It’s gruesome. The head. It’s all wrong. They’ve switched the head on the statue in Årviken. Please, you must send someone. There is a human head on the statue.
Summer has settled over a tourist-filled Stavanger when a grisly discovery shakes the city: a severed head is found impaled on a statue. Police officer Martha Krogh is immediately intrigued, but she remains shackled to desk duty, still struggling to regain her footing after an assault. Sleepless nights are plagued by shooting pain in her leg – pain that only Tramadol, supplied by the MC-gang Jæren Syndicate, can numb.
Simultaneously, a young woman named Stine vanishes without a trace after a night out. When Martha is finally cleared to return to the field, she throws herself into the investigation. Multiple people recount that Stine had been acting strangely before she disappeared, and when Martha discovers that Stine had been in frequent contact with a mysterious, seemingly older man on Snapchat, the alarm bells begin to ring. Who is behind the anonymous account – and does he have something to do with Stine’s disappearance?
The police identify the severed head as belonging to Fredrik Gundvall, a heavily criticized drag-queen. The police suspect a hate crime – until a second victim is found impaled on a statue, with no apparent connection to the queer community. The murders seem almost ritualistic. As the police dig deeper, a horrifying pattern begins to take shape, and Martha is forced to consider that Stine’s disappearance could be connected to the statue murders.
At the same time, Martha learns that the man Stine had been in contact with on Snapchat was last known to reside in Eikhaug. She and Erik Gjerde must therefore once again join forces. Racing against time, they fight to find Stine before it is too late, all while Martha navigates her own dangerous entanglement with the MC- gang. As the case unravels, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear – the murders and Stine’s disappearance are just fragments of something far more sinister. And the danger is even closer and more harrowing than they first thought.
A Stronger Faith is the second book in Kaja Nygaard’s series following the flawed yet relentless heroine Martha Krogh and small-town police officer Erik Gjerde. Written in the vein of authors such as Samuel Bjørk and Jo Nesbø, Nygaard crafts a narrative steeped in unease and unrelenting elegance. In this chilling tale, Scandinavia’s new suspense star explores the dark depths of humanity, revenge and faith and how far people are willing to go to find belonging.
