A teenage girl has gone missing from a youth home for troubled teenagers. When her body is discovered, a shockwave spreads through Oslo. She has been brutally murdered in a ritualistic manner, left on display with a white lily stuffed in her mouth. The special homicide unit is called in, led by veteran detective Holger Munch with the brilliant but tormented investigator Mia Krüger by his side. Mia throws herself into the gruesome case despite knowing that she is balancing on a thin line – she is still grappling with the trauma of her twin sister’s heroin overdose ten years prior, while battling her own addiction to pills and alcohol.
The murder investigation is leading nowhere when, suddenly, a mysterious hacker contacts the team’s technician and shows him a very disturbing film that reveals new details about the fate of the murdered girl. The killer looms in the background of the footage, barely visible and masked as an owl – the harbinger of death.
Meanwhile, Munch’s daughter Miriam is going through an emotional crisis. She questions the life she has chosen as the loyal partner to a workaholic doctor and the responsible mother of a young daughter. What happened to the passionate, politically engaged side of her; the side that once steered her choices as she fiercely fought for a better world? When she meets an intriguing young man with a strong activist agenda, she feels her old self awaken and finds inspiration in his determination. Slowly but surely, Miriam is drawn into a reckless affair that will eventually lead her onto the same path as a very sick mind…
With The Owl Always Hunts at Night, Samuel Bjørk brings yet another sophisticated, intricately plotted and piercing crime novel. In this gripping sequel to I’m Traveling Alone, Bjørk delves deeper into the lives of his beloved characters as they struggle not only to solve a complicated murder case and stop a brutal killer, but also to come to terms with the many challenges in their own lives. The Owl Always Hunts at Night is just as gritty, thrilling and beloved as its predecessor.
Nominated for the 2015 Norwegian Booksellers’ Award and winner of the 2016 Dutch Hebban Award for ‘Best Thriller of the Year’, The Owl Always Hunts at Night further cements Bjørk’s position as one of the most prominent voices in Scandinavian crime fiction.
Extra Materials
Bulgaria, Emas
Croatia, Znanje
Czech Republic, Plus
Denmark, Gyldendal
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
Finland, Otava
France, JC Lattès
Germany, Goldmann
Greece, Dioptra
Hungary, Athenaeum
Iceland, Bjartur
Israel, Armchair
Italy, Longanesi
Japan, Discover21
Korea, Taurus
Lithuania, Alma Littera
Macedonia, Antolog Books
Netherlands, Luitingh-Sijthoff
Poland, Sonia Draga
Romania, Editura RAO
Russia, AST Publishers
Slovakia, Ikar
Slovenia, Ucila
Spain, Suma
Sweden, Wahlström & Widstrand
UK, Transworld
US, Viking
Vietnam, Nah Nam
Author
Reviews
“Expertly paced and thoughtfully plotted, The Owl Always Hunts at Night will leave you shaken to your core.”
– Bustle (US)
“The best part of this book really is the relationship between Mia and Munch. I absolutely love the repartee these two have—I would read any book featuring them. […] It was truly fantastic to be back in Mia and Munch’s world—and this book ended on a cliffhanger that has me absolutely dying to read the next series installment.”
– Crime By The Book (US)
“There’s something about Scandi-crime fiction that sets it apart form the norm and the second novel in Norwegian author Samuel Bjork’s Munch and Kruger series exemplifies everything that is great about the genre. […] Told in short, compelling chapters that alternate between several perspectives, Bjork creates a unique, twisting, unsettling thriller that really epitomises the phrase ‘page-turner’. And at the heart of it are two police officers whose own emotional battles are as enticing as the crime they are investigating. Read as a standalone novel or as part of the series, the book works equally well. In fact, there is very little to fault in this Nordic crime thriller par excellence.”
– The Irish News (UK)
“Norway’s most famous artwork is Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ and Norwegian author Samuel Bjørk gives Jo Nesbø a run for his money in conveying the pain and rage beneath the country’s placid surface. This sequel to I’m Travelling Alone sees the return of the brilliant but damaged investigator Mia Krüger and her appropriately named boss, Munch. The plot is competently handled but the brilliantly drawn angsty sleuths kept me hooked.”
– The Daily Express (UK)
“A chilling, stimulating, intensely dark tale set in Norway. […] Samuel Bjork creates a jagged zig-zagging edge of understanding, there isn’t a convenient jigsaw shaped hole waiting for your thoughts. The Owl Always Hunts at Night is a cunning, dramatically sinister tale, it looks as though this is a series with staying power.”
– Love Reading (UK)
“Powerful and thought-provoking. […] this one has mesmerized me to the point that I was unable to stop reading, even when the pages were hard to swallow because of the strong content. This is the strength of Samuel Bjørk: his books do not give you a way out.”
– Libretto Reviews (AUS)
“In The Owl Always Hunts at Night, Samuel Bjørk demonstrates that he has become a skillful international suspense writer. [He] has written a thrilling and entertaining crime novel with many rich elements. […] Even though it’s a thick book, there are many delicate details to delight in. […] The story may stay within a few miles of the Oslo area, but rises up to an international level.”
– Adresseavisen (NO)
“Samuel Bjørk proves to be an interesting suspense writer with great energy. […] Thrilling, great dialogue, and many characters that each have the potential to inspire new stories from Samuel Bjørk in the future.”
– Oppland Arbeiderblad (NO)
“Thanks to the author’s ease of hand, we’re hooked. With descriptive milieus, a rich cast of characters, and effortless dialogue the book has terrific flow. […] I like both the investigators Holger Munch and Mia Krüger and I will gladly follow them further on new crime adventures.”
– Trønder-Avisa (NO)
“With fluid language, clever twists and suspense, the reader is kept on their toes the entire way to the finish…”
– Moss Avis (NO)
“A great combination of an interesting investigation and highly dramatic suspense at the end. […] I’m hoping for a third book in the series soon!”
– Bokreisen, 5/6 stars (NO)
“Samuel Bjørk delivers knowledge of human nature on an intense level, while at the same time a gruesome and inhuman tale unfolds. The author has incredibly good grip of both his characters and his plot, and another captivating thing about the book is how new characters are introduced time and time again. […] This book is damnably perfect, the suspense constantly increases, and the wonder of the reader follows. But it’s how the author embraces his characters, their range of feelings, the dread of the victims, and the intense and at times hopeless work of the investigation team that splendidly carries the novel, from the first to the last page. A real ace of a crime novel full of suspense, horror, loss, deprivation and eternal love. Each and every page is worth reading.”
– Mitt Fyn, 5/5 stars (DK)
“Bjørk can still write, The Owl Always Hunts at Night is undeniably tighter than I’m Traveling Alone, and the ending is so thrilling that you want to read it in one sitting.”
– De Volkskrant (NL)
“There are more twists and turns than a serpentine in this gripping thriller, and red herrings galore. […] The Owl Always Hunts at Night is a page-turner and will keep you guessing until the climax when the shocking truth comes out.”
– The Gremlin (ZA)
“Raw, psychological, disturbing. The Owl Always Hunts at Night, the new thriller by Samuel Bjork, is one of those reads you just can’t stop thinking about […] a great thriller, a novel that leaves you with a sense of confusion and anxiety, a discomfort because of what humanity is capable of.”
– Il Gallista (IT)