The country’s new female prime minister has been shot dead and the gun can’t be found in Anne Holt’s fourth mystery in the award-winning, internationally bestselling Hanne Wilhelmsen books that are “a natural for Jo Nesbø readers” (Booklist, starred review).

Less than six months after taking office, the Norwegian Prime Minister is found dead. She has been shot in the head. Was it a politically motivated assassination or personal revenge?

Hanne Wilhelmsen, chief inspector of the Oslo police, is on leave in California, but when the death shakes the country to its core, she knows she can’t remain on the sidelines of such a crucial investigation. The hunt for the Prime Minister’s killer is complicated, intense, and grueling. When secrets begin to unravel from the Prime Minister’s past, Hanne and her partner, Billy T., must solve the crime before a private tragedy becomes a public scandal in the most sensitive case of their careers.

Filled with lies, deception, and the truth about government, “The Lion’s Mouth tackles the ruthlessness of political power [in] the most sensitive investigation of Hanne Wilhelmsen’s career” (Financial Times). “The wonder and pleasure…is in how Ms. Holt weaves the strands of a political thriller, a police procedural, a locked-room mystery, and a domestic novel into a satisfying plot” (The Wall Street Journal).

Anne Holt is Norway’s bestselling female crime writer. She was a journalist and news anchor and spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway’s Minister for Justice in 1996 and 1997. Her first novel was published in 1993 and her books have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold more than 7 million copies. Her novel 1222 was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. She lives in Oslo with her family.