The Arc of the Swallow - Hardcover

Gazan, Sissel-Jo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857387715 ISBN 13: 9780857387714

Publisher: Quercus

Synopsis

Danish author S.J. Gazan established herself as an international talent to watch with her debut thriller novel, The Dinosaur Feather. In The Arc of the Swallow,maverick police detective Søren Marhauge returns in an perilous investigation that reveals a profit-motivated conspiracy involving the upper reaches of Big Pharma, government and academia.
When controversial Professor Kristian Storm is found hanged in his office, his assistant Marie Skov refuses to believe that he has committed suicide. Having just returned from West Africa on a research trip, the late scientist had uncovered a shocking truth about immunology programs in the developing world.
With the unlikely help from a Nobel Prize-winning rival of Storm's, former police detective Søren Marhauge is determined to prove what really happened to the professor. Interwoven in this thrilling storyline are deeply-moving portraits of Skov's troubled family and Marhauge's tenuous relationship with his girlfriend, another biologist. The result is a complex page-turner that establishes S.J. Gazan as a world-class author.

About this title

About the Author:

S.J. Gazan graduated from the University of Copenhagen with a graduate degree in biology. By incorporating science with murder, and recognizing the secrets and drama of everyday life, Sissel-Jo Gazan has found a unique style that makes her stand out on the Scandinavian crime writing scene.
Her debut work of crime fiction, The Dinosaur Feather, was awarded the 2008 Denmark Radio Literature Prize for Best Novel of the Year and went on to become an international bestseller. The Danish Broadcasting Corporation voted The Dinosaur Feather the Crime Novel of the Decade, and in January 2013, it was awarded the Literature Prize of the Ambassadors of the French-Speaking Countries. The Dinosaur Feather made the top 10 lists of 2014 for both The Wall Street Journal and NPR. It has been sold into more than a dozen countries. Gazan lives in Berlin with her husband and two children.

Review:

"Sissel-Jo Gazan has demonstrated that her acclaimed mystery, The Dinosaur Feather was no fluke . . . The author has an uncanny knack for quickly drawing a reader into the minds of her characters: suffering their frustrations, laughing at their jokes, worrying during their crises. The domestic intrigues of Marie and her relatives, and of Soren and Anna, prove as engrossing as the criminal conspiracies at hand. Gradually, this excellent book's separate story-lines draw tight, and Soren's knitting-backwards proves not so different after all from the scientific method."―The Wall Street Journal

"[Gazan's] follow-up foray into the contentious world of health-care research is a smart and compelling thriller. Two well-developed and nicely integrated mystery plots and a set of lifelike characters make this a high-end thriller for readers of Jo Nesbø and of John le Carré's The Constant Gardener."―Booklist, Starred Review

"Gazan's excellent sequel to 2013's The Dinosaur Feather draws the reader into the fiercely competitive, high-stakes world of medical research . . . Gazan skillfully introduces characters and cleverly resolves side stories as the action builds to a thrilling denouement."

―Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Gazan keeps up the pace as she shifts the focus from one painfully dysfunctional family to another, until even the secrets of Søren's childhood are exposed. Among the latest crop of Scandinavian thriller writers, Gazan combines the broad scope of Jo Nesbø with the ability to focus as closely and remorselessly as Karin Fossum."―Kirkus Reviews

"A fast-paced story line involving the World Health Organization, the Nobel Prize committee, and the cutthroat world of academia. From Denmark to West Africa, Gazan takes readers on a roller-coaster ride . . . Less graphic than Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy but just as compelling, Gazan's novel breathes fresh life into the packed Scandinavian mystery genre."
―Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Quercus
• ISBN 10: 0857387715
• ISBN 13: 9780857387714
• Binding: Hardcover