving seat and pulled out a camera case. Wisting nodded in welcome to
the young crime technician. Mortensen reciprocated the gesture and opened the side
door of the crime scene vehicle. He brought out a spade and a white plastic tub
before approaching his colleague. “Another one?” he asked, putting down the spade
on the sand. “Another one,” Wisting confirmed, squatting down beside the macabre
discovery while Mortensen got his camera ready. The foot looked as though it had
been torn or pulled from the rest of the body at the ankle joint, but it was still held
tightly by the training shoe. Tendrils of thick, leathery skin unfolded themselves on
either side. Down among the rest of the grey-white mass of flesh at the bottom of the
shoe, he could see pale scraps of bone. Part of what might be a ligament covered the
heel.
Wisting had seen it all before. This was the second severed foot within a short period
that had been washed up in his police district. He stood up and glanced over at the
crime technician. “They don’t belong together,” he said positively. Mortensen
remained standing with a lens in his hand, looking sceptically at the shoe at the
water’s edge.
“What do you mean? I think it looks exactly the same as the first one.”
“That’s the problem,” Wisting nodded. “It’s a left shoe. The first one was too.” He
bent over and examined the contents of the shoe once more. “Besides, this one has a
white tennis sock inside it. The first one had a black sock.”
Espen Mortensen swore and hunched over the shoe that continued to bob up and
down in the waves.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I think that this one’s a couple of sizes bigger too. That
means then…”
He was going to come out with a conclusion, but broke off himself. They both
realised what it meant. They had found body parts from two unknown corpses that
probably were still floating somewhere out on the sea.
Mortensen took several photographs from different angles. Then he put the camera
back into its case, gripped the spade and dug into the sand beneath the shoe. A little
sand, a couple of shells and some seawater came with it into the white tub.
The policeman who had been questioning the red-haired boy approached them. He
quickly summed up what the boy had told him about how he had found the shoe when
he was walking his dog a short time earlier.
“We are organising a search of the shore,” he explained. “The rest of the body might
float in to land anywhere at all. There will be lots of children here today. The Red
Cross have promised to come here with a search party within an hour.”
Wisting nodded his approval. They had searched the coastline in the days after the
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previous foot had been found also, without any results. Perhaps they would be luckier
this time. A large wave rolled in far up the shore, and he had to take a few steps back
to avoid getting wet. It rolled back again and wiped out his footsteps in the damp
sand. Wisting drew his hand through his thick, dark hair and looked out over the sea
again. He had experienced a great deal, but this time he could feel his heart beat a bit
faster.