Professor of comparative literature Nina Winsløff is at a turning point. Her work seems increasingly irrelevant, and her home, where she’s spent her entire adult life, is going to be demolished.
Her husband Mads – also the Vice Mayor for Health and Social Services in the city – is busy at work, and her relationship with her cynical daughter Ingeborg is not the best. Nina and Mads own a house that is rented out. The tenant – violinist Mari Nilsen – suddenly goes missing the day after Nina and her daughter pay her a visit.
The police have no clues, and the investigation slowly comes to a halt. But Nina can’t rest. What happened to their tenant, who also left her son behind? She starts pulling a few threads to find out, not realizing that her discoveries will have grave consequences. Seven Doors is a harrowing novel about dark secrets and dangerous curiosity.
Elegantly plotted and economically executed … Ravatn smoothly mixes Jungian and Freudian psychology with folklore and an affair’s lethal consequences. Inexorable fate drives this searing modern take on ancient Greek tragedy.
Publishers Weekly, US
Ravatn, one of Norway’s premier crime writers, manages to conjure up an extra level of chilling atmosphere that will make you want to put the heating on … The Seven Doors packs a brutal punch”
The Sun, UK
The result is a clever, quirky mystery full of twists, and reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best.
The Times
Agnes Ravatn is witty. The novel starts as a middle-class novel about a middle-class problem, which she slowly turns into a thriller about life and death in the university world and cultural elites, and it is exceptionally entertaining.
Dagsavisen
Like an electric shock – a real Greek tragedy in a modern Norwegian family becomes an extremely powerful read.
Adresseavisen
The Seven Doors grows beyond its plot – as brilliant literature usually does. Ravatn gives the reader space to feel dark emotions and reflections, in a novel that gives the impression of being fully occupied with playfully unraveling its own crime mystery.”
Fædrelandsvennen
A sophisticated crime mystery.
Bergens Tidende
… the drive in the action – and the pace – is so high that the book was difficult to put down. Great literature often is.
Fri Fagbevegelse
This novel has it all! Agnes Ravatn’s gorgeous bag of goodies of a novel has everything one could wish for in humor, intelligence and suspense.
Klassekampen
Agners Ravatn makes the crime genre a tad more elegant. … A sophisticated crime mystery.
Bok 365
