Anne Holt

While I'm a fan of mysteries and thrillers, they've been rather sparse on my reading list of late. So it was a pleasure to receive and read two thrillers last month. One, Cornelia Read's Field of Darkness, I'll talk about more in a week or so as Book Help Web is going to be running an interview with her.

The other was a thick tome titled What is Mine by an author I'd not heard of before, Anne Holt. Turns out that Anne Holt is a highly popular, bestselling author of thrillers--in Norway and Europe. What is Mine, published by Hatchette International, is the first of her novels to be translated into English and released in the United States.

It's a wonderfully suspenseful tale with some deeply drawn characters. It takes place in Norway where two children have disappeared and the second is delivered to the parent with a note "Now you've got what you deserved" pinned to the child's chest. Then more children disappear.

The crimes would be heart-wrenching anywhere, but in this small country that lacks experience with serial murders, it is especially panic-inducing.

Despite it being a serial killer novel, it could almost classify as a cozy as Holt manages to avoid gore and many of the more hard core passages found in much of the modern thriller genre.

It's easy to see why she is popular overseas. She'll now have the opportunity to gain similar popularity on this side of the pond.

posted by Book Help Web Editorial Team at 7:06 AM |