'Bakkeid has entered the upper echelons of Norwegian crime writing' Barry Forshaw The first in a new Norwegian crime series by the winner of the Riverton Prize 2021 introducing disgraced ex-Chief Inspector Thorkild Aske, a damaged man with a complicated past Fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital, disgraced ex-policeman Thorkild Aske only wants to lose himself in drugged dreams of his beloved Frei. Wild, unknowable Frei. The woman he loved. The woman he has lost forever. Yet when Frei's young cousin goes missing off the Norwegian coast and Thorkild is called in by the family to help find him, dead or alive, Thorkild cannot refuse. He owes them this. Tormented by his past, Thorkild soon finds himself deep in treacherous waters. He's lost his reputation – will he now lose his life? The second Thorkild Aske mystery, Scatter Her Ashes, is out now