Contemporary Authors

• Requiem Minotaur Books (New York, NY), 2018

• Geir Tangen - https://www.geirtangen.com/biography

  Here you can read about my life so far, and why I became an crime author. If you want more information about my life, my books or my interest in crime fiction, please use the contact-page and write me.

  "I have always said that you would become a writer", my best friend told me, a few months before my first crime novel was released in January 2016. He knows me better than most people, and he is of course right. It has always been my destiny, or so I like to think. Since the first time I entered the local library as a little kid, my fascination for books has infected my blood. I love writing and I have always searched for opportunities where I can use the written word to express myself, or to tell my stories.

  ​

  I was born January 15, 1970 in a litlle village called Øystese in the middle of beautiful Hardanger in Norway. The garden of Norway, as some call it. The stunning mountains and fjords have been, and still are, a big part of my soul. My parents were kind and loving. They always gave me a great deal of space to do the things I loved to do. My father inspired me as a young kid with his fairytales and spooky stories about our town. Sometimes he would scare me on walks in the woods, and I loved that! Later on he introduced me to the world of books. He was a constant cheerleader for my reading and writing. My mother did not read much, but she was the one who bought books, and made sure that I always had the time and space to read them. She instructed my aunts and uncles what books they should buy for me for christmas and birthdays. The best gifts every time :). I have two older brothers, and one older sister. All of them still live in Hardanger.

  ​

  I am married to another writer, Agnes Lovise Matre (1966). We both work as teachers, and teach subjects such as Norwegian, Social Science, History, Religion, and English. She has two children from former relationships, Christine (1985) and Vebjørn (1997). I have a son named Daniel (1998). We live in a small town called Haugesund on the western coast of Norway, which is, by the way, where the blod is spilled in my crime stories… Both my wife and I have been writing for different newspapers, web sites and magazines during the years. We also write our own blogs. She has an author blog, and I have a crime fiction blog. Both of our blogs have been visited by several hundered thousands of viewers in Norway since we started out in 2012.

  ​

  I wrote my first crime fiction stories when I was 11-12 years old, and I assume I haunted my friends with reading them out loud. Later on, as a teenager, I wrote poems that were published in the local newspaper. The dream of writing a novel kept on kicking at me when I was in my twenties, but it was first when I met my current wife Agnes in 2001, that I did something about it. We tried writing together without making the progress that we hoped for. Ten years later, we decided to finally make our dreams come true. We both sat down writing, using every spare moment we had. Afternoons, weekends, holidays ... In 2012 my wife released her first novel "Stryk meg over håret” (Stroke my hair), and three years later, in the fall 2015, her second novel "Kledd naken" (Undressed) made its way into the bookstores in Norway. During this period I kept on writing on my first crime novel "Maestro" (The Movements). The first book of a trilogy, all based on the lyrics of three different songs by the Norwegian musicans "Kaizers Orchestra".

  ​

  The publisher who was meant to publish Maestro cloed its shop in October 2015, and I stood without a publisher for my novel. Then my wife and I decided that we should self-publish Maestro to the Norwegian market. We invested a lot of money and time in making the novel as great as we wanted it to be, and in January 2016 by our own publishung house MATA. It was a huge success from day one, and we had to print more and more books to keep up with the demand. A lot of media laid their eyes on my novel, and in february the swedish literary agency Ahlander Agency signed me as one of their authors. A month later they had sold the publishing rights to Maestro to fifteen contries in Europe and the US. It was a fairytale come true.

  ​

  In the summer of 2016 my wife and I took time off from our jobs as teachers to write our next novels. We have both signed with Norway’s largest publisher, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, for our upcoming books. Agnes' third novel, "Skinnet bedrar” (Appearances are deceptive) is being published in 2017, as is my second crime novel "Hjerteknuser" (Heartbreaker).

  ​

  During the fall of 2016 we will live in our apartment in Spain, just writing. Isn’t that a dream come true, or what?

• Connie's Boekenblog - https://conniesboekenblog.nl/2018/02/13/interview-with-geir-tangen/

  QUOTED: "It is a good writing-tip to write from an environment that you know very well. It is easier to make it believable and real when you know everything that is to know about the place. And, we didn’t have any crime fiction heroes from Haugesund. Every Norwegian city should have one, so I decided to do the job."
  "Haugesund is the most beautiful city in the world when the sun is shining during the summer. The problem is that it almost never does. It is a rainy and windy town at the west coast of Norway. Not far from Bergen and Stavanger. We have everything the Norwegian nature can offer. The fjords and the mountains, the north sea, islands and it is the navel of the historic Viking kings."

  Hello Geir,

  Thanks very much for agreeing to this interview. I was very enthusiastic about your book on my blog and it made my readers curious about you and “Het Meesterwerk“ (the Dutch title of the book).

  Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the book?
  I am 48 years old, a teacher and a writer. But who am I actually? As I said in a former interview this week I might say that I am a dreamer who never grew up. In my head I am still this crazy teenager who thinks that he can manage everything if I put my mind to it. I still think that I can be a pop star, an olympic athlet or … a famous crime author. There are no borders, and no strings that is holding me. But of course … These dreams are only in my childish head when I am all alone in my car or have the appartement all by myself. In real life I am pretty boring, actually. A father and a grandfather, a husband and a friend. A teacher and a writer.

  I started out writing “Maestro” (Het Meesterwerk) in 2010, but the story that I wrote until the summer of 2012 were rubbish, actually. I wrote without a plan, and suddenly I understood that I didnt even know how it all would come together in the end, and I didnt belive a word of the story myself, so I just deleted it. (!) Then … The same day, I drove my kid Daniel to his mother, and I heard a Norwegian song on the radio called “Maestro”. I listened to the lyrics for the first time, stopped the car, had a cigarette – and understood that the lyrics just gave me a fantastic crime fiction story that I wanted to write. So I did 🙂 It took my 3,5 years from the first word on the screen until it was published in january 2016. I was stunned by the idea of making a thriller that at the same time was a tribute to the crime fiction genre, and this story had a lot of opportunities to do just that. Maestro is ment to be a chocking nerve-wracking thriller, but at the same time a joyful ride were the author playes with the reader.

  I have some short questions for you to get to know you a bit more. And of course the answers can be short also.

  For your own reading do you prefer ebooks or paper books?
  Until this winter I have read all my books in paper. You know that feeling of having a book in my hand, turning the pages, feeling the paper through my fingers … It is magic! But at Christmas my wife gave me a Kindle, and now … Well, I don’t go anywhere without it. I can read when it is dark in the bedroom or when the sun is shining. I love the little bastard

  What do you think about trailers for books?
  I have never thought about it, actually. But of course, I felt proud when I saw the trailer for my second book on TV. I think that in our time advertising is more important for an author than it was 20 years ago. Without banners, trailers, TV commercials or radio spots no one seems to know that you have written a new book, and the bookstores just follow the best-seller list. So I guess that book trailers is something we really need in 2018.

  Do you write in silence or do you have music on?
  Ha ha … Great question! I NEED silence. When I wrote “Maestro” I stood up at 05.00 in the morning for a while just to have the house all by myself, and no one who disturbed the genius writer. I almost killed our cat for snoring at one point. But I am lucky … My wife is an author as well, so there is plenty of room for silence in our new apartment.

  Pen, typewriter or computer?
  I am a digital writer. For me it is always the computer. I use it not only for writing, but as a tool in planning the book as well. Microsoft OneNote is the perfect tool for notes and planning a project like a book. And of course, I use the internet a lot doing my research.

  What is your favorite book ever?
  In the crime fiction genre: Stieg Larsson – The girl with the dragoon tattoo. I have never – ever – read a book that grabbed my head and crushed it to the wall as this one did. In my third book “Dead men dancing” I actually have a whole scene dedicated to this novel. A tribute to a beloved author and the best reading experience I ever had. As a kid I loved the great stories that Jules Verne wrote, and in my youth, I still remember reading everything that Alistar McClean wrote.

  Wine or beer?
  For a romantic meal: wine, For everything else: BEER!

  What is your favorite childhood book?
  Oh … I just said didn`t I …? Jules Verne: The mysterious island. But … I read every single book of the Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon as well. I still cherish these books.

  Which author (alive or dead) would you like to meet?
  As I said earlier … Stieg Larsson. But I have not had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with Jo Nesbo yet, and that is still a dream for me.

  Which authors inspired you?
  Many … But you will find most of them in “Maestro”. Great nordic noir-writers as Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Gunnar Staalesen, Anne Holt. But just as important for me is Alistar McClean, Desmond Bagley, Jan Guillio and Ken Follett.

  Your favorite movie
  Ha ha … Oh my God, I will get bullied after saying this, but I really love “Hangover”. The first one. I laughed so loudly that I almost got carried out of the cinema by the guards. It is a commercial, empty headed comedy … But hey … I have seen the film eight times, and I still laugh so hard that it hurts. Of TV-series I have to say that “The bridge” has been a big inspiration for me.

  Cat or dog?
  I am, and always will be, a cat-person. I love cats and I miss having one. Since my wife and I both have managed to have a break-through as authors we don`t have time to take care of pets.

  Are you going on a world tour to promote your book? And if so will you visit Holland?
  I have been on a tour in Denmark and Spain, and I would love to come to Holland as well, but I don`t think that House of Books have any plans for me there yet. I guess they will wait and see if the book becomes a success or not.

  Requiem USAThe book is sold to more than 15 countries. Were you involved with all the covers and titles? Which covers are your favorite?
  I am not involved, but I always approve the titles and the covers. Actually, the dutch cover is the one I love the most It is fantastic! But I also am very fund of the American cover which I have attached to this mail.

  Your book is a tribute to the Scandinavian thriller. What draws you to this genre? And what inspired you to write a tribute?
  The love of the Nordic thrillers has been there since I first read a Norwegian crime fiction author named Fredrik Skagen in the mid-eightees. As I said I have read mostly international thriller-authors like McClean and Bagley before, but when I discovered Skagen I understood that there was a whole world of Scandinavian authors as well, writing stories from Norway, Sweden an Denmark. I looked them up, and loved the books. Gunnar Staalesen, Jan Guillio, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Henning Mankell … and later on I read the Norwegian queens of Scandinavian crime as Anne Holt, Karin Fossum and Unni Lindell.

  I am fond of stories that manage to mix the dark minds and the dark deeds with the Scandinavian way of living and thinking. No heroes with swelling muscles and catchy one-liners beating the crooks with their bare hands. No, instead we have these calm investigators with a real life who use their mind solving the mysteries. And then of course you have the angle of the murderer describing why crimes like this can happen. It makes the stories more interesting and exciting.

  The book is the first part of a trilogy. Can you describe the trilogy using only 5 keywords?
  A dark, intense rollercoaster with unexpected twists

  When will part 3 be released?
  I have just delivered part 3 to the publisher, and it will be released here in Norway during the fall of 2018.

  Will that really be the end of the story’s about Viljar and Lotte?
  Yes, it will. I have made scrambled eggs of them both during these three books, and I cant see them standing on their feet again after this … BUT, there is an opening that makes it possible if I find it necessary.

  Did you plot the whole storyline of Viljar and Lotte for the 3 books before writing?
  No, I did`nt. I wrote “Maestro” without thinking of writing a sequel, but then my agent sold the rights for a second book to 15 countries, and a third book for two countries (Holland and Norway), so I had to sit down and think it all through. Then I planned number two (Heartbreaker), and after that I saw how the third book (Dead men dancing) had to end.

  haugesundWhy did you choose your hometown as setting for the book? Please tell us some nice things and places about Haugesund.
  It is a good writing-tip to write from an environment that you know very well. It is easier to make it believable and real when you know everything that is to know about the place. And, we didn’t have any crime fiction heroes from Haugesund. Every Norwegian city should have one, so I decided to do the job. Haugesund is the most beautiful city in the world when the sun is shining during the summer. The problem is that it almost never does. It is a rainy and windy town at the west coast of Norway. Not far from Bergen and Stavanger. We have everything the Norwegian nature can offer. The fjords and the mountains, the north sea, islands and it is the navel of the historic Viking kings.

  When your book was released, were you very nervous about the reviews? And what was the best / most heartwarming comment?
  Nervous is just the first letter … I was a wreck, because I never thought that my novel would reach the newspaper reviews. But it happened, and I cant even describe the feeling when the largest newspaper in Norway gave it five out of six stars from Ingvar Ambjørnsen. One of the greatest authors in Norwegian crime fiction history. A guru, you might as well say. “Geir Tangen really knows crime” he said … The best feeling ever …

  About the characters:
  Can you describe Viljar and Lotte in 5 keywords?
  Viljar: Nerve wreck. Warm-hearted. A stayer. Naive. Leisurely.
  Lotte: Ambitious. Compulsive. Intelligent. Rule-bounded. Big sense of justice.

  What are the best and the worst characteristics from Viljar and Lotte?
  Oh … That is a difficult question. I love both the up and the down sides of them both. They have both this sense of justice that is very important for me, and for the choices they take during these three books. I like the childish and simple humor that Viljar has. His oblique glance to the world and the people he meet. He finds a new friend in “Jossen” in the second book, and the dialogues between them are hilarious. Lotte starts out as a pretty cold hearted business woman, but ends up as the opposite. I like that she develops as a character, and become closer to Viljar during the three books.

  Name 3 special characters in the book you liked writing about (besides Viljar and Lotte)
  In Maestro? I love Viljars neighbor, the lady who keeps an eye with everything that goes on in the block were he lives. She has no name, but she appears in all three books. A side-kick that I love writing. Then we have the culture-journalist Henrik Thomsen. He is a copy of a real character with all his stupid nicknames to everyone he meets, and with an ego that is even bigger than his body-weight. (Witch is enormous) At last I like to mention Lottes sister, Anne. She presents a believable face to all the junkies that we sadly have in our hometown.

  If the books were to be adapted to a Scandinavian tv-serie, who would you want to play Viljar and Lotte?
  I use photos of celebrities when I create my characters, and for Viljar I used an Norwegian actor named Kristoffer Joner, and of course it would be a dream for me seeing him play Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson. A little harder picking Lotte, but I have a favorite Norwegian actor in Charlotte Frogner. She would do a great job.
  If there would be a Hollywood movie of the book which actor and actress would you choose for Viljar and Lotte?
  Oh my God … That would be a real out-of-myself experience! Well, here it is: Ryan Gosling from “La-la Land” and “Blade Runner 2049” would be the perfect Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson. Lotte Skeisvoll has a kind of depth to her character that needs someone like Anne Hathaway, I think …

  Which character is your favorite and why?
  My favorite actually doesn’t turn up until the second book. “Jossen” an ex-junkie in a wheel cheer with a great sense of humor. I love him! In “Maestro” I really am fund of the main character in the side-story, “Jonas”. A homosexual teenager growing up in a christian family.

  Which character was the hardest to write about?
  The same as above. Jonas was hard, because I had to get into the mind of a homosexual teenager, and give him a realistic point of view. Writing a homo-erotic love scene was really difficult at the time, but I think I managed OK, and I am proud of how Jonas and Frederics stories became in the end.

  Are you currently thinking about or already writing a new book, and if so can you tell us something about it?
  I delivered the manuscript to book 3 “Dead men dancing” on Thursday, so no … I haven’t thought it through yet, but it will be more crime fiction from my pen in the future. That much I can promise.

  Did the big success of the book change your life? And where do you see yourself in 10 years?
  Yes, of course it has changed our lives. We both (my wife and I) has had a break-through as authors, and we can live of writing if we want to now. Still we both keep on to our jobs as teachers, but for how long …? Well, we just have to wait and see. In ten years from now I see myself as a full-time crime fiction author. Writing is my life, and I love each second of it. In my dreams someone has made my books into films or TV-series, but the most important thing for me is that my wife and I still has the thrill of writing, and the readers a thrill of reading it.

  Thank you so much for the interview.

  Greetings from Connie Flipse / Connie’s Boekenblog.

• Thrillerlezers - http://thrillerlezers.blogspot.com/2018/02/geir-tangen-questioned.html

  QUOTED: "I drove my kid Daniel to his mother, and I heard a Norwegian song on the radio called 'Maestro'. I listened to the lyrics for the first time, stopped the car, had a cigarette—and understood that the lyrics just gave me a fantastic crime fiction story that I wanted to write. So I did."
  "It took my 3.5 years from the first word on the screen until it was published in January 2016. I was stunned by the idea of making a thriller that at the same time was a tribute to the crime fiction genre, and this story had a lot of opportunities to do just that. Maestro is meant to be a chocking nerve-wracking thriller, but at the same time a joyful ride were the author plays with the reader."

  woensdag 21 februari 2018

  Geir Tangen questioned

  C: Haakon Nordvik
  GEIR TANGEN is a writer, teacher and crime book blogger from Haugesund, Norway, whose bestselling debut crime novel, Maestro, has been sold to 15 countries.
  Thrillerlezers questioned the author

  Who is Geir Tangen? Which five words will described you best and why?
  I have answered this question a couple of times the last few days, and I`ll say the same thing here: I am 48 years old, a teacher and a writer. But who am I actually? I might say that I am a dreamer who never grew up. In my head I am still this crazy teenager who thinks that he can manage everything if I put my mind to it. I still think that I can be a pop star, an Olympic athlete or ... a famous crime author. There are no borders, and no strings that is holding me. But of course ... These dreams are only in my childish head when I am all alone in my car or have the apartment all by myself. In real life I am pretty boring, actually. A father and a grandfather, a husband and a friend. A teacher and a writer.

  Five words: Kind. Playful. Seeking. Creative. Workoholic.
  That is because I get anxious when I have to much spare-time. I have some creative genes that need to be stimulated, and I love to play with the characters, trying to stretch them as far as they can go. My books are cruel and you might as well say dark and bloody, but me as a person is all kind. Actually I am described as “stupid kind” by my friends and family. My mother and father raised me that way, and I always try to think twice how my actions will effect others around me. Maybe that’s why I am an evil bastard when I sit down writing 😉 Finally, I can be cruel without hurting anyone.

  How did you come up with the plot of this first book
  I started out writing “Maestro” (Het Meesterwerk) in 2010, but the story that I wrote until the summer of 2012 were rubbish, actually. I wrote without a plan, and suddenly I understood that I didnt even know how it all would come together in the end, and I didnt belive a word of the story myself, so I just deleted it. (!) Then ... The same day, I drove my kid Daniel to his mother, and I heard a Norwegian song on the radio called "Maestro". I listened to the lyrics for the first time, stopped the car, had a cigarette - and understood that the lyrics just gave me a fantastic crime fiction story that I wanted to write. So I did :) It took my 3,5 years from the first word on the screen until it was published in january 2016. I was stunned by the idea of making a thriller that at the same time was a tribute to the crime fiction genre, and this story had a lot of opportunities to do just that. Maestro is ment to be a chocking nerve-wracking thriller, but at the same time a joyful ride were the author playes with the reader.

  C: Haakon Nordvik
  What character in the book has most of you in it? Viljar?
  Yes, sadly enough, Viljar is the one character that has most of my own thoughts and behaviour. His nicotine addiction, his oblique glance to the world and the people he meet, his childish mind and his leisurly way on solving boring rutine-jobs is all me. So I guess I have given him all my down-sides … 😉

  Het meesterwerk (Maestro) is your first book and you published in 2016 the book first by yourself. How is the story to Gyldendaal?
  The story is the same in the first version and in the Gyldendal-version. Nothing is changed, actually. They did a copyediting and some correction-job of course. But maybe you asked how the story ended up at Gyldendal after I published it myself in January 2016? The answer to that is that I got picked up by the Swedish literature-agent Astri von Arbin Ahlander, and she sold the rights to 15 countries, including Gyldendal in Norway. So, I am a norwegian author who is sold to a Norwegian publisher from Sweden 😊

  The foreign rights of your book is sold to 15 countries. What is your feeling about that? How have you celebrate that?
  Both my first two books are sold to 15 countries, and the third will come out in Holland as well as in Norway. It is overwhelming. I am extremely glad that my stories are reaching out to so many readers all around the world. It is a fairy tail and a dream come true. The first country that bought “Maestro” were Denmark, and that night when it happened my wife and I had a hilarious party all night long, but after that there hasn’t been that much celebrating. We have bought a new apartment by the seaside in Haugesund, and have travelled a lot.

  What kind of books do you like to read yourself?
  It is all crime fiction for me. Nothing else. I get inspiration from reading other crime fiction authors, and I get ideas. It has been this way for several years. I got a little tired of reading general fiction when I took my exams in literature, and I find it kind of boring. That doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize quality when I see it. I just don’t take time reading it any more.

  Do you have a writing-routine or any writing rituals, and if so, what are they?
  I need silence, and I have to check my mailbox and social medias before I write. A bad habbit, but I need to know what happens in the world before I write. I usually write in the morning before anyone is up, or at night when everyone has gone to bed.

  Do you plot out your book from start to finish and then write it down or let you your characters lead the story and see where they take you?
  I am a planner. I plan and write summary of all the scenes in the book before I start writing it. Every detail is planned up front, and the clues and misleads are cruelly placed where I need the story to take a twist or a turn.

  What can distract you from writing?
  Everything. My phone, my wife, the internet, TV, sports, media, the cat snoring, … I am easily distracted as you can see. Not because I don’t want to write, but because I am inside a bubble when writing, and everything else happening in the world keeps on making a sting in that bubble.

  C: Haakon Nordvik

  When did you discover you wanted to be a writer?
  Early on. As a kid I loved being at the library just looking at the books, dreaming that my name would be placed on the back of one of them. 10 years old I wrote manuscripts that I read for my friends, and made them actors who could play out the scenes that I wrote. I have always loved writing, and have worked spare time as freelance journalist for nearly 20 years before I ended up as an author.

  Scandinavian Thrillers are very popular here in the Netherlands, have you an explanation?
  Yes, I think I have. First of all – the quality of Nordic crime fiction authors is extremely good. They know how to write! But then again I think that dutch people find a lot of similarities between their own society and the Scandinavian. Personally I am fund of stories that manage to mix the dark minds and the dark deeds with the Scandinavian way of living and thinking. No heroes with swelling muscles and catchy one-liners beating the crooks with their bare hands. No, instead we have these calm investigators with a real life who use their mind solving the mysteries. And then of course you have the angle of the murderer describing why crimes like this can happen. It makes the stories more interesting and exciting. I think that dutch readers can recognise these qualities in the Nordic noir-stories.

  Which Norwegian author can you advise? (Only translated authors)
  If you like to read traditionally detective stories with a social twist: Gunnar Staalesen
  If you like the down to earth police-investigator with focus on solving the mystery: Jørn Lier Horst
  If you like it dark, bloody and creepy: Ingar Johnsrud

  If you like journalist-crime at high speed: Thomas Enger
  If you like historic mysteries with hidden objects, codes and Dan Brown: Tom Egeland
  If you like pure quality literature with suspense and nerve: Karin Fossum

  Besides of a writer of books are you a famous crimeblogger: how will that started?
  It all started out when my wife published her first novel, and I looked for places on the internet were they talked about books and literature. Suddenly I found this great society of books-bloggers. I thought that I could do the same, only focusing on crime fiction. It became a huge success, and by 2017 over 350.000 readers had visited the blog.

  Some other questions:
  *If you had to stay on a deserted island for a year, what 3 things would you take with you?
  Fresh water for a year, my Kindle, and at last I would take one for the team and bring Donald Trump with me, so the rest of the world would get rid of him for a year.

  *If you have someone over for the first time, what do you cook for them?
  He he … My little secret 😉 I would make a delicious carrot cake.

  *What makes you very happy?
  Making other people happy. Seeing my kids managing the world. My wife smiling. My readers telling about their reading-experiences.

  *Have you a quilty pleasure by music?
  In the 80`s it was all hardrock for me. AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Accept, Dio. Then came the 90`s and I loved the grunge period. B52`s, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Nickelback. The last 20 years I have listened to Norwegian music, and my three books all have their titles from a Norwegian rock-band “Kaizers Orchestra”. Their lyrics of their three songs “Maestro”, “Hjerteknuser” and “Død manns tango” has been an inspiration to the the three books with the same title.
  Here can you listen to maestro

QUOTED: "Pedestrian prose and overly familiar situations undercut this twisted tale of revenge."

Requiem
Publishers Weekly.
265.21 (May 21, 2018): p50. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: Requiem
Geir Tangen, trans, from the Norwegian by Paul Norlen. Minotaur, $25.99 (400p) ISBN 9781-250-12406-7
Pedestrian prose and overly familiar situations undercut this twisted tale of revenge, the first novel from Tangen, a Norwegian crime book blogger. In 2014, jaded journalist Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson (an Icelander working for the Haugesund, Norway, newspaper) receives a series of emails describing murders that copycat lurid scenes in well-known Nordic crime novels. Viljar helps Chief Insp. Lotte Skeisvoll, who has the requisite family problem to distract her (a sister with a drinking problem), investigate the serial killings, with mostly unwanted contributions from grouchy, old-fashioned Kripos detective Olav Scheldrup Hansen. The main narrative alternates with short, creepy peeks into the psychopathic killer's warped brain and excerpts of the fouryear- old backstory of Viljar's big scoop and a bad mistake that caused his fall from journalistic fame and his consequent psychological deterioration. Scandinavian noir fans have seen all of this before. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Requiem." Publishers Weekly, 21 May 2018, p. 50. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541012595/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=76ebd974. Accessed 1 Oct. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541012595
1 of 1 10/1/18, 3:51 PM

• Criminal Element
  https://www.criminalelement.com/review-requiem-by-geir-tangen/
  Word count: 862

  QUOTED: "Overall, Requiem is an entertaining read, and Tangen has introduced protagonists that readers will want to see more of in the future."

  Review: Requiem by Geir Tangen
  By Alex Calamela
  August 14, 2018
  Requiem
  Geir Tangen

  Gudmundsson and Skeisvoll Series

  July 31, 2018

  Requiem by Geir Tangen is a debut novel and the first in the thrilling Gudmundsson and Skeisvoll series.

  This debut crime novel is authored by a Norwegian crime book blogger. Since the beginning of its publishing journey, Requiem has been sold in 15 countries. It’s good to note a bit of the novel’s background early because Geir Tangen’s influence is evident within its pages. An avid crime and suspense reader—especially one who loves Norwegian thrillers like those of Jo Nesbo—will recognize some of the plot twists, but Requiem will keep you guessing until the very end. Tangen supplies viable suspects along the way but executes twists and turns that will keep the reader on their toes even through to the last 10 pages. Lotte Skeisvoll and Viljar Gudmundsson are relatable characters, and as much as the reader is following along to find the killer, their stories are a focus as well.

  An anonymous email sent to Viljar Gudmundsson is a bizarre curiosity—sent to the police merely to cover his bases—but it’s just the beginning of a dark and twisted game. Chief Investigator Lotte Skeisvoll knows that the sinister player at the other side of the computer screen is calculating their moves and leading them down a dark path. But both journalist and investigator will be forced to face their metaphorical demons before they can track down this real one.

  Gudmundsson is an infamous journalist who has already experienced his heyday. His work now is nothing more than fluff for an editor he hates. He also struggles with anxiety, an aspect of his life that he attempts to keep hidden, which isn’t incredibly difficult when he keeps himself so isolated that he can count both friends and family on one hand.

  Skeisvoll is a born detective. Her extreme attention to detail and relentlessness have resulted in her reaching chief inspector by the young age of 30. But her focus takes an extreme form in her personal life. It’s well known that she is living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which leads her to rewrite notes from a crime scene if in the wrong ink or to eat the exact same meal at the same time every day. Her only family is her younger sister, who is in and out of Skeisvoll’s life thanks to a drug addiction that keeps her on the streets.

  The relationship between the two is interesting in that, personally, they seem to have no relationship at all. They are aware of each other as one local journalist and one chief detective may be aware of each other, but there’s no camaraderie. On the Venn diagram that is Requiem, Lotte is on the left, Viljar is on the right, and their circles experience a slim overlap that includes the case. So unlike most thrillers, we get to see the story unfolding from two completely different sides but don’t have to follow the two main characters into a shared personal life. The reader is instead treated to two completely different worlds. Think Law & Order, where half of the time the story is told through the investigation, while the other half is told through the prosecution and in the courtroom. In Requiem, it’s half journalistic research and half investigation.

  Rather than being told simply through the alternating points of view, the novel also includes the viewpoints of secondary characters as well as flashbacks. The penetrating viewpoints of various characters (many unreliable) help keep the reader on their toes.

  Requiem is a love letter to Norwegian crime novels and the novelists who write them. Tangen’s inclusion of familiar tropes and scenes is clearly in reverence. More than relying on the familiar in terms of subject matter, a little Googling reveals that the setting is as close to home for Tangen as it gets—the town of Haugesund, Norway, is where he is actually from. The reader will also find Geir Tangen eventually using himself as an enjoyable plot device, really throwing a wrench into any theories they’ve come up with.

  In an attempt to keep the reader guessing, the novel does seem to feature many trails that lead to dead ends. Clues are often presented and then thrown out the window for the next possible clue. Some may find it a bit exhausting, and the novel may leave one feeling a bit winded. But the surprise is definitely worth more than the steady and somewhat predictable plots of other thrillers. Overall, Requiem is an entertaining read, and Tangen has introduced protagonists that readers will want to see more of in the future.
  Read an excerpt from Requiem!
  Filed Under:
  Alex Calamela
  Geir Tangen
  Gudmundsson and Skeisvoll Series