Agnes Ravatn – The Seven Doors

‘The Seven Doors’ by Agnes Ravatn, and translated into Engish by Rosie Hedger, is a psychological thriller. One which is an atmospheric, slow-burning read oozing with plenty of mystery and menace for good measure. This is the very first time I have read anything written by Agnes Ravatn. I do love Nordic noir anyway and the cover of this book is so striking so I was really looking forward to it.

Nina and Mads have had their home taken away from them through a Compulsory Purchase Order so they have been forced into moving. Then their daughter Ingeborg is demanding they allow her to move into a house they rent out. Ingeborg and Nina shock the current tenant, Mari, into moving out with her son, after they turn up on the doorstep. A few days later Mari disappears leaving her son behind leaving her parents in shock. Nina is left with a lingering feeling of guilt and begins to try to find Mari. As she investigates she discovers secrets, some that have been hidden for decades in her family and somehow these are connected to Mari’s disappearance.

This is as much a novel about family and the secrets weaved and hidden deep within as it is a psychological thriller. A story you cannot help but be totally immersed in. I found Nina’s drive, with her guilt and turmoil to be almost tangible to me, the deeper she went the harder the discoveries were. There are plenty of unlikeable and definitely not perfect characters in this story, but as unlikeable they are, I just had to keep reading!

I did notice that there are no speech marks within the book. This is the first time I have read a book with them, I did notice it made me concentrate more on the book as I had to differentiate between speech and non-speech. I think it made me appreciate the story more as I had to pay even more attention! I would read more of Agnes Ravatn in the future, Great book!

Many thanks to Orenda Books for my copy of The Seven Doors today for the Blog Tour.