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Hell Is Open cover art

Hell Is Open

Written by: Gard Sveen, Paul Norlen - translator
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
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Publisher's Summary

Sixteen years ago, rookie cop Tommy Bergmann was on the scene when a teenage girl's mutilated body was discovered in the woods. Schoolteacher Anders Rask confessed to the murder, along with five others. He was sentenced to live out his days in a mental institution outside of Oslo, and the case appeared closed. That is, until now...

Amid a brutal Norwegian winter, now-detective Bergmann is called to the scene of the assault of a young Lithuanian prostitute. Her injuries bear a shocking resemblance to those of Rask's victims. Tommy cannot ignore the unsettling questions this crime raises: Is Rask involved or, worse, inspiring a copycat? Or is the real serial killer still out there, roaming the shadowy, frigid streets of Oslo, poised to commit another murder?

Faced with the new attack and Rask's recently recanted confession, Tommy is forced to reopen the old case that still haunts him and confront the demons of his own grim and complicated history. As he works to untangle the complex web of connections between the past and present, his closed case just might become a cold case - with a truth more chilling than he could have imagined.

©2015 Gard Sveen. Translation © 2017 Paul Norlen (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

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pretty good

I thought, huh, I don't remember this being so good. And then it ended abruptly. On a cliffhanger.
I like that the main characters are frankly kind of awful people, but they know they're trash, and instead of embracing it they're trying to do better. And the best part is that it doesn't feel like we're supposed to like them. (A lot of the time, it feels like we're supposed to root for/relate to/just generally the protagonists even when they're totally obnoxious- it just makes me dislike them more!) We aren't expected to like Bergmann, who abused his wife, even though he's in therapy and trying to not be a piece of human excrement, we're just expected to want to see him get the job done.
I will say that the author isn't so great at writing women. Susanne was... obviously written by a middle aged straight guy? It got awkward. But at the same time, she wasn't supposed to be a hero, either, just someone trying to do her job.
The mystery was excellent, well plotted and evenly paced, with a villain that I didn't expect. The writing was solid, the translation was good, and, since I did listen to this one, I actually liked the narration. The narrator had an interesting voice and an accent I can't quite place, but it was a nice change.
That ending, though. It left me feeling a bit cheated...

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