Here’s the next author from my list of “A++” ones. (I have 12 authors in this top category. There are another 11 listed as “A+”….) Best wishes, Tom ++++++++++++++++++++++ DAHL, Alex The author is half Norwegian but writes such extraordinarily good English that I am jealous! I have dates of publication in English only; presumably, they have appeared in Norwegian too (and other languages), but the English of these editions show that they are clearly not translations but originals by a bilingual who makes, it appears to my hypercritical eye, about three errors per volume. “The Boy at the Door” (2018) is indeed very good but the plot is extremely intricate with several twists and turns. I could never have guessed, after the first 50 or so pages, how this would develop: what appears at first to be an ordinary housewife has very dark ‘backstory’. In places, the story takes some effort to follow, since it is not always clear whose voice we are listening to. Nevertheless, I awarded this A. “The Heart Keeper” (2019) on the other hand has a simple plot but this is so arresting that I found that I could not wait to find out the outcome: the mother of a young girl who dies and provides a heart for a transplant becomes pathologically obsessed with the girl who receives the new heart and befriends the mother of the latter: what are her intentions? This is the kind of story that remains with the reader long afterwards, and the author deserves A+; at this rate, her third maybe graded even higher. “Playdate” (2020) is so absolutely outstanding that AD is now in the group of authors with A++. The story unfolds slowly at first (while never losing interest!) and gradually speeds up. The plot is intricate but nevertheless excellent, the characterizations are excellent (but see below), the descriptions of the locales are very good. I have two reservations: one is that the dénouement is so rushed that it is almost confusing (I had been reading fast because of the thriller-like quality, now I had to read very slowly, and 'jamming on the brakes' was not easy); the other concerns the words put into the mind of the young abducted girl (seven years old at first, nine by book’s end); her thoughts show her at times as slow on the uptake, even perhaps obtuse, at other times as quite bright. Of course, she is traumatized, but even so I was uncertain: could she really have thought this? Why did she not think that? and so on… Still, these considerations are minor, they do not detract from the overall excellence of this novel. “Cabin Fever” (2021). The major dramatis personae are four: Kristina, successful psychotherapist; her husband Eirik, ultra-successful politician; her best friend since her youth, Elisabeth, now a recovering heroin addict; and one of her clients, the manipulative Leah. The first part of the story, which starts slowly like Playdate, consists of therapy sessions and, like books such as those by Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff, was slow to unfold, and I must admit that I found it difficult to persevere with reading about unpleasant-ness, real or imagined. Soon, Leah recounts physical abuse by her partner and begs Kristina to go to her remote cabin in the woods. The latter declines at first but then feels compelled to drive there… and the plot, involving Leah, recollections about Elisabeth and a traumatic event in Venezuela, build up, one after the other — after the arrival of Eirik and a heavy snowfall — to an extremely tense climax. It is all extremely believable and, at the end, very exciting. AD’s A++ is maintained. “After She’d Gone” (2022). After rising in my estimation and grading scheme, A to A+ to A++, could AD maintain her very high standard? — I do not find this easy to answer. First, the overall theme: the manipulation of the women in the high-class modelling world by unprincipled millionaires and by one unscrupulous über-millionaire in particular. Apart from this one totally amoral man there are main two female characters and one autistic child. (A heart-wrenching detail which, in this context, is not gratuitous but significant.) On the one hand the plot and the characters are extremely well-written, the situations extremely vivid, unsettling; and the author clearly takes a very moral position. On the other, I found the occasional time-hopping difficult to cope with: we jump to and fro between what is clearly ‘the present’ and what is many years beforehand, without any section- or chapter-headings to clarify what is occurring when. In addition, one person has two different names … The story is so gripping that the temptation is to keep reading and not think too much about the when and the who, and I did feel a little lost those few times. I am, therefore, tempted to reduce the ‘grade’ to A+ but given that another novel by AD, Girl Friends, is expected in 2024, I shall suspend judgment.
(I have 12 authors in this top category. There are another 11 listed as “A+”….)
Best wishes,
Tom
++++++++++++++++++++++
DAHL, Alex
The author is half Norwegian but writes such extraordinarily good English that I am jealous! I have dates of publication in English only; presumably, they have appeared in Norwegian too (and other languages), but the English of these editions show that they are clearly not translations but originals by a bilingual who makes, it appears to my hypercritical eye, about three errors per volume.
“The Boy at the Door” (2018) is indeed very good but the plot is extremely intricate with several twists and turns. I could never have guessed, after the first 50 or so pages, how this would develop: what appears at first to be an ordinary housewife has very dark ‘backstory’. In places, the story takes some effort to follow, since it is not always clear whose voice we are listening to. Nevertheless, I awarded this A.
“The Heart Keeper” (2019) on the other hand has a simple plot but this is so arresting that I found that I could not wait to find out the outcome: the mother of a young girl who dies and provides a heart for a transplant becomes pathologically obsessed with the girl who receives the new heart and befriends the mother of the latter: what are her intentions? This is the kind of story that remains with the reader long afterwards, and the author deserves A+; at this rate, her third maybe graded even higher.
“Playdate” (2020) is so absolutely outstanding that AD is now in the group of authors with A++. The story unfolds slowly at first (while never losing interest!) and gradually speeds up. The plot is intricate but nevertheless excellent, the characterizations are excellent (but see below), the descriptions of the locales are very good. I have two reservations: one is that the dénouement is so rushed that it is almost confusing (I had been reading fast because of the thriller-like quality, now I had to read very slowly, and 'jamming on the brakes' was not easy); the other concerns the words put into the mind of the young abducted girl (seven years old at first, nine by book’s end); her thoughts show her at times as slow on the uptake, even perhaps obtuse, at other times as quite bright. Of course, she is traumatized, but even so I was uncertain: could she really have thought this? Why did she not think that? and so on… Still, these considerations are minor, they do not detract from the overall excellence of this novel.
“Cabin Fever” (2021). The major dramatis personae are four: Kristina, successful psychotherapist; her husband Eirik, ultra-successful politician; her best friend since her youth, Elisabeth, now a recovering heroin addict; and one of her clients, the manipulative Leah. The first part of the story, which starts slowly like Playdate, consists of therapy sessions and, like books such as those by Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff, was slow to unfold, and I must admit that I found it difficult to persevere with reading about unpleasant-ness, real or imagined. Soon, Leah recounts physical abuse by her partner and begs Kristina to go to her remote cabin in the woods. The latter declines at first but then feels compelled to drive there… and the plot, involving Leah, recollections about Elisabeth and a traumatic event in Venezuela, build up, one after the other — after the arrival of Eirik and a heavy snowfall — to an extremely tense climax. It is all extremely believable and, at the end, very exciting. AD’s A++ is maintained.
“After She’d Gone” (2022). After rising in my estimation and grading scheme, A to A+ to A++, could AD maintain her very high standard? — I do not find this easy to answer. First, the overall theme: the manipulation of the women in the high-class modelling world by unprincipled millionaires and by one unscrupulous über-millionaire in particular. Apart from this one totally amoral man there are main two female characters and one autistic child. (A heart-wrenching detail which, in this context, is not gratuitous but significant.) On the one hand the plot and the characters are extremely well-written, the situations extremely vivid, unsettling; and the author clearly takes a very moral position. On the other, I found the occasional time-hopping difficult to cope with: we jump to and fro between what is clearly ‘the present’ and what is many years beforehand, without any section- or chapter-headings to clarify what is occurring when. In addition, one person has two different names … The story is so gripping that the temptation is to keep reading and not think too much about the when and the who, and I did feel a little lost those few times. I am, therefore, tempted to reduce the ‘grade’ to A+ but given that another novel by AD, Girl Friends, is expected in 2024, I shall suspend judgment.