I’m delighted to be part of the blog tour for Inborn by Thomas Enger and published by Orenda Books. It is a while since I read some Nordic Noir and it made me realise that I miss the genre and need to read more of it!
Thank you to Orenda Books and Anne Cater from #RandomThingsTours for a copy of Inborn by Thomas Enger. I was under no obligation to review the book and all thoughts are my own.
My Review:
This is the first Thomas Enger book that I have read but it certainly won’t be the last.
I found this book to be a bit of a slow burner after the initial shocking chapter, but it kept going and giving and twisting and questioning. I loved so much about it including the way that the author weaves two timelines into the story was brilliant, they fit together perfectly and I loved how it worked.
The story was clever, there were many twists and so many times I thought that I’d worked it out, but of course I hadn’t. So many of the characters seemed to be hiding something and it was hard for the reader to know who to trust.
I talked to a friend about Inborn and tried to explain how translated books are different, she struggled to understand what I meant and in the end I decided that authors from Norway, Iceland etc tend to use their words more wisely with less filler, everything that they say is important and part of the story. Some of these translated books are easier to read than others, but this one I found very easy to read so if you are new to Nordic Noir then I think that Inborn is a great place to start.
I’m not going to give any spoilers about the book and the story, but it is such a clever book and I loved reading it and finding out how it all came together. You’re in for a real treat!
Blurb:
When the high school in the small Norwegian village of Fredheim becomes a murder scene, the finger is soon pointed at seventeen-year-old Even.
As the investigation closes in, social media is ablaze with accusations, rumours and even threats, and Even finds himself the subject of an online trial as well as being in the dock… for murder?
Even pores over his memories of the months leading up to the crime, and it becomes clear that more than one villager was acting suspiciously… and secrets are simmering beneath the calm surface of this close-knit community. As events from the past play tag with the present, he’s forced to question everything he thought he knew. Was the death of his father in a car crash a decade earlier really accidental? Has his relationship stirred up something that someone is prepared to kill to protect?
It seems that there may be no one that Even can trust.
But can we trust him?
A taut, moving and chilling thriller, Inborn examines the very nature of evil, and asks the questions: How well do we really know our families? How well do we know ourselves?
About The Author:
Thomas Enger is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of five books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 28 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Killer Instinct, another Young Adult suspense novel, was published in Norway in 2017. Rights have been sold to Germany and Iceland. Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.
About the Translator:
KARI DICKSON read Scandinavian Studies at UCL and then went on to work in various theatres. While working in the theatre, she was asked to do literal translations of two Ibsen plays, which fuelled her interest and led to an MA in Translation at the University of Surrey. Having worked initially as a commercial translator, she now concentrates on literary translation, a good deal of which is crime fiction. Her translation of Roslund & Hellström’s Three Seconds won the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) International Dagger in 2011. She is also an occasional tutor in Norwegian language and literature, and translation at the University of Edinburgh.
If only I could read faster 
Huge thanks for the Blog tour support today x
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You are very welcome. Thanks for the invite.
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