1222

[sawyl]

Back to Sweden for Anne Holt's 1222, a murder mystery set in the increasingly claustrophobic confines of a snow-bound hotel in the aftermath of a serious train accident.

When the train to Bergen derails just before the Finse tunnel, the passengers find themselves evacuated to a nearby hotel to ride out the worst winter storm anyone can remember. The following morning, the residents of the hotel wake up to find that one of their number, a famous priest called Cato Hammer, has been murdered — shot in the face at close range. Cut off from the outside world, the hotel manager turns to the only resource she can find to hand: grumpy former detective Hanne Wilhelmsen, who really doesn't want to get involved. Eventually Hanne softens her position and agrees to help. But being confined to the lobby by her wheelchair, she is forced to rely on a core group of fellow investigators — the hotel manager, an out-doorsy lawyer who lives near by, a doctor from the crash, and a truculent teenager — none of whom she entirely trusts, to provide her with the information she needs to piece things together.

In classic Agatha Christie tradition, the cast of trapped residents includes a large number of unlikely characters (and likely suspects) who aren't always who they seem to be. Confined to the hotel, with the storm steadily growing worse, with a murderer on the loose, and with dark rumours circulating about a enigmatic armoured carriage attached to the train, the residents become increasingly difficult and it is all that the hotel's management can do to prevent a full-scale rebellion.

Although the final reveal isn't entirely unexpected, the claustrophobic hotel and its worrying decent into anarchy are very nicely done. Hanne Wilhelmsen, too, is an enjoyable protagonist: initially extremely stand-offish and determined not to get involved — an implicit consequence of the attack that left her wheelchair-bound — the murder bring her out of herself and makes her realise that she is going to have to start trusting people again. Given that 1222 is the 8th book to feature Wilhelmsen, I only hope it won't be too long until the others are translated into English.