AshehougAgency

The Deadly Game

When big money pours into the local football club, the beautiful game turns deadly ...

Vilhelm Thygesen is involved in what might be a murder case in the circle around the local football club in Baugen, his hometown. His old friend, financier Bernhard Levin, has bought shares in the club as well as in the town’s hotel. Having recently bought several foreign professional players, the football club has surprisingly been promoted to League 2. Levin invites Thygesen to a dinner at the hotel, where the entire team is also present.

In the middle of the night, one of the top players of the team is discovered by the pier nearby, badly beaten and drowned. The investigation is leading nowhere, when the coach asks Thygesen to look into the case. And Thygesen doesn’t have to be asked twice. Then another death shakes the local community.

THE DEADLY GAME is the twelth book featuring Vilhelm Thygesen, one of Norway’s most popular and enduring crime fiction heroes. In 2009 WHITE AS SNOW was named the third best crime novel of the past 25 years in a prestigious contest in Dagbladet.

Praise for THE DEADLY GAME:

”A beautiful goal by Michelet … Michelet writes simply and elegantly … a pleasant reunion with one of the central characters of Norwegian crime fiction … entertaining and suspenseful.”
(Moss avis)

"charming and entertaining"
(Kulturspeilet)

”As always, Michelet writes very well, and the book is full of fine and pertinent observations”
(Dagbladet)

”A reunion with Thygesen is always lovely”
(Dagens Næringsliv)

”Once again we may enjoy the author’s sober, precise prose, and I’ll be damned if he doesn’t offer us a bit of black poetry as well”
(Aftenposten)

”A highly readable crime novel … Michelet is master of the genre he knows so well; the mixture of dreadful murders and biting observations. When the pen moves with such an ease, this book makes for a good read”
(Trønderavisa)

”There is something blessedly plausible when it comes to Jon Michelet’s hero Vilhelm Thygesen … I find myself charmed by Jon Michelets view on the world and reality, whether it comes to football or politics”
(Tønsbergs Blad)

"So classic in its form that it almost bites its thumb at all the raw, brutal crime series in the world, screaming for the readers attention … Michelet is a fine, cunning author, who plays around with the classic detective story, and does what he can to ensure his readers a good read. Enveloped in wise political and everyday observations, this is pleasure crime with cigars and calvados”
(Bergens Tidende)

First published: 2010, Forlaget Oktober
Jon Michelet: Biography and bibliography