Jørn Lier Horst is a former Chief Inspector in the Criminal Investigation Department of Larvik, Norway, just like his main character William Wisting, and this insider information shows in his first mystery, Dregs.

Wisting is the widowed father of grown-up twins. Thomas is in the military, serving in Afghanistan while his daughter, Line, is an investigative journalist based in Oslo. Line is busy with a new project: interviewing six convicted killers who have served more than one hundred years behind bars between them. She intends to prove that a gentler approach would work better in rehabilitating prisoners like these.

The mystery is well-plotted and intricate. It takes a lot of work from Wisting and his team to even begin to figure out what's going on, and it was interesting to see how Line's project intersected with her father's investigation. Something tells me this is going to be an ongoing occurrence in this series, and it's something that's going to take Wisting, in his role as father, to become used to.

Dregs is a solid mystery that I enjoyed listening to. I can see myself reaching for the next book in the series.

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