Forty Days Without Shadow

Winter is savage and cold in Lapland. When a priceless local relic is stolen from Kautokeino, a village in the middle of the isolated snowy tundra, detectives Klemet Nango - a familiar face in the rural community - and Nina Nansen, fresh out of the local police academy, are called to investigate.

There are just a few days until the locals will host a UN conference on indigenous peoples, and Klemet and Nina are under pressure to retrieve the artefact. When a local reindeer herder is found brutally murdered soon afterwards, Klemet and Nina immediately suspect that the two events are linked. But the villagers don't take too kindly to having their secret histories stirred up and the duo is forced to cross the icy landscapes alone in search of the answers that will lead them to a killer.

Set in an alternately savage and dreamlike Lapland, this compelling, award-winning thriller tells the story of a native people fighting to keep their culture alive in a modern world of ruthless destruction.

Short-listed for CWA Daggers: International 2014 (UK)

“Forty Days Without Shadow is more than a splendidly told murder investigation and its consequences. It is a fascinating telling of bloody history, culture and indigenous people struggling against all odds to survive. The winter scenes are frighteningly real, and at times leave you breathless and filled with awe. A book you will not forget. A powerful, ingenious piece of crime noir.”

Forty Days Without Shadow is more than a splendidly told murder investigation and its consequences. It is a fascinating telling of bloody history, culture and indigenous people struggling against all odds to survive. The winter scenes are frighteningly real, and at times leave you breathless and filled with awe. A book you will not forget. A powerful, ingenious piece of crime noir. - New York Journal of Books

A dark, highly original novel. - Livres Hebdo

A remarkable, triumphant thriller. - Telerama Magazine

A powerful Nordic thriller. - Librairie l'usage du monde

Original, fascinating, with no concessions to surface '"exoticism". - Librairie L'Atelier

Olivier Truc's debut novel is a fascinating thriller by a writer who is already a master of the genre. - Librairie Garin

Olivier Truc was born in France in 1964. He has worked as a journalist since 1986, and has been based in Stockholm since 1994, where he is currently the Nordic and Baltic correspondent for Le Monde and Le Point. As a reporter, Olivier Truc covers subjects from politics and economics to social issues like immigration and minorities. He has also produced TV documentaries, including one that portrays a group of Norwegian policemen in Lapland. This is his debut novel.

Winter is savage and cold in Lapland. When a priceless local relic is stolen from Kautokeino, a village in the middle of the isolated snowy tundra, detectives Klemet Nango - a familiar face in the rural community - and Nina Nansen, fresh out of the local police academy, are called to investigate. There are just a few days until the locals will host a UN conference on indigenous peoples, and Klemet and Nina are under pressure to retrieve the artefact. When a local reindeer herder is found brutally murdered soon afterwards, Klemet and Nina immediately suspect that the two events are linked. But the villagers don't take too kindly to having their secret histories stirred up and the duo is forced to cross the icy landscapes alone in search of the answers that will lead them to a killer. Set in an alternately savage and dreamlike Lapland, this compelling, award-winning thriller tells the story of a native people fighting to keep their culture alive in a modern world of ruthless destruction.

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