JULEBORD

Doctors at a Norwegian hospital may have ties to a mutilated body that washes ashore in Øybo’s mystery novel.

A 2019 holiday celebration, or Julebord, in Godshus, Norway, presages a shock: The morning after the party, some attendees go surfing and drag a body, missing most of its left leg, out of the ocean water. The deceased was a doctor at Godshus General Hospital, whose physicians had all gathered for the Julebord at a local restaurant. Is one of these medical professionals a killer? The book’s ensuing flashback chapters focus on six doctors, including the one who mysteriously died. Dr. Alessandro Gianetti is an Italian who chose medicine as his career in 1977 before joining the Godshus General staff in the 1980s. He and the others, like Somalian Dr. Faiza Abdi Noor, have led eventful lives both in and outside the hospital. One physician is aboard a flight that’s skyjacked, another is unexpectedly diagnosed with a chronic condition, and at least two engage in extramarital affairs. While spite or bitterness seems inevitable among people who work so closely and intensely together, the dead man indisputably garnered the most ire of all and gave others assorted reasons to mete out some form of revenge. Chief Inspector James Redding, who’s investigating the death, can’t help but notice the physicians’ guilty expressions following the startling discovery—they certainly have things in their past they wish to keep secret.

Øybo offers readers a choice of how they wish to read this novel, which is part of a proposed trilogy. Many chapters end with page indicators that allow readers to skip around the book and follow the story chronologically, or they can read straight through, from chapters focusing on each of the characters in their early lives to the evening of the Julebord. The lengthy narrative is chock-full of engaging morsels, especially when characters pop up in each other’s chapters. One person has a distinctive anatomical part that makes the character immediately recognizable, even when unnamed, and an intriguing recurring character has a connection to C.I. Redding. The cast displays a variety of personalities and backgrounds; Jewish doctor Hanna Rønneberg suffers the loss of loved ones, and Dr. Pia Andersen is a loathsome, blatant racist. Øybo, a doctor himself, fills the pages with jargon-laden descriptions of procedures, equipment, syndromes, and medicines. Footnotes help with some of these terms, as well as Norwegian foods, locations, and slang expressions that readers may be unfamiliar with. Because this narrative covers decades, it includes myriad nods to real-world history; these events weave their way into characters’ lives, as when Dr. Abdi Noor is separated from her father when boarding a U.S.-to-Norway flight mere days after 9/11. (“The girl is okay to board. But there’s no way we’ll give security clearance to the gentleman to get on this flight.”) For all its delightful melodrama, this story is truly a whodunit, since readers will have difficulty picking out the person (or people), if anyone, responsible for the dead body. Answers await readers in the illuminating final chapter.

A multilayered cast headlines this gleefully unorthodox and absorbing crime story.