Yours Until Death - (Eurocrime) by Gunnar Staalesen (Paperback)

About the Book

The single-mother families of the isolated high-rise community under the shadow of the Lyderhorn, Bergen's great mountain - steep, dark and oppressive - were being robbed, terrorized and molested by a teenage gang led by the psychopath, Joker, who looked like a priest, but with the eyes of a tiger and the teeth of a decaying corpse. It was at their "torture chamber," a hut in the pinewoods nearby, that Varg Veum, Private Investigator, first encountered the gang's pathetic but deadly ferocity. Eight-year-old Roar's bicycle had been stolen and not an adult in sight dared retrieve it. But a preliminary brush with such youthful violence was as nothing compared to what awaited Veum when he got to know Roar's shy yet sensuous mother, Wenche Andresen, and her estranged husband, Jonas. Veum's attempts to break up Joker and his pack of young thugs by enlisting the help of the local youth club leader proved a dead end. But not so dead as the man who lay prone with a knife in his back on the floor of Andresen's flat. Yours Until Death is an unbearably tense novel of revenge and murder about marriage, childhood, bereavement and the destructive force of passion. First published in Norwegian in 1979, it was described by the critic Nils Nordberg as "one of the finest, most serious, most ambitious books in post-war Norwegian crime writing." "Staalsen's mastery of pacing enables him to develop his characters in a leisurely way without sacrificing tension and suspense."-Publishers Weekly

Book Synopsis

'The Norwegian Chandler' Jo Nesbø
'One of my very favourite Scandinavian authors' Ian Rankin
MORE THAN FIVE MILLION BOOKS SOLD WORLDWIDE
An unbearably tense thriller of revenge, murder, bereavement and the destructive force of passion

It is at their 'torture chamber', a hut in the pinewoods nearby, that Varg Veum, Private Investigator, first encounters the gang's pathetic but deadly ferocity. Eight-year-old Roar's bicycle had been stolen and not an adult in sight dared retrieve it.

But that preliminary brush with youthful violence is nothing compared to what awaited Veum when he got to know Roar's blue-eyed, shy yet sensuous mother, Wenche Andresen, and her estranged husband, Jonas.

Veum's attempts to break up Joker and his pack of young thugs by enlisting the help of the local youth club leader proves a dead end. But not so dead as the man who found lying prone with a knife in his back on the floor of Andresen's flat.

Yours Until Death is an unbearably tense novel of revenge and murder about marriage, childhood, bereavement and the destructive force of passion. First published in Norwegian in 1979, it was described by the critic Nils Nordberg as 'one of the finest, most serious, most ambitious books in post-war Norwegian crime writing'.

Translated from the Norwegian by Margaret Amassian

Review Quotes

Among the most popular Norwegian crime writers--Observer

An upmarket Philip Marlowe--Maxim Jakubowski

In the best tradition of sleuthery--The Times

The Varg Veum series stands alongside Connelly, Camilleri and others, who are among the very best modern exponents of the poetic yet tough detective story with strong, classic plots; a social conscience; and perfect pitch in terms of a sense of place--Euro Crime

Undoubtedly, one of the finest Nordic novelists in the tradition of such masters as Henning Mankell--Barry Forshaw, Independent

About the Author

GUNNAR STAALESEN was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over 20 titles, which have been published in 24 countries and sold over two million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim. Staalesen, who has twice won Norway's top crime prize, the Golden Pistol, lives in Bergen with his wife.