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by K. O. Dahl
In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frølich of the Oslo Police saves the life of Elizabeth Faremo, a dark-haired beauty with mysterious eyes who was inadvertently caught in the crossfire. Some weeks later, Frølich coincidentally runs into her again---but their ensuing affair is no accident.
By the time he learns that she is no stranger---but rather the sister of a wanted member of a larceny gang---it is already too late.
In the middle of the night, Frølich receives a call that a young guard has been killed in the course of an attempted break-in. Scrambling to respond, he realizes that Elizabeth is no longer in his bed. And all at once, Frølich’s life has changed. In a turn of events cryptic, erotic, and complex, he finds himself a prime murder suspect and under the watch of his doubting colleagues.
Led through the dark underworld of Oslo and his own soul, Frølich---suspended from the force, blindly in love, and on the hunt for some hint of truth in a vortex of darkness and lies---must find out if he is being used . . . before his life unravels beyond repair.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (4/23/2026)
After reading London Falling I was in the mood for a lighter read. From my TBR list I chose The Very Long Strange Life of Issac Dahl by Bart Yates. It was an entertaining memoir of a man reflecting on his past life. For the May's1000 Books to Read: The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brian.To fully u...
-Lynne_G
"The entertaining if overstuffed plot is undermined at times by Frank's strange lack of reaction to Elisabeth's death and an unprofessional approach to forensic evidence relevant to the twist ending. Still...an exciting read." - Publishers Weekly.
"The mystery is there, and the plot's twists and turns demonstrate why Dahl has won the coveted Martin Beck Award and several other crime fiction awards." - Library Journal.
This information about The Fourth Man was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Apparently Kjell Ola Dahl has attained cult status in his home country of Norway for his psychological thrillers ever since his first novel, Deadly Investments, was published in 1993, but this is the first of his books to be published in the USA. The Fourth Man was published in the UK in 2007 where The Man in the Window will be published in 2008.
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