Literature and Fiction / Mystery and Crime2011 · 320 pp
Satellite People
Hans Olav Lahlum
The date is 10th May 1969, a Saturday. DSI Kolbjørn “K2” Kristiansen is in his Oslo office when he receives a phone call from Ferdinand Schjelderup, the legendary multi-millionaire and resistance fighter. Schjelderup wants to see DSI Kristiansen about a family matter: one of his nearest and dearest is planning to kill him. Before the meeting takes place, Schjelderup collapses and dies during a Sunday dinner, at which ten members of his circle are present. The powerful, much disliked patriarch has been poisoned and the murderer sat at his dining table. Exactly on which seat is the question that drives this thrilling crime story. The plot thickens, as one mysterious letter after another warns of further deaths among the guests at Ferdinand Schjelderup's last meal. DSI Kristiansen needs help and he seeks it from his secret consultant, professor Borchmann's part-paralysed, witty daughter Patricia Louise I. E. Borchmann. Hans Olav Lahlum's Satellittmenneskene is in the classical mould of crime fiction – as close as possible for a book published in 2011. Satellittmenneskene is a thought-provoking, engaging novel about characters whose lives were part of an important period of modern Norwegian history.
‘Refreshingly old-fashioned and genial … Satellittmenneskene is impossible to put down. It contains a forceful drive and demands the reader’s full attention, because here there is a lot to keep straight. Bulls eye once again.’Six out of sixOppland Arbeiderblad‘Thorough retro crime fiction … If you like the classical crime novel as it was created by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, you should immediately go and buy Hans Olav Lahlum’s Satellittmenneskene.’Dagbladet‘Here is style. Lahlum puts his own finger print on this work, as he did with his previous novel. We are talking “Lahlumian” here. There is no one like him. Dealing with such a particular pen is so liberating. And with a mysterious plot, carefully constructed, and delightfully free of unneccessarily detailed voilence.’VG
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