The Mark of Shame

The year is 1905, Norway is in the process of seceding from Sweden, and secret negotiations are being conducted to avoid war. At the prime minister’s office in the Norwegian capital, Oskar Brattenschlag is the assistant of the prime minister’s secretary, Calmeyer. But war is not the only threat. One evening, there's a knock on Brattenschlag's door. As he opens he finds an unknown man on the stairs, collapsed and dying. The man mumbles ‘The handing over was unsuccessful. Inform Calmeyer.’ He then draws a swastika in blood and expires. In his hand he holds a page of the handwritten Gothic bible Codex Argenteus.

Brattenschlag is immediately embroiled in a bloody mystery that includes vanished runic inscriptions, the beginnings of Nazism and something or someone that does not flinch from taking life in order to gain desired aims and conceal identity.

"An outstanding mystery tale... a brilliantly composed cosmopolitan suspense story, which ultimately can be read as a warning against political and religious fanaticism. But above all this is a glorious tribute to the good old fashioned joy of reading, carried forth by time-honoured stimulants like coded manuscripts, hidden treasures, conspiracies and betrayals. In a seemingly effortless way, Fauskanger sews together an extremely ingenious and still perfectly logical plot, where the ending is a lesson by example of how to collect every single thread without making it seem contrived or artificial"Aftenposten

"A sophisticated plot, not without gore and violence, betrayal and human lives on the edge of a precipice, but in a way it is the prose itself which drives everything forward ... The Mark of Shame offers clever twists and a captivatingly entertaining read, which certainly doesn't evaporate as soon as you close the book"Klassekampen

"A ripping yarn? Sure. A playful genre novel? Yes, that too. But it's very well done, with an alluring suspense at the base ... his originality, his passion and energy - few others come close to matching him there"Hamar Arbeiderblad

"An incredibly suspenseful and thorougly researched cocktail of a crime novel. It mixes political history, treasure hunt, spiritualism, occultism and more in order to tell a trailblazing, boundary-crossing story, which turns out to be about something more, much more, than Norway's independence."Mohammed, Leseriet.blogg.no

"The Mark of Shame is above all a wonderful historical crime novel. I am thrilled with Fauskanger's ability to mix science, religious history (from different strands of faith) and history so successfully. He plays with words, fools us completely, and starts over again, following a new thread, which eventually turns out to be cleverly connected to the other threads."Betraktninger - en verden av bøker, bibliotek og blogg

"The Mark of Shame is historical crime, and probably my favourite this spring. It has a delightful cast of characters, a mystery connected to esoteric circles and ancient manuscripts, created by a writer who knows exactly what he is doing."Artemisias verden