The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl

(Translated by Don Bartlett)

I have loved thrillers and espionage novels for many years but along comes The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl (Orenda Books) and weaves them both together and set in the darkest part of Europe’s history. It set in Oslo in 1942 and Esther just manages to escape being seized by the dreaded Gestapo.

Ester manages to escape to Sweden, but she will never see her family again as they are arrested and sent to Auschwitz. It is while in Sweden she meets the mysterious and yet resistance hero Gerard Falkum. Gerard has fled the Gestapo and has his own story to tell.

There are stories about Falkum murdering his wife Åse who just happened to be Ester’s close friend while they were at school. Are these stories true and why would Falkum kill his wife? But then he dies in a fire. Ester wants answers to how and why her best friend died. There is immense tension all through the story as Ester plays a deadly game that could end in her being arrested by the Nazis and sent to one of the death camps. But Ester want and seeks answers.

The story then flits forward twenty-five years and the mysterious Falkum appears to have come back from the dead and shows up in Oslo. Where has he been all these years. There is danger ahead for Ester and she must use all her courage to keep one step ahead and stay alive. This is a superbly character driven storyline set in a time when many did brave things to defeat the Nazi’s. A tense and compelling plot that has many twists. The movement between different timelines is easy to follow as they are marked at the start of every chapter.

For Ester she seeks answers about her friend and also answers to what happened to her own family. There is incredible emotion at this point as I have read many books on the Holocaust.

It is not hard to see why Kjell Ola Dahl is so highly respected. The Courier is exceptional and is one of the best books I have read so far this year and will take some beating. Six out of Five stars. A MUST READ!

276 Pages.

Thank you to Karen Sullivan (Orenda Books) for the review copy of The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl.

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl published by Orenda Books and will be published on 21^st March 2018 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.