The Assistant

A seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity leads a PI and his ex-con assistant on a murderous trail, in a sophisticated, riveting historical Nordic Noir thriller set in interwar and prohibition-era Norway.

'Ola Dahl ratchets up the tension from the first pages and never lets go' The Times

'Cleverly braiding together past and present, the who and why of murder and betrayal are unpicked. The detail is impressive' Daily Mail

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Oslo, 1938. War is in the air and Europe is in turmoil. Hitler's Germany has occupied Austria and is threatening Czechoslovakia; there's a civil war in Spain and Mussolini reigns in Italy.

When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske, he and his assistant – his one-time nemesis and former drug-smuggler Jack Rivers – begin a seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity.

But all is not what it seems, and when Jack is accused of murder, the trail leads back to the 1920s, to prohibition-era Norway, to the smugglers, sex workers and hoodlums of his criminal past ... and an extraordinary secret.

Both a fascinating portrait of Oslo's interwar years, with Nazis operating secretly on Norwegian soil and militant socialists readying workers for war, The Assistant is also a stunningly sophisticated, tension-packed thriller – the darkest of hard-boiled Nordic Noir – from one of Norway's most acclaimed crime writers.

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'Absorbing, heart-rending and perfectly plotted ... Fabulous!' Denzil Meyrick

'Utterly convincing' Publishers Weekly

'More than gripping' European Literature Network

'Kjell Ola Dahl's novels are superb. If you haven't read one, you need to – right now' William Ryan

'...action comes to a climax in an utterly convincing chase through Oslo's sewage system' Sunday Times

'Dark, stylish and suspenseful, Faithless is the perfect example of why Nordic Noir has become such a popular genre' Reader's Digest