Fiction

The Whisperer

Karin Fossum

Ragna Riegel works at Europris and lives alone in her childhood home. Her parents have died and her only son has moved to Berlin, and they have no contact other than occasional Christmas and birthday cards. Ragna lives within close confines. She likes her job because it is full of routine, she likes to sit on the same seat on the bus every day and she likes to buy the same things at the local shop each day. She must have order in her life. And she does, until one day she finds a letter in her mailbox with her name on the envelope and a clear threat written in block capitals on the sheet inside. The letter reinforces a nightmare where Ragna Riegel's life is threatened by an unknown enemy and she realises that she must use all means possible to defend herself. The novel takes the form of Konrad Sejer's interrogation of Ragna Riegel after the worst has happened; after it is too late. A powerful narrative from one of the strongest voices in Norwegian crime literature. ‘Hviskeren is a novel that measures up to any literature, crime or otherwise.’ DAGBLADET ‘It is her ability to make average, often wounded human psyches crackle and glow in all the colours of the rainbow that is Fossum's forte as a writer. She has an exceptional eye for fragility and vulnerability, and the complexity and dark humour of these states of mind.’ AFTENPOSTEN