The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl

 

 This, I'll be honest, threw me a bit at first. The story is told through two different timelines; in 1924, when Ludvik Paaske is working for the police and trying to bring down his nemesis Jack Rivers and in 1938, when Norway and the world are on the brink of war and Paaske and Rivers are now working together as Private Investigators.

 In the 1938 timeline Paaske and Rivers are employed on a marital infidelity case which seems fairly straightforward until links start to emerge with events in their lives from the early 1920s and things get a lot more dangerous.

 In my opinion Rivers, the Assistant of the title, carries the bulk of the story which is a good thing as I found him the more relatable character (everybody loves a fictional rogue) than Paaske. Once I got into the two timeliness the story flowed well and the author did a great job of bringing the prohibition era Norway to life on the page.

 Where the book fell down for me a little was in the translation (I'm guessing). This made it feel a bit clunky in places but this can often be the case. It didn't really detract from a cracking story.

 This is certainly an author I will go back to again.

Thanks as always to Anne Cater at Random Things  for inviting me onto this Blogtour and please have a look at the posts by the other tour bloggers