AThis is the ninth book in a series of which I have read only this one, but the individual books do not depend on the others. It seemed that there were a couple of things that were out of place or irrelevant, but although the books do not depend on each other, it is conceivable that those particular things are more relevant to the series as a whole.
Overall, it seemed enjoyable and consistent, facts that are indicated by the fact that I listened to it last week while my son was home from college on spring break!
The characters were consistent but only barely likable. The fact that they were consistent does not imply that there were no surprises, particularly in the end. The whole way through, the reader was confused as to why these things were important while knowing that they were.
The author, and language are Norwegian – things that contribute to the difficulty of keeping names and places straight. This I attribute to the fact that I am a spoiled American who has never seen fit to become familiar with other language and speech forms than American English :-(. I suppose that I am better than some, but that's not saying much. But overall, I do think that I will have to find a way of putting more books in this series into my reading list.