Fame doesn’t always come without risks. Especially when a psychopathic serial killer intends to prove that he too is an “exceptional” being. This is what we will discover little by little in this multi-part story which begins in an almost innocuous way.
We are in a peripheral district of Oslo while the journalist people Emma Ramm tries to interview Sonja Nordstrøm, former Olympic champion and Norwegian national glory. This is because the former high-level athlete published that day Number one forever, the first volume of his so-called “sulphurous” memoirs. But the half-open door opens onto an empty house; Emma even notices traces of violence and decides to call the police… Soon, Alex Blix, an investigator at the crime squad, joins her to find that Sonja Nordstrøm seems to have been kidnapped.
However, this is only the beginning. In the space of a few days, a whole series of public figures were found dead: a footballer, a famous presenter, the singer of an old rock group, a pastor, a winner of the national lottery, etc. Each time, a clue suggests that it is a series of crimes signed by the same author.
Emma Ramm, who continues to investigate the case on her own, will guess that we are in fact witnessing a terrifying countdown specifically targeting characters that everyone knows in Norway. According to his theory, everything will stop when we find number one: Sonja Nordstrøm…
We will also learn that the journalist is linked in a very strange way to detective Blix who heads the investigation and who gives her information to make things move more quickly. But the police officer, who is in open conflict with a boss accusing him of his indiscipline, soon identifies a suspect and the hunt gains new momentum. All this plays out against the backdrop of a reality TV series – in which the investigator’s daughter participates – which captivates the entire country and Blix as well as Emma realize that this is perhaps not due to chance . What if the worst were to happen in front of the TV cameras?
The plot is solid, the characters and their motivations completely credible and well defined. Horst-Enger’s writing reaches, despite some somewhat easy suspense effects, exceptional levels of tension and everything will end in an explosion of unexpected events.
We know that Jørn Lier Horst has already been a police investigator – he became known with his commissioner William Wisting, seven of whose investigations have already been published in the Série noire, by Gallimard -, and he obviously knows music. Partnering with a famous novelist breathes new life into an already impressive work.