PS, I Love You and Beyond:

Cecelia Ahern's much-awaited sequel to the beloved PS, I Love You, delivers another emotional rollercoaster ride through the power of love.

The novel is set seven years after Holly Kennedy's husband, Gerry, died, and begins with the sudden emergence of a group inspired by Gerry's letters, the PS, I Love You Club. Despite her desire to remain in the life she's created for herself in the intervening years, Holly soon finds herself drawn back into her old world.

With a host of memorable characters, Ahern expertly captures the full range of emotions, from love to loss and from sadness to hope, as Holly, and each of the members of the PS, I Love You Club grapple with their individual stories of loss and longing. The novel is ultimately a story of self-discovery, as each character learns to accept the inevitability of life, while also learning to embrace its beauty.

PS, I Love You and Beyond is an incredibly moving, thought-provoking, and at times heart-breaking novel, but it is also an ode to the healing power of friendship and love. Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of escapism and my time out from a hectic world. The story grabs you from the outset and pulls you in and the storytelling really made it worth reading. Characterisation was on point and I know I will be looking out for new publications from this author or similar reads in the future. A recommended read.

The first book I have read from this author. An atmospheric read with interesting characters. The right amout of twists and turns leading to a nicely wrapped up ending. I will certainly be reading more books written by this author.

Every detective has an unsolved case he is obsessed with. For Chief Inspector William Wisting it is the case of Katharina Haugen, a woman who went missing almost twenty-five years ago. Over the years, William has formed a bond with the woman’s husband, meeting every year on the anniversary of her disappearance and also going fishing together. When a detective from Oslo informs him that Katharina’s husband may be involved in the kidnapping of another woman twenty-five years earlier, it may be the chance for William to solve the Katharina code.

This is such a gripping story. Told from different perspectives, it is dark and full of twists. I was drawn to the characters and their complex relationships and the writing captured me. Highly recommended!

I am in charge of the senior library and work with a group of Reading Ambassadors from 16-18 to ensure that our boarding school library is modernised and meets the need of both our senior students and staff. It has been great to have the chance to talk about these books with our seniors and discuss what they want and need on their shelves. I was drawn to his book because I thought it would be something different from the usual school library fare and draw the students in with a tempting storyline and lots to discuss.
This book was a really enjoyable read with strong characters and a real sense of time and place. I enjoyed the ways that it maintained a cracking pace that kept me turning its pages and ensured that I had much to discuss with them after finishing. It was not only a lively and enjoyable novel but had lots of contemporary themes for our book group to pick up and spend hours discussing too.
I think it's important to choose books that interest as well as challenge our students and I can see this book being very popular with students and staff alike; this will be an excellent purchase as it has everything that we look for in a great read - a tempting premise, fantastic characters and a plot that keeps you gripped until you close its final page.

This had me hooked from the get-go. Two disappearances, both unsolved, and seemingly unrelated. But are they?

It seems the mystery that has plagued Porsgrunn for 24 years is about to be solved. What happened to Nadia Krogh after she left the party at her friends house?

What happened to Katharina Haugen? How do two women disappear without a trace?

Read this page-turner and you’ll find out!

My thanks to the Author publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
I had never previously read a book by this Author or even heard of the main character until watching a TV series and if I'm honest only watched it because Carrie Ann Moss starred in it, but even with subtitles I enjoyed it, and liked the Wistings characters, so gave the book a go. I was not disappointed this is a cerebral clever police procedural, original and well written atmospheric and tense at times with well drawn characters, especially the Wistings. An investigation into a cold case linked to The Katherina Code which Wisting senior never solved and has remained open for over twenty years. If you like your detective stories to be all action and with an heavy gruesome body count this book is not for you.
I enjoyed it.

Loved This book......hadn’t seen that the key detective is now on t.v. So will watch these programmmes.It’s well written which is unusual for this genre which makes it a cut above the rest. Great story and difficult to work out some of the threads which is again unusual .cant wait for the next one!

Chief Inspector William Wisting has one case that he trying to solve for the last 24 years, the disappearance of Katharina in that time he became friend of her husband and nothing changed for long time until detective Adrian Stiller opens another cold case that connected to this one.

This book takes time to get use to the style of writing and because it’s first of the series , so the story took time to build . I actually started to like the characters mainly Line she is strong character. You can see how these three people could interact in the future.

The end was good, I think it this story was slow burner , I can see why this is the first in series. The characters are very strong.It just wasn’t necessary what I used to ( faster stories).
I would love to try the next in the series as I can see how Lina character and her father may develop.

I enjoyed reading this book, with a gentle pace to the story and only a few more thriller-type moments. It was an interesting idea to connect these two cases, and the gentle unravelling of the mysteries was intriguing and kept my attention.
Many translated books lose something in the translation, but I did not feel that at all with this book, so well done to the translator!

A complex murder mystery which has been very cleverly written so that the reader is not certain who is at risk or from whom. There is almost palpable tension throughout this novel and the fast pace is maintained until the very last page.

Love Wisting. Great read, very claustrophobic and tense while also being a great look at human nature and how our actions can eat away at us. Really looking forward to the next instalment in the series

A crime novel with many twists that keeps you on your feet. Where is she, is she alive. You can't put it down till you find out

An easy to read, straightforward Scandinavian thriller.

Detective Wisting is concerned with a reinvestigation into a 24 year old disappearance, that of Katharina Hauger, who vanished leaving a packed suitcase and a coded note.

As Wisting joins the cold case squad with their investigation, his daughter Lise is also pursuing the case from a journalistic angle. As they both approach answers, the air of danger increases.

I read this quickly and did enjoy it, but it wasn't particularly tricky, and I did often think the police were excessively stupid!

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
What a fabulous experience loved this truely amazing book first time reading this Author can highly recommend

I'm having a moment with Nordic Noir at the moment and am taking recommendations!

The Katharina Code is a suspenseful cold case thriller set in the dark forests of Norway. Katharina Haugen haunts Chief Inspector William Wisting. She disappeared twenty-four years before our novel opens, leaving behind her husband, Martin, and a seemingly random string of numbers scribbled on a piece of paper.

Every year on 9th October, Wisting takes out the case file, hoping to finally get a break in the case he couldn't solve. On the same day every year, he visits Katharina's husband, feeling guilty for not being able to help. But then Martin goes missing and is tied to the disappearance of a girl in Oslo, and suddenly we are drawn into a game of cat and mouse where is uncertain whether Wisting is chasing a dangerous man or a grief-stricken husband who is unwilling to let his wife go.

The pace of this thriller lagged a little for me in places but I do believe that is down to the book being more character driven and concerned with the character's relationships than it is with pace and dramatics. I liked Wisting and was particularly interested in his relationship with Martin Haugen. A good, solid read. 3.5 stars.

Former Norwegian policeman Jørn Lier Horst delves into long-shelved cases in THE KATHARINA CODE, the twelfth in his award-winning William Wisting series (seventh translated). A refreshing change from the hard-drinking, pensive loner trope, Chief Inspector Wisting is a family man with a largely positive outlook despite the dark deeds he investigates. A widower and now grandfather, every October he hauls out old files from a case he could never crack: the bizarre disappearance of Katharina Haugen. When Katharina’s husband, now friendly acquaintances with Wisting, vanishes on the anniversary and an ambitious young colleague is parachuted in with new evidence about another long-missing woman, Wisting is plunged into a testing case. And tricky personal position. Horst does a fine job blending personal and police procedural, with a strong sense of authenticity. A wintry chill rises from the pages in this absorbing tale that would be a great read for long-time fans as well as those new to the series.

Although this kept me guessing it was hard work to finish.
The story was just too long and drifted away at times from the main story line.
I felt let down at the end.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK, and the author Jorn Lier Horst.
I liked this book, it is a typical detective thriller in format and delivery. Easy to read and enjoyable.
The ending was slightly predictable, and I wasn’t entirely gripped, but it would be a good holiday read.
The characters and storyline could have been a little more developed to make it more engaging and dynamic, but I imagine this could have been lost in the translation.
A solid 6.5 out of 10.

Thoughtful, character-driven crime... 4 stars

Twenty-four years ago, Katharina Haugen went missing and has never been seen since. She left a partially packed suitcase and a sheet of paper filled with cryptic numbers, the meaning of which has never been discovered. The obvious suspect, her husband Martin, had a cast-iron alibi, and the police have never been able to identify any other suspects. Every year on the anniversary of her disappearance, William Wisting, the detective who investigated the case at the time, visits Martin, and over the year they’ve developed a kind of friendship. But this year when Wisting calls at his house as usual, Martin has gone missing too. And then Wisting discovers that the new Cold Cases Group has discovered new evidence linking the Katharina case to another unsolved disappearance...

It was only on finishing this that I realised it’s the twelfth in a series about Norwegian detective William Wisting, which explains why I felt we weren’t given much background about him or his family. Other than that, this worked very well as a standalone. Wisting is the kind of detective I like – dedicated, hard-working, with a stable family life and a life outside work. He’s a widower with a grown-up son and daughter. Thomas is home on leave from his job in the military, but doesn’t play a significant part in the story. Line, on the other hand, is a journalist, working freelance since the birth of her child, and is asked to write a series of articles and make a podcast about the other cold case, the Nadia Krogh disappearance, so she has a bigger role. Horst handles this very credibly, avoiding the temptation to have her act as some kind of all-action sidekick to her father, and instead using her to give the reader another perspective on the case as it unfolds.

This is a slow-paced book, based firmly on the realism of police investigation. As such, there’s not a lot of action or any of the ubiquitous shock twists so prevalent in current crime writing. It also becomes clear relatively early on who is responsible for the disappearances, meaning that the bulk of the story is more about how the police go about catching the perpetrator and finding evidence. In common with a lot of contemporary crime fiction, I felt it could have lost a hundred pages and been the better for it. Nevertheless, it never lost my attention even during the rather overlong mid-section, and this is because I felt both the writing and the depth of the characterisation were strong enough to carry it. The inclusion of Wisting’s family helped to make him a rounded character – driven, for sure, but not to excessive extremes. And his relationship with Martin, Katharina’s husband, is developed very well and realistically, as we see how the event that brought them together – Katharina’s disappearance – also acts as an invisible barrier to them becoming full friends.

The detective from the Cold Cases Group, Adrian Stiller, is rather more enigmatic. His methods take him close to the line and sometimes across it, and he’s quite willing to manipulate people to get his results, but he’s effective. He’s also troubled, and it’s only towards the end that we learn why. This is billed as the first in a “Cold Case Quartet”, so I’m assuming he will feature in the others and will probably be filled out more as a character in them. In this one, I wasn’t sure whether I liked him or not, so it will be interesting to see how he develops. Not having read the previous books, I don’t know if Wisting usually works alone, but in this one the two of them together made for an interesting pairing – both desiring the same end, but not sure about each other’s methods of achieving it.

Overall I enjoyed this, and would recommend it to readers who like a thoughtful, character-driven approach to crime rather than twisty action- packed thrillers. I’ll be keen to read the next in the quartet, and look forward to reading some of the earlier books in the series too, though I don’t think they’ve all been translated.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Penguin UK – Michael Joseph.