Orenda Books
Books published by Orenda Books
Psychopaths Anonymous
Maeve, a successful independent woman in a high-powered job, leads a pretty good life. But she is also an alcoholic and a sex addict and cannot stop killing men. When she fails to get support from an Alcoholics Anonymous group, she decides to set up her own.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Ewa Sherman
The Quiet People
Crime writing duo, Cameron and Lisa Murdoch, have a challenging young son. When Zach goes missing from home, they soon become the focus of the police investigation. After all, this sort of thing is just what they write about …
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Kerry Hood
Cold as Hell
Two sisters live in different countries. Arora in England and Isafold in Iceland – and that's the way they like it. But when Isador goes missing without trace, Arora is takes the first flight to Reykjavik to investigate her troubling disappearance.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Viv Beeby
Bound
New Zealand detective Sam Shephard returns to investigate a shooting. Her colleagues think this is an open-and-shut case, but Shephard has her doubts.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
Girls Who Lie
When a feckless single mother goes missing it is assumed that she has committed suicide. But then a decomposed body is found seven months later hidden on the lava fields of the west coast of Iceland and police officers Emma and Saevar find themselves heading up a gruesome murder investigation.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Viv Beeby
The Rabbit Factor
Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen unexpectedly loses his secure job and then inherits an adventure park from his brother. He has to deal with his brother’s huge debts, some nasty criminals, strange park employees and something that might be love.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Ewa Sherman
The Coral Bride
A Canadian lobster trawler is found adrift and the captain missing; DS Joaquin Morales is regarded by the locals as an urban interloper, greatly to the detriment of his investigation.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
Hotel Cartagena
A top-floor Hamburg hotel bar with a party of police amongst the guests is invaded by a dozen men with weapons who take everyone hostage.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Chris Roberts
Facets of Death
A young man joins the Botswana police CID and is immediately caught up in a diamond heist in which three guards are killed in cold blood.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Seven Doors
Nina, a literature professor at the University of Bergen, decides to turn her analytical skills to criminal investigation when Mari, a tenant from the family’s second home, suddenly disappears, especially as this happens shortly after she visited the property.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Ewa Sherman
Deity
A celebrated but secretive pop star dies in mysterious circumstances; some acclaim him a gentle genius, others see him as a predatory paedophile.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
Smoke Screen
When a bomb rips through the centre of Oslo as the clock strikes in a New Year, police officer Alexander Blix and journalist Emma Ramm are both at the scene. And so begins a new investigation and a ten-year-old mystery to solve for this unlikely partnership ...
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Viv Beeby
A Song of Isolation
Rising young film star Amelia Hart is the toast of the media. She gives up her career for her accountant boyfriend. Then he is accused of child sexual abuse.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by John Cleal
Winterkill
As snow gently falls on the northernmost town in Iceland, a young girl falls to her death from a balcony on the main street. And when an old man in the local nursing home writes 'she was murdered' on the wall of his room Police Inspector Ari Thor Arason has a puzzling case on his hands.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Viv Beeby
Sister
Frank Frølich works as a private detective after being suspended from duty with Oslo Police. He takes on an assignment to find the missing sister of a young immigrant woman who is just about to be deported to her home country. He also gets involved in searching for an eyewitness from a ferry disaster 30 years ago.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by Ewa Sherman
Deep Dark Night
Bounty hunter Lori Anderson is forced to do one last job for shady FBI agent Alex Monroe – take on Chicago crime boss Cabressa in a poker sting and get enough evidence to put him away for good.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Linda Wilson
Little Siberia
A meteorite lands near a small village in northern Finland and is placed in the local war museum before its journey to London for analysis. Pastor Joel Huhta volunteers to keep watch there at night but immediately realises that various people want to steal the precious rock.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Ewa Sherman
Cage
In Iceland Agla’s prison sentence for financial crimes is coming to an end while her former nemesis Maria gets drawn into helping her to pull another international money fraud.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Ewa Sherman
Wolves at the Door
Bergen’s social-worker-turned-private investigator Varg Veum, who’s been scared by earlier accusations of sexual abuse, decides to reopen his earlier case after he is nearly killed by a speeding car.
Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Deep Dirty Truth
When bounty hunter Lori Anderson is offered a deal by the boss of the Miami Mob, she has little choice but to agree, as to turn it down would put a price on her family’s heads, as well as her own. She has to snatch someone from FBI custody. No pressure, then.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Linda Wilson
The Courier
In 1942 Jewish courier Ester is betrayed in Oslo but manages to escape the Norwegian Gestapo. In Sweden she meets resistance hero Gerhard Falkum, but their tentative relationship is cut short when he dies in a fire. Yet 25 years later he suddenly reappears.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Ewa Sherman
The Ringmaster
Detective Sam Shephard fights unfair criticism from her boss as the Dunedin police tackle the murder of a student in the Botanic Garden.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Closer I Get
Tom never realised a moment’s politeness at one of his book signings would take him to the edge of hell.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Beton Rouge
Public prosecutor Chastity Riley and Detective Chief Inspector Ivo Stepanovic meet when they are called to investigate a horrendous case of a naked and tortured man left in a case outside an office of Germany’s biggest magazines where’s he been working.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Deep Blue Trouble
Gibson ‘The Fish’ Fletcher has broken out of prison, killing several guards in the process. Bounty hunter Lori Anderson has the job of bringing him back
Reviewed on 28 September 2019 by Linda Wilson
Inborn
The high school in a small Norwegian village becomes a double-murder scene. Immediately everyone points at 17-year-old Even who has been recently dumped by Mari Lindgren, a girl found dead after the school concert.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Trap
Sonja is tucked away in Florida with her young son and hopes that she has escaped her violent ex-husband who also manipulated her into smuggling cocaine. But soon the idyll is shattered as she’s forced back to Iceland, pushed into more drug trafficking, and forbidden from seeing her son.
Reviewed on 01 May 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Palm Beach Finland
Top undercover detective Jan Nyman travels from Helsinki to a newly established holiday resort, Palm Beach Finland, to investigate a murder and the main suspect Olivia Koski in whose house the victim was found.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Attend
A young gay man Sam and a recovering heroin addict Anne are connected through the world of drugs and revenge in Deptford. They must deal with the consequences of other people’s deeds that affect their own existence.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Overkill
Sam Shepard, the only policewoman in the small rural town of Mataura, New Zealand, investigates the death of a young mother Gaby Knowes. Apparent suicide was in fact a murder, and the victim was married to Sam’s ex-boyfriend. Sam finds herself the main suspect and suspended from duty but decides to find the killer anyway and clear her name.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Ewa Sherman
Big Sister
Bergen’s PI Varg Veum is approached by a woman who introduces herself as his older half-sister and who wants him to find her missing goddaughter. The search for 19-year-old Emma takes Veum on a personal journey into the past.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Keeper
Famous actress Julianne Bell is abducted in circumstances that are just like murders committed ten years earlier – a case that was believed to have been solved. Then a similar murder is reported in Sweden. Was the wrong man arrested or is there a new copycat killer on the loose.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by John Barnbrook
Killed
Henning is determined to discover who killed his son. But his determination will cost him dearly.
Reviewed on 15 September 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Ice Swimmer
When a man’s body is discovered in the freeing waters of Oslo harbour, city detectives Gunnarstanda and Stigersand face a very complicated case, leading them into the murky world of political secrets.
Reviewed on 18 August 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Whiteout
Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of a deserted village. Siglufjörður’s detective Ari Thór and his former boss Tómas investigate whether she jumped, or whether something more sinister or supernatural happened to her.
Reviewed on 21 July 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Hydra
Investigative journalist Scott King delves into a family massacre, told by the killer and five witnesses, through six podcasts.
Reviewed on 07 July 2018 by Ewa Sherman
The Man Who Died
Jaakko Kaunismaa, a successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, is told that he’s been poisoned and hence on the verge of death. He decides to find his own murderer.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Ewa Sherman
We Were the Salt of the Sea
Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, relocating from Montreal to a seaside village, is assigned the death of a local woman who sailed home after years away.
Reviewed on 24 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
Maria in the Moon
Catherine has a great memory, but she cannot remember what happened when she was nine years old. She feels desperate to unlock her past to understand herself and those around her.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Snare
Sonja survives on a cocktail of cocaine smuggling and love for her young son. Desperate to escape drug barons’ snare and to win full custody of Tomas she must become more daring and entrepreneurial. But things are getting dangerous.
Reviewed on 03 February 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Exquisite
What could be wrong with a spark of chemistry between a mentee and her mentor – other than everything …
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Wolves in the Dark
Bergen’s most famous private investigator Varg Veum is accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into jail. Desperate to clear his name, he must unravel his own hazy memories of failed jobs and uncomfortable assignments.
Reviewed on 28 October 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Six Stories
In 1996 teenager Tom Jeffries vanished from an Outward Bound centre. His body was found a year later. In 2017 in a series of podcasts investigative journalist Scott King attempts to discover what really happened.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Dying To Live
A dead bushman is only the first of a series of deaths brought to the attention of Assistant Superintendent ‘Kubu’ Bengu and Detective Samantha Khama.
Reviewed on 30 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Block 46
Emily Roy, a Quantico-trained officer in the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, currently working with Scotland Yard, becomes involved in a frantic search for a serial killer operating in both England and Sweden.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Arnold Taylor
The Exiled
Finnish police officer Anna Fekete returns to her home town in the former Yugoslavia for a well-deserved summer holiday. But when her handbag and passport are stolen, she realises that there are other deep-rooted reasons why the Romany thief chose to target her.
Reviewed on 19 August 2017 by Ewa Sherman
The Bird Tribunal
TV presenter Allis Hagtorn takes a job as a housekeeper and a gardener in a remote house on an isolated fjord. Her mysterious silent employer establishes strict rules. But as they both await return of his wife from travels, Allis starts making very unsettling discoveries.
Reviewed on 05 August 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Faithless
When a scalded body of a woman wrapped in plastic is found in a dumpster, Inspector Frank Frølich has to search for the killer – and also to face his private nearly-forgotten demons.
Reviewed on 02 August 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Cursed
Crime reporter Henning Juul, scarred emotionally and physically, becomes involved in his ex-wife Nora Klemetsen’s search for a missing woman. The investigation leads them into the sinister past of a very wealthy Norwegian family.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Reconciliation for the Dead
Former SADF paratrooper Claymore Straker returns to South Africa to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and seek absolution for his unwitting part in a horrifying act of inhumanity.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by John Cleal
Deadly Game
Special Forces soldier-turned-police officer Robert Finlay is seconded to a unit investigating the trafficking of young women from Eastern Europe into sex slavery in the UK.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by Linda Wilson
The Mine
Investigative reporter Janne Vuori travels to the north of Finland to uncover the truth about an industrial corruption threatening lives and environment in the area by a nickel mine.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Deep Down Dead
Bounty hunter Lori Anderson has to bring in another fugitive who’s skipped bail. But the first problem is the person she’s after is the man who taught her all she knows about the job. The second problem is that she has to bring him in with her nine-year-old daughter in tow.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Linda Wilson
A Death in the Family
Wilmon Bengu is found murdered but his son detective Kubu isn’t allowed to investigate his father’s death. Kubu goes against his superiors but soon needs to follow a series of murders connected to the Chinese owners of a mining company.
Reviewed on 21 February 2017 by Ewa Sherman
Blackout
A body of a murdered man is found in a remote location on the shores of a serene fjord in northern Iceland. Young policeman Ari Thór Arason investigates the case while a reporter from Reykjavík escapes the volcanic ash cloud and makes her own enquiries.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by Ewa Sherman
A Suitable Lie
Andy, a widower and a single dad to a small boy, cannot believe his luck when he meets Anna, full of life and beauty. Their idyll seems complete until the wedding night when a visit to the hospital might be a clue that things could be far from perfect.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Epiphany Jones
Jerry Dresden, deeply troubled and unhappy, is accused of murdering his work colleague and of stealing a Van Gogh painting from the Chicago museum. While on the run he becomes involved with Epiphany, an emotionally damaged young woman who listens to voices from God.
Reviewed on 26 November 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Deadly Harvest
Samantha Khama, a new recruit to Botswana CID, takes the disappearance of young girls seriously, especially when it appears that they may be ending up in traditional medicine for those seeking power.
Reviewed on 01 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
Where Roses Never Die
A violent robbery at an exclusive jewellery shop goes completely wrong. Bergen’s private investigator Varg Veum is asked to look through details of an old case of a missing child. Will he find a connection between these two crimes which happened nearly 25 years apart?
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Jihadi
The clash of two cultures has a dramatic impact on the lives of a few selected people close to the centre of events.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Wicked Game
Robert Finlay is in his late 40s, and he returns to uniform policing in London. He hopes that his deeply concealed SAS secrets and traumatic experiences will never be revealed. But the past comes to haunt him in the most horrendous way when two of his former colleagues are murdered.
Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Nightblind
In a quiet fishing village in the northern tip of Iceland a police inspector is shot at close range. Ari Thór searches for the clues in the darkness of a long cold winter and in people’s memories.
Reviewed on 27 February 2016 by Ewa Sherman
The Defenceless
A young Pakistani Christian, who fled to Finland to escape persecution, is denied asylum and gets caught in drugs and gangs warfare. An old man in pyjamas is found dead in the road. Detective Anna Fekete investigates whether there could be a connection between the two.
Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Snowblind
New cop Ari Thor Arason is offered a job in the far north of Iceland. A famous writer dies, a woman is attacked – and the village is cut off by an avalanche with a killer on the loose.
Reviewed on 04 July 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
The Abrupt Physics of Dying
Oil worker Clay Straker is hijacked at gunpoint in Yemen and has to choose between saving his driver and finding out why villagers near the company’s processing plant are falling sick. What he finds puts a price on his head.
Reviewed on 21 March 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
