1222 (Hanne Wilhelmsen Mystery #8)

1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector (and lesbian) Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn't worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne's growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? Bitter and anti-social, she is slowly coaxed back to her old habits as her curiosity and natural talent for observation compel her to take an interest in the passengers and their secrets. And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

This huge international bestseller is the eight and most recent in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series.  Norwegian lesbian crime writer Anne Holt has worked as a journalist and news anchor, and spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway’s Minister for Justice in 1996-97. Also check out the other Hanne Wilhelmsen mysteries.

Paperback, 313 Pages, This English Ed. Published 2010