The Last Pilgrim

The Tommy Bergmann Series, Book 1

By: Gard Sveen, Steven T. Murray - translator

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Young, lovely Norwegian Agnes Gerner is waging a dangerous and secret fight. Outwardly, she is a devoted Nazi sympathizer engaged to a prominent businessman. In fact, she is part of an underground resistance doing everything to win the war against the Germans. The only hope she has of being reunited with the man she truly loves - who serves under the code name "Pilgrim" - is if the Nazis are defeated. Of course, there's no guarantee that she'll be alive when that happens....

Many years later, three sets of remains are found in a popular Oslo forest - two adults and a child. Despite his boss's call to not spend extra time on the old case, Detective Tommy Bergmann cannot help but dig deeper, especially as he uncovers connections to a more recent murder. As he unravels the secrets of the past, it becomes clear that everything is permissible in war - and that only those who reject love can come out victorious.

©2013 Gard Sveen (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Translation © 2015 Steven T. Murray.

Norwegian Resistance mystery

Initially I felt the book was a little hard to get into, however with a little patience in letting the author introduce the reader/listener to the various settings and characters I found this to be one of the best mystery WWII resistance stories I have ever read. Very powerful!

Impressive parallel plotting

The parallel storytelling (WWII and 2003) is very skillfully done and while attentive readers may sort out the multiple "whodunits" before the end, there are surprises all along the way. Look forward to another well-translated, literary-tinged mystery by Sveen.

Not the book it claims

This is NOT the story of a woman caught up in the intrigue and violence of WWII Norway! Instead it is the VERY depressing story of a bumbling, incompetent, wife beating detective in modern day Norway trying to solve a murder. Very scattered dialogue, poor plot development, barely average narration. I can not recommend this book at all. I also feel deceived by the synopsis shuck "tricked" me into buying it in the first place