At 1222 meters above sea level in the mountains of Norway, a train has derailed during a hurricane-force blizzard. Only the conductor was killed in the accident. The 269 passengers are taken to a centuries-old hotel in a remote Nordic village to wait out the storm. The passengers think they are safe and secure from the raging storm, since there are plenty of rooms and excellent food in the hotel. That is until people start turning up dead. That is when Hanne Wilhelmsen, a retired paraplegic police detective, begrudgingly becomes involved. Hanne must quickly solve the murder mystery while all are still confined to the hotel. Are the strange gun-toting couple the murderers? And then there are the mysterious occupants of the extra train car who are occupying the top floor. Surely they have something to do with it.
If you're thinking, "Oh, no, not another Scandinavian mystery!" you are probably right. But Anne Holt is not just any Scandinavian mystery writer. She is none other than Norway's best selling female crime writer. And 1222 is not just another Scandinavian mystery. It has been compared to Agatha Christie's "locked room" mysteries. 1222 is the first of Holt's popular series to be translated into English, but is the 8th book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. The first book in the series, Blind Goddess, is scheduled to be released in the U.S. in June 2012. So watch for it to find out what makes Hanne tick. Maybe this series will satisfy your Stieg Larsson cravings.