I Will Miss You Tomorrow, Heine Bakkeid

The first book in a series by Norwegian author Heine Bakkeid, I WILL MISS YOU TOMORROW was released in 2016 with at least 5 books in total in the series, the first two available in translation. The stories revolve around Thorkild Aske, a disgraced ex-policeman, he's fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital in this first book.

Not just a disgraced ex-policeman, Aske was an Internal Affairs investigator before an accidental death put him in prison, which lead to a suicide attempt, and cavalier approach to prescription medication. A tortured and struggling man, he's asked to look into the mysterious disappearance of a young man on a remote island, for reasons that the reader would be forgiven for frequently wondering deeply about, despite his tenuous connection to the family. Rasmus Moritzen had been converting an old lighthouse into an Activity Hotel when he seemingly vanished, the local police not exactly fired up to investigate the case, choosing to believe that Moritzen has met with an accident, extended himself too far in the ocean surrounding the island. 

While Aske is hanging around on the very creepy island, in dire weather conditions, waiting for a lift back to the mainland after conducting his own searches, he discovers the body of a young woman washed up, faceless, she's missing half an arm, clearly having been in the water for some time. After securing the corpse, Aske watches, dumbfounded, as a figure in a diving suit appears out of the sea, dragging the body back under the water with him. A story which would be a bit difficult for anyone to tell, but a man with psychological and addiction problems is going to struggle to get anybody to believe. The more locals start to disappear, the less believable some of this scenario gets, although the idea that Aske might step out of his own misery to try to get to the bottom of this becomes increasingly possible as the novel progresses.

There is much here that could be declared "standard #ScandiNoir". The tortured central character with a past that he can't come to terms with and addiction issues that could mean he's potentially very unreliable; weather that is overwhelmingly cold, snowy, damp; and a remote, slightly creepy location for people to disappear from - dead and possibly alive when they vanished. There is also that question of the past, and a woman that Aske loved, lost and his struggle to understand why. These elements combine to create a closed-in, desperate sort of atmosphere in I WILL MISS YOU TOMORROW which is both compelling, and worrying simultaneously. The pace is also surprisingly constant, given the level of introspection and angst, the action taking place over little more than a week. Whilst there are some plot elements that get a tad ropey at times, readers will be battling twists and turns aplenty, and could well get to the denouement, baffled and slightly psychologically battered. 

The second novel in the series, SCATTER HER ASHES, was released in 2017. Here's hoping there are translation plans for the remaining three.