Dregs [Paperback]

Dregs is a very enjoyable, classic police-procedural novel featuring Chief Inspector William Wisting who lives and works in Stavern, a town on the coast south of Oslo. As the novel opens we are plunged straight into the story of how a training shoe containing a foot is washed up on shore. This is the second such find in the space of a week. The police have already investigated all reported missing people in the area, and have identified the names of four people who have disappeared in the past year and not been found. Can they link any of the names to the feet?

As well as being frustrated by an increasingly puzzling case, Wisting, at 51, is feeling his age. As the novel opens he has just been to see his doctor for a check-up, but never gets the time (or the nerve) to find out the results. Wisting is the grandson of one of Amundsen's companions on his polar expedition; he's a widower, living on his own but has started a relatively new relationship with Suzanne, someone he met during a previous case. Wisting has a journalist daughter, Line. At the moment she is working on a long feature article about the effectiveness (or not) of prison sentences as a deterrent. To this end, she plans to interview half a dozen or so convicted criminals who have served their time. One of these is a man from the Stavern area who shot and killed a policeman 20 years ago - hence Line is staying with her father while she prepares for and undertakes the interview. Wisting remembers the case well, and rather dislikes his daughter's project, though wisely does not share this view with her.

Over time, some more feet are discovered as well as another missing person. The police team of Wisting and three colleagues follow up on the disappearances, and are pleased when some relationships become apparent: most of the disappeared had some connection with a particular care home, and two of them had children who subsequently married each other. By dint of questioning and DNA tests, the police discover the identity of the owner of the first foot, and of a third one when that is also washed up on shore, but cannot work out who the second one belongs to.

The novel continues its three themes: the details of the feet investigation; Wisting's thoughts and personal concerns; and Line's progress towards her article (and her romantic relationship with Tommy, an ex(?)-criminal, of whom Wisting disapproves but again sensibly keeps his own counsel). In terms of the case, the pacing of the novel is superb, in that more information comes to light gradually, so one experiences a sense of the police's frustration without being bored at their lack of progress, and also one feels one can have a shot at trying to put the pieces together (which I sort of grasped in outline but did not manage to work out the precise details). Suffice it to say that the eventual explanation for the feet and their state works very well, and the outcome of the mystery is very well put together.

I loved everything about this book: the characters of the introspective, dedicated Wisting and his independent daughter are both interesting (as are the other police officers, though they are sketched quite briefly); the plain-speaking style of writing (and translation); and the way in which many small elements combine to create a complete picture, including input from witnesses and some scientific analysis of ocean currents that leads to the crucial breakthrough. What is slightly annoying for the first-time reader is that this novel is sixth in the series though first to be translated. Much of the back-story of Wisting and Line is therefore lost (though we are told some elements of it). This matters less as the book continues, as the plot increasingly takes over, but detracts slightly from the introductory chapters. The translation itself, so far as I can tell, is naturalistic and faultless.

As an aside, there are several similarities between this novel and the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell (though Horst is Norwegian and Mankell Swedish). On the basis of this first novel to be translated, I'd say that Horst's novel is every bit as good as his Swedish predecessor. I emphasise that the two series are distinct, and distinctive, of course.

I would also add that the "feet" part of the plot in Dregs is very well done, a good balance of realism, lack of sensationalism and pragmatic straightforwardness. This contrasts considerably with the "severed feet" theme used in another recent book, Fred Vargas's more fabular An Uncertain Place.

Although 'Dregs' is the sixth novel featuring the Norwegian
Chief Inspector William Wisting,it is the first to be translated
into English.Whilst it is disappointing not to be able to start
at the beginning of the series,this is an enjoyable police
procedural novel,skillfully written by an author who is also
a serving policeman in Norway.
In the course of a week,four different severed left feet,each
in a training shoe,are found washed up on the sea shore.Wisting
is initially mystified ,but slowly as the investigation progresses,
a darker side to the town and its inhabitants is revealed.
'Dregs' is a novel of considerable breadth,not only is it well
plotted,but the author conveys a vivid sense of place,provides
full characters,and engages with social and philosophical issues,
such as the nature and purpose of punishment. Highly recommended.

Jorn Lier Horst is not fine writer but also a real, practicing policeman. His hero is William Wisting, a fistional policeman who is also a family man living and working in the, very real, town of Larvik. Remarkably, Jorn Lier Horst is also a policeman in this very town. Dregs is his first book to be published in English but not the first in the series. A training shoe is washed ashore, not unusual in itself - but this one has a severed foot in it! Soon another appears and then another and it becomes apparent that there are a number of corpses out there. Soon Wisting is on the case, aided and sometimes hindered by a regular team of colourful, but realistic, colleagues. In the course of his investigations Wisting's journalist daughter, Line, returns home, intent on a series of articles which question the value of prison. She sets about interviewing a number of ex-prisoners, at the same time introducing the reader to a sinister cast of suspects]. The pace accelerates as the plot develops and climaxes in a wonderfully realistic and violent denouement. Fluidly translated by Anne Bruce, the William Wisting series will grip its English language readership as it has its readers in Norway and throughout Europe. Place this on your shelf close to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Henning Mankel's Wallender series. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy)One Step Behind: A Kurt Wallander Novel (Kurt Wallender Mystery)I Should Have Lifted You Carefully OverThe Sea DetectiveYin Yang Tattoo (Sandstone Fiction)