Some of the best friends you will ever make are those that you meet at university. Torben Helle – a Danish art historian – is heading to Northumberland for a reunion with seven such friends, the first time they have been together in the same room for years. But what’s a few years between friends?

When their host makes a shocking revelation over dinner, things seem to shift amongst the group. And then when he is found in his room, shot through the centre of his forehead…

As the snow around the house deepens, Torben takes it upon himself to play detective. As a trained observer (primarily of paintings), he should be ideally skilled to spot a killer. Unless, of course, he’s looking in completely the wrong direction…

You may recall that, being an Oxford person myself, I’ve been rather snippy in the past about depictions of life in a college, usually because the person writing it clearly hasn’t been there and is leaning heavily into the cliches. However Oskar Jensen clearly (and I did check, but it was clear beforehand) was a student there. OK, he did go to Christ Church, but nobody’s perfect, but the stories he tells here of the group of friends and what they got up to just feels… genuine. I’m kind of curious exactly how much of it is based on real events – probably not the murder part.

So I’m guessing Torben Helle is somewhat autobiographical, but he’s a wonderful lead character. I say the lead, as there’s a team of three leading the sleuthing – Torben, Ruth who has become a police officer and Leyla, a woman who Tor has something of a history with – and we often see each character’s insights into current events, which can be a tricky line to take for an author when at least one of the characters has a lot to hide. There aren’t many authors who try this, and even fewer who do it well – Michael Jecks is the only one who springs to mind. Well, you can add Oskar Jensen to that short list as well.

The characters all seem real and nicely distinct, with the relationship between Torben and Leyla especially well done, I thought. The plot twists all over the place with at least one great fake solution – and a really impressive real one. There’s some nice Golden Age references too, but while the plot has certain classic tropes, there’s some very clever original ideas here.

Right, do I need to find a niggle? It is kind of my thing… oh, Torben at one point says that he never read Sayers as her series was too long – it’s only eleven books. Yes, some of those books are a bit long… OK, that’s a pretty weak niggle. Sorry, that’s the best I can come up with…

Needless to say, I loved this one. Definitely worth your time.

Helle and Death is out on Thursday 18^th January from Viper Books. Many thanks for the review copy via NetGalley.