Burned

With his first novel, Burned, Thomas Enger has already established himself as an international master of suspense. A bestseller in many of the twelve countries in which he’s published, Enger brilliantly evokes the dark moodiness of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo, yet his setting and characters feel universal, and his plotting and pacing are suspenseful and dramatic at every turn.

Meet Henning Juul, investigative crime reporter in Norway’s bustling maritime city of Oslo. Divorced and traumatized after the death of his six-year-old son, physically and emotionally scarred by the fire that killed his boy, Henning has just returned to the job when a horrifying discovery turns up in one of the city’s public parks. A beautiful young, local woman has been buried up to her neck and stoned to death. The brutality of the crime shakes the whole country. When Henning is given the assignment, he’s shaken, too, still reeling from his own recent trauma—and working with his ex-wife’s new boyfriend doesn’t make it any easier. When the victim’s boyfriend, a Pakistani native, is arrested, Henning knows the man is innocent. This was no simple Middle Eastern-style honor killing in the face of adultery—it was a far more complicated gesture, one that will drag Henning into a darkness he’s never dreamed of.

Uncovering class divisions, racial conflicts, and tangled emotions, this gritty, page-turning novel of suspense heralds the arrival of a major new talent.

Uncovering class divisions, racial conflicts, and tangled emotions, this gritty, shocking

novel of suspense heralds the arrival of a major new talent.

Henning Juul is a veteran investigative crime reporter in Oslo, Norway. A horrific fire killed his six-year-old son, cut scars across his face, and ended his marriage, and on his first day back at the job after the terrible tragedy a body is discovered in one of the city’s public parks. A beautiful female college student has been stoned to death and buried up to her neck, her body left bloody and exposed. The brutality of the crime shakes the whole country, but despite his own recent trauma - and the fact that his ex-wife’s new boyfriend is also on the case - Henning is given the assignment.  When the victim’s boyfriend, a Pakistani native, is arrested, Henning feels certain the man is innocent. This was not simply a Middle Eastern-style honor killing in the face of adultery - it was a far more complicated gesture, and one that will drag Henning into a darkness he’s never dreamed of.