Today’s guest blog is by author Hans Olav Lahlum. He is also a historian, a World Champion chess
player and a biographer. His series of
crime novels are set in 1960s Norway and inspired by the Golden Age. His most
recent novel is Satellite People and is dedicated to Agatha Christie. Hans Olave
Llahlum is a big fan of Agatha Christie and her influence shows throughout
Satellite People. Today he is trying to
explain his Christie fascination.
“Lahlum is
nothing but a reborn Agatha Christie”, was the conclusion in one of the
Norwegian newspaper reviews about my third criminal novel. It was actually one of the most critical
reviews I had that year. The reviewer intensely disliked classical crime in the
style of the Golden Age and considered it without any relevance for today’s
literature.
Three years later I still disagree with him. 40 years
after her death, Agatha Christie remains the empress above the many new “crime
queens”. No other crime writer has yet been able to surpass the creative and
logic plots from her best novels. True enough she wrote too many not very good
novels. Still her top ten can qualify for an all time top 25 list of crime
literature plots. Not for no reason they are still reprinted in notable numbers
all over the world. Neither for no reason she has still sold better than any
other novel writer in the history of literature worldwide – and more than any
French novel writer in France.
Still, my on-going fascination for Agatha Christie
hides somewhat mixed feelings. One might well argue that she remained a genius
crime writer for five or six decenniums, without ever developing into a great
novel writer. It seems somehow she, despite an obvious talent, never really
tried to become one. Many well-qualified readers consider the characters in her
novels too cardboard. Myself I too often find they work out more like chess
pieces – just moving around the board to complete her master plans, living like
stereotypes and not leaving much of a personal touch.
As much as I admire Christie and as much as I enjoy
her best crime novels, I am still inspired by her work only about plots.
Although having some principle similarities to Poirot and Captain Hastings, my
two main characters are more inspired by Conan Doyle than Christie. Simeon
remains my main inspiration regarding the characters minds and feelings as well
as for the descriptions of their environment. Whether Agatha Christie is the
greatest crime writer of all time depends much upon whether you consider
characters or plots the most important thing in a criminal novel. But anyway she
is one among the greatest also seen in the retrospect mirror from our time. I
am still fascinated by her books – and still feel proud every time my own crime
novels are compared with them.
Satellite People
Oslo, 1969. When a
wealthy man collapses and dies during a dinner party, Norwegian Police
Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen, known as K2, is left shaken. For the victim,
Magdalon Schelderup, a multimillionaire businessman and former resistance
fighter, had contacted him only the day before, fearing for his life. It soon
becomes clear that every one of Schelderup's ten dinner guests is a suspect in
the case. The businessman was disliked, even despised, by many of those close
to him; and his recently revised Will may have set events in motion. But which
of the guests - from his current and former wives and three children to his
attractive secretary and old cohorts in the resistance - had the greatest
motive for murder? With the inestimable help of Patricia - a brilliant,
acerbic young woman who lives an isolated life at home, in her wheelchair - K2
begins to untangle the lies and deceit within each of the guests' testimonies.
But as the investigators receive one mysterious letter after another warning of
further deaths, K2 realises he must race to uncover the killer. Before they
strike again . . .
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