Knochengrab

Oslo Detectives #5

by Kjell Ola Dahl

Award-winning author Kjell Ola Dahl has attained cult status in his home country of Norway with his sharp, riveting bestsellers. Over the last decade he has found audiences in ten other countries and finally, with his gripping and intelligent novel, The Fourth Man, the master of Norwegian crime writing is crossing the Atlantic.In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frølich of the Oslo Police saves the life of Elizabeth Faremo, a dark-haired beauty with mysterious eyes who was inadvertently caught in the crossfire. Some weeks later, Frølich coincidentally runs into her again---but their ensuing affair is no accident. By the time he learns that she is no stranger---but rather the sister of a wanted member of a larceny gang---it is already too late.In the middle of the night, Frølich receives a call that a young guard has been killed in the course of an attempted break-in. Scrambling to respond, he realizes that Elizabeth is no longer in his bed. And all at once, Frølich’s life has changed. In a turn of events cryptic, erotic, and complex, he finds himself a prime murder suspect and under the watch of his doubting colleagues.Led through the dark underworld of Oslo and his own soul, Frølich---suspended from the force, blindly in love, and on the hunt for some hint of truth in a vortex of darkness and lies---must find out if he is being used . . . before his life unravels beyond repair.The Fourth Man is a sexy, fast-paced psychological thriller that puts a modern twist on the classic noir story of the femme fatale. K. O. Dahl has crafted a dark, poetic, and incredibly complex crime novel for his U.S. debut---the first in a series of detective novels from this rising international mystery star.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Scandinavian Literature, Thriller, Nordic Noir, Detective

Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Born in 1958, Dahl's first novel was published in 1993. He is best known for his series about Oslo detectives Frank Frølich and Inspector Gunnarstranda.

Also publishes as K.O. Dahl

Reviews

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new under the sky. The plot looks promising, but finishes somehow unclear, Inspector Frølich is a romantic man, a little too many characters are mentioned, the final is sad.

The most important fact is (if you are a fan of Nordic thrillers) 90 per cent of the people have holiday cabins and 90 percent of those are in big trouble, including losing their lives. Interesting...

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reader, I had to hang onto my hat from the first page, the action beginning immediately along with the suspense within the first few pages. A police detective becomes inadvertently involved -- at least on his part -- with a beautiful young woman who happens to be the sister of a known criminal. Said policeman finds out this sinister detail only after he is already head over heels for this mysterious woman.

A murder of a security guard brings the young woman's brother to court, where said woman provides an alibi for her brother -- and for herself -- by revealing to the court her liaison with the police detective. The waters continue to muddy for our protagonist as his co-workers and superior doubt his veracity and even his judgment for becoming involved with this woman.

This is a tornado of a plot with few people or events actually being what they appear to be. The author does a great job of keeping the reader involved and turning the pages to see what next develops.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern Norwegian take on the old Noir novels of the 50's. Orrie Hitt could have written this, only he might have done a better job.

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very long haul for me. For months I would pick this up and put it down simply because I could not get up a head of steam. The book jacket producers get full points for making me feel like I was really missing the hottest thing in Scandanavian mystery if I did not read this immediately. I suppose it was the conceit--that a woman comes out of nowhere and seduces a seasoned police detective by breaking into his house and sitting around in her underwear in the dark--that never really rang true to me. By page 200, when the author finally reveals just what the police detective likes so much about the object of his affection, I could not restrain a snort of disbelief and a sneer of derision. This is male fantasy run amok. Nothing wrong with a little fantasy, but please give us a something to hang our disbelief on.

[Pat · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Norwegian mystery translated poorly into English. "Froliech took a decision." The plot is very slim, and it reads like he was getting paid by the word. Pedantic, trite, just really bad. It received a Norwegian mystery award. It must have lost a lot in the translation.

[Ionuț Anastasiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semnificativ mai slabă decât precedenta carte din serie, Vineri, 13. O serie în care romanele ce o alcătuiesc nu au prea multe legături unele cu celelalte, cu excepția, desigur, a cuplului de inspectori Gunnarstranda și Frank Frolich.
De data aceasta, obsesia lui Frolich pentru o femeie, Elisabeth Faremo, pare să pună sub semnul întrebării atât relația de încredere cu colegul său, cât și capacitatea acestuia de a continua să activeze în poliție. Colac peste pupăză, fratele lui Elisabeth, Johnny este un infractor ce a fost condamnat de mai multe ori și din nou este suspectat de jaf și crimă. Relația lui Frank cu Elisabeth se dovedește a fi mult mai puțin convențională decât se aștepta acesta.
S-ar putea să greșesc, însă am identificat nepermis de multe elemente comune cu cartea Fata cu un ceas în loc de inimă a lui Peter Swanson - printre altele, detaliul cu seiful/caseta de valori, mai exact o sumă mare de bani care nu este decât un pretext pentru o miză infinit mai mare - , ceea ce poate să fie doar o coincidență sau să ne arate că Swanson este, la rândul lui, pasionat de literatura noir nordică. Lectură plăcută!

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fourth Man is another of the Scandinavian mysteries that I love by new-to-me author K. O. Dahl. When Oslo policeman Frank Frohlich becomes involved with a beautiful woman who just happens to be connected to a criminal gang, the resulting sexual jealousy, violence and murder threaten to destroy Frohlich's career.

I thought the premise was interesting and the mystery complex but believable (unlike Henning Mankell or Stieg Larsson, there were no wide-ranging international conspiracies to motivate crimes, just the usual suspects of greed, jealousy and revenge in this one!) The characters, though, were rather thin - I couldn't help but feel I was somehow coming into the middle of a long series (why else would I care about Gunnarsanda's goldfish?) and that left me with an incomplete feeling. Also, the female characters seemed particularly paper-thin, as if Dahl didn't care about them at all other than fitting them into his plot.

Still, I'm more than willing to keep reading the series!

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earlier in the year, triggered by the Steig Larssen trilogy, I've begun a slow campaign of discovering other Scandinavian mystery novelists, including this excellent fellow K.O. Dahl and his almost classic detective Frank Frolich. There is a wonderful plot with interlocking clues that unravel as a result of the driving power of character. Plus, of course, a lot of murders, double-crosses, femme fatales, and a bit of hard drinking. The feel of modern urban Norway is not alien, though from time to time one is reminded that this is not LA, NY, London or any other setting we are used to. Villainy is provided by the heartless rich, check, not the neo-Nazi or Russian criminal class. I like it.

[Eyehavenofilter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I'd rather go to the dentist. This took far to long, and I felt I had lost too much time ever time I tried I just couldn't get the motor running. The story lacked focus, so did I. I can't even begin to tell you where it was going, in a genre I love I felt tortured, cold and force fed whale blubber. Sad really, it had potential. Too many other good books to read, this fell flat.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

When a book is translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett, and it's got recommendations on the back cover by Karin Fossum, it gives the book high expectations. Which this book did not satisfy.

The main police guy and the protagonist, Frank Frølich, is an older guy, who in the middle of a case runs into and falls in love with a beautiful woman, Elisabeth. When he discovers Elisabeth's brother is a bad guy, the problem starts. When later her brother is killed, Frølich finds himself as a suspect of the crime, h(a)unted by Kripos, and on a leave from his job. Elisabeth disappears, but Frølich remains obsessed about her, and starts to moonlight the investigation while on leave. So far, so good. But the story drags, and Frølich is obsessed, and seldom seems professional in what he does. The actions (mostly his) are more than once completely incomprehensible and highly unprofessional. Frølich's Oslo reminds more of Håkan Nesser's "Sweden-ish, Dutch-ish with a hint of bunch of other countries and cultures" place than of the Oslo I've come to like from other books (like Nesbø's Norway).

The unprofessional, obsessed, clumsy detectives would have been bad enough with their odd personal dramas at work. But the language and especially the dialogs were often very odd. If it was any other translator, I could put it down to translation issues. But no, I know Don Bartlett is good (want proof? Read one of the Harry Hole books by Jo Nesbø... please read them in order), so the oddities cannot be because of his translation (other than the British expressions and words that I wish would be fixed for the US print. Such as 'boiler suit' in a Nesbø that I had to look in a dictionary... coveralls). How odd can the original be then? Maybe some of the language and the dialogs could be in a dialect? I guess that could do it. Or the language was just smooth and more poetic in the original, which then was translated by the words and meanings instead of keeping the poetic sound to it? I'm just guessing, and trying to relate where it went wrong, and why it left a bad taste. No; I can't blame Bartlett for the odd language. Maybe it was like most Finnish crime books of decades ago: "the man went to a sauna because it was Saturday evening", where the words translate, but the context and the meaning is lost because it's not there, and it's not explained.

Other reasons why the book didn't resonate well with me would be the same as with Håkan Nesser's Van Veeteren series: could not like the characters (would you still call it 'psychological thriller' if you didn't understand or like the characters in it?), didn't have enough investigation, and the police was often more interested in what was on their plate in a restaurant than in actually investigating. Who did it was also too easy to guess from early on - definitely not enough action, not enough good suspects, and despite the burned saunas and paintings, most action was just claustrophobic. Mix Håkan Nesser's Van Veeteren with some claustrophobic feel of some Karin Fossum's books, and add a hint of Raymond Chandler in the end, and write it really oddly. 1,5 to 1,75 stars.

Frank Frølich series:
1. The Fourth Man (2007)
2. The Man in the Window (2008)
3. The Last Fix (2009)
So it can't even have been reading the books out of order - this was the first book.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

22 OCT 2024 - very good.

[Cezarina Anghilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Începutul a fost cam plicticos și lipsit de suspansul așteptat, dar până la urmă a reușit să mă prindă, doar ca să asist la un final pueril și prea puțin credibil.

[Taylor Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-3⭐️
I struggle to rate this book because the plot was intriguing and the ending twist was interesting, so I want to give it a higher rating. However, I didn’t really enjoy/connect the characters and I didn’t particularly enjoy the writing style and dialogue. This is likely due to it being translated from Norwegian into British English and nuances are lost in translation. Either way, I would be open to attempting another read from this series in the future.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book proceeds along the standard Nordic Noir flow chart (why are the main characters always brooding, loner detectives who are on leave for getting into trouble?). The writing is decent and the plot is interesting enough. This one's not gory but it's heavier on women as objects of lust. Fine, kept me reading, not memorable.

[Wolf Draven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moje recenze: http://wolfdraven.eu/podezrely-kjell-...

[Margery · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK mystery but not as well written as mysteries by fellow Norwegian Karin Fossum.

[R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing...

Full of irrelevant details, over the place plot, cardboard characters and, ultimately, boring as heck

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett. Norway.
Gunnarstranda & Frølich, Oslo Detectives
**7 of the 11 novels have been published in English, these translations have been published in the reverse order to which they were written.
The Fourth Man. # 5. 2005/2009
Next, based on date released originally only! Not translation dates.
But having read the earlier books the characters have made progress in this book, developed and although my main criticism of way too much description and mulling over, still exists, this is a much better read!

Frølich is a main character in this one from the start! He meets her during a crime and later reconnects and falls heavily for Elisabeth.....passion and more crime follow connecting throughout Elisabeth, her brother and two other thugs. Plus extra characters. Frank goes on leave when more deaths happen and soon he is in various situations escaping major injury himself as he attempts to find Elisabeth. Gunnarstranda supports more than he lets on. Eventually the two of them are chasing leads as deaths, disappearances, fires, suicide and more crime past and current connect...... Better character development in this book of both Oslo Detectives...

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one started off at a terrific, erotic pace. Detective Frank Frølich is in bed with a woman he knows is a thief within the first 9 pages and he stays with her through several more. But the early erotic pace is not maintained as the plot settles into a complex series of “what may be’s” that defy logic and comprehension. The novel ends with a return of a supposedly dead character who commits suicide by drowning after hints at more eroticism. The sex writing was terrific as Frølich descends into obsession but the link between the woman and the rest of the plot is very tenuous and shaky. Another aspect of the mystery novel that defeats logic is a long section of explanation of the life of Bellini, a famous painter and one of his masterpieces. The passage adds little to the story other than to demonstrate Dahl’s command of research tools. Is it fair to say I was disappointed with the novel as a whole? Yes. This was not a bad enough mistake to put me off the genre as a whole but it was not encouraging.

[Mindy Peltier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first read of Dahl and I was excited to have the setting in the country my grandpa grew up in. Looking up places and buildings to see the scenery slowed down my read, but enhanced my experience. I kept wishing there was a Kindle version where you could hover over a setting and a pic would show up.

The plot was twisted and therefore a page-turner. At times I had a hard time discerning what was really going on with Frank Frolich - was he a good cop or not? Kept me guessing the whole time. But, I didn't feel like I was walking with him, but struggling behind him. I didn't find myself rooting for him.

It was a confusing read, more due to being translated into English terms from the UK. It also was hard when just the name of a place was given, without identifying it as a street, building, district, etc. Sometimes context explained the setting, but this also slowed down the read.

[Ben Hecking · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth of Kjell Ola Dahl’s “Oslo Detectives” novels I’ve read and I can see why this was the first one to be translated for an English-reading audience despite being the third/fourth in the series.

Detective Frank Frølich’s new girlfriend is the sister of career criminal Jonny Faremo, which raises more than a few eyebrows from his colleagues on the force. When Jonny’s sister gives him an alibi on the night of a robbery that ends with the death of a security guard, Frølich is advised to take some time off work. But then Jonny is found dead and his sister disappears.

It’s a cracking plot with action right from the off and plenty of twists and turns where nothing is quite as it seems. I was hooked from the start.

You don’t REALLY need to have read the previous ones to enjoy this one as they’re all pretty much standalone but it’s been really fun to chart the development of the relationship between Detective Inspector Gunnarstranda and his younger colleague Frank Frølich.

[Tbfrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting that mine is the first review in the last 12 months. Noir tales especially from the Nordic nations are much in demand. I would venture a guess based on this novel that the popularity Dahl's series has, is prodominately with fans who've read the earlier volumes.

Though this installment stands on its own, there are nuances to the characters of Frolich and Gunnarstranda first-time readers sense exist but lack the background to give them meaning. The first part of the novel is an extended examination of Frolich and his mermerised attachment to the story's femme fatale. Fortunately it came to an end before the temptation to abandon the novel won out. The remainder of the book improved - though filled with a number of digressions that interrupted the narrative flow. The rising pace led to a satisfactory conclusion with just enough action and mayhem to meet expectations.

[Allan MacDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norwegian cop writer K. O. Dahl furthers the Scandinavian tradition of police procedural murder thrillers starring mopey cops seemingly afflicted with cumulative seasonal affective disorder. The Fourth Man has bad weather, a grumpy veteran detective, an element of sexual compromise played out on an active participant in the homicide investigation, an annoying representative of the Nordic wealth class, a protagonist whose story climax is something like a psychotic break, and a satisfying closing twist. The full compliment rushes forward at a pace that all but ensures complete consumption in a single sitting. It would be almost worth catching jury duty, just for the pleasure of taking The Fourth Man along.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting characters, interesting story telling - but the femme fatale was so predictable and the main protagonist was so pathetic, that I wanted to yell at the author. Unable to do that, I complained to people around me instead, thus making myself annoying like the book.

The ending was particularly silly. It left us with the threat of the femme fatale returning and the protagonist either a dupe or passive-aggressive accomplice. This has all the appeal of a bad meal returning...and makes me avoidant of partaking of future installments. However, I will look at the previous books before completely deciding.

[Tony da Napoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer (again)...I do not review well. This is one of the best Nordic noir I have read in several years--and I read a LOT of them. I very rarely give anyone 🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇. I look forward to the next in this series and recommend Dahl highly if you are into the genre.
The particular aspect of this that grabbed me early on was Dahl's descriptive writing (and translation) about Frolich's romantic obsession. Very graphic and real emotions as I can directly attest to from my own experience with it. Logic and reason fail as the mind can only focus on one thing, one person. Desperation and exultation. Afterward, in hindsight it is like having had a mental illness or sickness. He nails it.

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very intricate mystery that also becomes a horror story involving a criminal gang, a financial mogul with a temper and Frank’s obsession with a young woman with connections to the gang. The crimes all relate to a safe stolen from the mogul which contains something valuable besides a lot of cash. That thing triggers the second wave of crimes - that involve the woman Frank is involved with. The opening sections are overheated but are necessary in order to explain why Frank ignores the obvious. So does the killer get away at the end?

[Sheila Howes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Euro Crime reads book for December. I was quite disappointed with the book - I felt it dragged and several parts could be condensed. Whilst the book eventually improved, and the main character of Frank Frolich was eventually likeable, it took far too long to get going. It didn't feel like it was set in Oslo - the setting could have been anywhere.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of this style of mystery -- spare, little to no character development, humorless to the last, casual misogny, and a mystery that is middling to boring. Kind of blown away by the praise for this book all over the jacket, and the bookseller to who handsold this to my boyfriend last Christmas. Maybe I'm missing something, but I could barely bring myself to finish this.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was hard to get into at first, but I made myself keep reading it because I wanted to know who the killer was. I am going to eventually read the next book in the series to see if I can warm up to the not so likable detective, Frolich.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was good. I had problems keeping up with characters’ names and locations. Perhaps if I had a better working knowledge of Norwegian pronunciation I’d have fared better. As it was, I couldn’t remember who was who throughout most of the book.