The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl. Thanks so much to Anne for organising the tour.
Don't forget to check out the other stops!

The Synopsis

When a dead man is lifted from the freezing waters of Oslo Harbour just before Christmas, Detective Lena Stigersand’s stressful life suddenly becomes even more complicated. Not only is she dealing with a cancer scare, a stalker and an untrustworthy boyfriend, but it seems both a politician and Norway’s security services might be involved in the murder.
With her trusted colleagues, Gunnarstranda and Frølich, at her side, Lena digs deep into the case and finds that it not only goes to the heart of the Norwegian establishment, but it might be rather to close to her personal life for comfort.
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My Review

The Ice Swimmer is written by Kjell Ola Dahl, one of the godfathers of Nordic Noir and I'm shocked that I've never read any of his books before, since I'm a big fan of the genre!
This book is part of the Oslo detective series but I read it as a standalone. While the detectives feature in the previous novels and I assume there might've been references to this which I missed, I didn't feel at all left out and for me, it worked perfectly well as a standalone.
I found the opening chapter extremely gripping and the rest of the book followed suit. This is one of those novels where you can read the first few pages and just know it's going to be brilliant.
It's fast paced and exceptionally tense yet it also features a detective with her own personal problems and battles to overcome which for me added an extra dimension to the plot.
It's an excellent police procedural with a bit of a psychological thriller twist which I really enjoyed.
Overall, I'm giving The Ice Swimmer 4 out of 5. It's dark, tense and gripping and I'll look forward to reading the rest of the series.
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This e-book was provided free in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Author

One of the godfathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries and sold over two million copies. He lives in Oslo.