The Whisperer
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2.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Read the stunning, psychologically acute new thriller from the Queen of Norwegian crime fiction.
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE PETRONA AWARD 2019**
Ragna Riegel works in a supermarket and still lives in her childhood home. She's alone in the world since her only son moved to Berlin. She longs for a Christmas or birthday card from him.
Ragna lives her life within strict self-imposed limits: she sits in the same seat on the bus every day, on her way to her predictable job. On her way home she always visits the same local shop. She feels safe in her routine, until one day she receives a letter with a threatening message scrawled in capital letters. An unknown enemy has entered her world and she must use all her means to defend herself.
When the worst happens, Inspector Konrad Sejer is called in to interrogate Ragna. Is this unassuming woman out of her depth, or is she hiding a dark secret?
‘The final page will make your jaw drop and your heart stop’ Evening Standard
‘Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch’ Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fossum's engrossing 13th Inspector Sejer mystery (after 2016's Hell Fire) opens quietly, with Sejer interviewing Ragna Riegel, the whisperer of the title, who's in police custody. Flashbacks tell the story of Ragna, whose vocal chords were damaged in an operation, causing her difficulty in speaking. She lives alone in the house she grew up in, works in a discount store, and has little social interaction outside work. She has a son (after a one-night stand), who has grown up and moved to Berlin, but the two have no relationship except for the occasional exchange of greeting cards. Ragna is virtually unseen and unheard but not unhappy, until she finds an unsigned note in her mailbox that reads, "You are going to die." It's the first of several ominous messages that suggest she has committed a crime. Over the course of several interviews with a sympathetic Sejer, the nature of her crime eventually emerges. Fossum has rendered Ragna's plight with great precision and empathy in this acute psychological study of loneliness and grief. Fans of more nuanced Scandinavian crime fiction will be rewarded.
