A Foe to Fear
Knudsen, Jan: En fiende å frykteSet in Oslo in the fall of 2001, mere weeks after 9/11, A Foe to Fear unites elements of the political thriller, the psychological thriller and the police procedural in a highly inventive and effective fashion.
Different units within the Norwegian police are investigating murders tied to organized crime. Meanwhile, high ranking political players – all with a past in the blood stained Balkans of the nineties – are expected to visit the country.
Together with his hard-hitting partner Bernhard Fiske, independently minded Police Inspector Eddie Samson specializes in organized crime. Together they are monitoring the parts of the Oslo underworld being strengthened by a steady influx of veterans from the Balkan civil wars. When CIA agent William Meyer arrives in Oslo to secure a defector traveling from the Balkans to the US via Norway, a hit man prepares for a big job in Oslo. But who has hired the assassin – and who is the target?
As he is drawn into the intense hunt for the killer, Samson discovers that the case may seriously influence the course of international politics. Hampered by a lack of support from other police units as well as certain superiors, he is forced to confront the possibility that the threat may come from within, and that by gradually untangling the web he is jeopardizing both his own life and the lives of others.
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Praise for A Foe to Fear:
“A first novel by a thriller writer who has done has homework … One of the many places Jan Knudsen lets the action unfold in A Foe to Fear is on the top of the landing slope in the Holmenkollen ski jump. But the author doesn’t land there. He flies far down the slope, landing steadily after a finish where the classical literary devices of the thriller genre stand in line …”
(Bergens Tidende)
“Debutant Jan Knudsen has his ambitions in place. A Foe to Fear is both a police novel and a high political action thriller with a plethora of details for the author and the reader to keep track of. However, Knudsen has a steady grip on the many threads of his story, and it’s obvious that the book is no rush job … I usually don't laugh very often while reading crime novels, but Knudsen offers several funny dialogues, and Bernhard Fiske in particular is equipped with a well-developed wit.”
( Aftenposten)
First published: 2008, Aschehoug
Jan knudsen: Biography and bibliography
