An audio book, set in Norway.
2003: At the start a woman is with another - a lover? No, only a metre long. A new baby? No, a snake. Liv Ulison (training to be a nurse?) shares a flat with Ingvar (epileptic) and Egel. After seeing a 6m Python on TV they've decided to buy one.
2017: Marium Lind, a mother, wife of politician Tor, is with her 11 y.o. daughter Iben at a shopping centre. They argue. The girl disappears off. The mother goes home after a long drive. She doesn't like to be considered a trophy wife. She runs a business.
A 60 y.o. male detective, Roe Ossvik now works in Kristiansund. He watches a video of his interview with an alleged rape victim (a neat way for us to be introduced to him). He had a daughter who died.
Liv gets closer to the snake, Nero, feeds it live mice. She keeps its old skins, tries to understand what it's saying. One evening it says "Liv". She sleeps with it for comfort rather than with boys. She doesn't like it to be brought out at parties as a novelty. She sneaks home a kitten for it. Then a rabbit.
PoV changes to a snake, hatching, growing.
When Liv gets home late she finds that Nero is being shown at a party, and that Patrick (her estranged brother - later we learn he used to have sex with her) is there. She moves out. She's angry with her mother because she believes Patrick's version of past events.
Marium and Tor (in his 50s) are interviewed. Tor is interviewed by August, (who chatted up Roonya?). Iben isn't Tor's child - he's sterile. She's the result of an unsolved rape. Perhaps that rape is a clue. While CCTV is studied, it's found that Roe was near when the girl disappeared (later we learn he talked to the girl, telling her how bad her mother was).
Liv briefly meets an art student, Anita, who paints her. Liv meets her later. Anita's pregnant, in a partnership with Bik, who hits her. Liv poses for her. They make love. Anita decides to leave Bik. Liv gives/sells the snake to Carol so that Anita can move in. When she does, Bik hassles her. Dave, a drug dealer, gets rid of Bik for them. In return Anita has to help with a mugging. While Liv is looking after the baby, Nero kills it. Dave rapes Liv so she kills him. Anita and the baby's charred body are found in a destroyed house. Anita had phoned her father for help but he'd turned up too late.
She gets back the snake.
Roe interviews Carol, telling her about the evidence.
Marium is Liv. Carol is Dave's mother. When Roe interviews Liv she knifes him and escapes. Roe is Anita's father. Marium/Liv visits Carol. She's holding the girl captive. The snake kills Carol. The others escape.
Bik confesses to setting light to the house.
"she smiles to herself" is in this novel and many others.
Other reviews
- good reads
- crimefictionlover
- Kirkus reviews (populated by many unpleasant characters doing unpleasant things, the novel loses focus at critical times. ... An original but flawed thriller that never rises to the level of chilly.)
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