Martin MolstedRezensionen

I received this book free of charge from the publisher, back in 2013 for reviewing purposes and apparently missed its arrival, so now 7 years later I've actually read it (sorry publisher!).

Chasing the Storm is a reasonable thriller, bit of sea faring adventure, bit of cat and mouse spy style thriller as a journalist and a ex-operative now office worker cross paths, the later decides he wishes to help the former after coming to his aid in an attempted assassination. This sees the two men and a small entourage attempt to solve the hijacking of a ship in international waters, a ship which is meant to be carrying timber, but may in fact be carrying something far more nefarious.

I found that it took a little while to warm up but once going it was a decent read in settings not commonly used in books of this genre which is always a nice touch.

Worth having a look if you enjoy international thrillers.½

I was unable to finish this book. The pacing slowed remarkably and then the plot began meandering around as if in search of itself. There were side threads introduced that appeared to have little or no relevance and I kept forgetting the point of the story as a result. Another reviewer called it an "interesting theme of a man going through a mid-life crises." I don't find that an interesting topic and I picked this because it was supposed to be a crime thriller, not a midlife crisis story. Yet another reviewer noted the ingredients were there but the author was unable to pull it all together successfully. Well put!

For instance, despite the crime thriller label, repeatedly, whole paragraphs (if not pages) are spent having one of the two male MC's (it was still not clear which one was supposed to be the protagonist with whom I was intended to identify and I never identified with anyone) leering at a female character. In addition to being rude and offensive to female readers, it was an utter distraction to the plot that kept snapping me out of the story.

There was zero connection between the characters, so I saw no point to the large chunks of text spent on this side thread but the author kept returning to it as though it was relevant. Midlife crises indeed! The female character expressed no interest back so either the author intended the MC to later commit an act of sexual assault and was establishing this sexual interest early on or--more likely--the author was trying to give the MC some depth but failed miserably because the "depth" was utterly irrelevant to the plot. It was enough of a distraction that I don't even know why the female character existed except to BE a distraction that could fill a few hundred or thousand words. She was never developed with any personity at all, like a 2D stage prop. One reviewer actually called this a love interest--really? Leering at someone who ignores you is a love interest in storytelling now?

Overall, this had very poor plotting and story construction. Great ideas but very poor execution. Totally took me out of being a reader and into noticing the author behind the scenes. Given it's supposed to be a thriller, I should have been gripped by the plotting and found the pacing fast not meandering so I have to say it failed on both of those counts.

Sorry, but this was barely a 2-star read, which is why it took me so long to post a review. I hate having to say bad things about a fellow author's work. The one good thing I can say is that the author had very little trouble with the English language but there were sentence structures indicating it was not his mother tongue. Still, he did better at stringing words together sensibly than has been done by some of the native speakers publishing in the US markets today!

Molsted’s debut novel is a thriller whose characters develop depth as the fast moving plot moves on. The countries involved take on a new life as the seamier shadows of the underworld obscure the usual tourist’s view. The contemporary setting of the action, the food and events highlights the suspense and hints at the possible reality of this espionage-laden saga. I am looking forward to the sequel.

I received a copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/05/02/review-chasing-the-storm/

What’s really interesting about this novel is that it takes a lot of real-time current events and features them in the plot of the novel: missing ships taken over, corrupt politicians, shady businesses, determined journalists to undercover the truth, hotspot locations around the world fraught with turmoil…It’s also quite a geopolitical chase; one minute they’re in Germany, the next they’re in Russia, then they’re in Egypt. It’s pretty crazy but it keeps the adrenaline of the story going.

I’m not sure what to make of the characters, however. They’re interesting enough, but there wasn’t much hint at the beginning of the novel to indicate that Ryggs' past. It just seemed like such a jump in character between the man the reader meets in the first two chapters and the man the reader follows for the rest of the novel.I may have missed this detail but Marin seemed to be a little too well-off financially to be able to pull off such an investigation.

While appearing seemingly separate from Ryggs and Marin’s storyline, it was interesting to read about what was going on at the ship that the two were investigating and the conditions that they were left to survive in during that tumultuous period.

Nonetheless, for a thriller and a debut novel, Chasing the Storm is a page-turner. I found myself pretty glued to the story after a while, hoping to learn exactly what was going on and whether Dmitri, the character readers follow onboard the ship, will make it.

This is a very enjoyable, modern-day adventure story involving a hijacked ship and scenes in Russia, Germany and Norway among others. It has a very good plot and I was glued to this book while I was reading it. I think it was a very good debut novel and would be an excellent book to take on a long plane journey or vacation. The only criticism I have of it is frequency of certain phrases like "couple of.." which distracted me from the story. I am looking forward to these characters being developed further in more adventures.½

A very good book teaming an ex-Special Forces soldier from Norway with an investigative reporter from Russia. Two unlikely heroes brought together by a shooting incident in Hamburg one evening. The Norwegian is stuck in a job that does not offer the excitement that he once felt when he was in the field, so after returning home and getting an offer from the reporter he is off to find a ship that has been pirated in the Baltic. What is aboard that ship that makes it valuable to anyone or any nation? The search is on and the crisscross Europe searching for the answer.

The book keeps the reader interested and guessing throughout. The story is well conceived and it is wrapped around incidents that could very well happen today. A very good first novel and I look forward to more Rygg and Marin novels.

An interesting theme of a business man going through a midlife crisis and ends up in international espionage.

Whilst the plot moved, I found many parts confusing and not terribly relevant. The book was well written but in some places,I found the story quite hard to believe and, with one exception, the characters were kept in the dark and had little idea as to why they were doing what they were. I was not sure who the "bad or good" guys were. Some scenes were overly detailed and somewhat boring and the plot moved fast in done places and terribly slowly in others.

Whilst a good debut novel, I would like to see the characters more developed, learn their history and feel as if they are working as a team rather than puppets. It would be most. Interesting to see what further installments bring forth.

Martin Molsted’s first novel, Chasing the Storm, is a fine adventure tale with interesting and understandable characters working through a plot that features high jacked ships, foreign spies, plenty of intrigue. The main character, Togrim Rygg, a Norwegian lawyer-businessman, gets involved in the search for a missing Russian ship amidst plot digressions that involve possible Iranian involvement suspicious characters and plenty of action.
The book’s story line moves along at a fast clip and there is plenty of plot twists to either satisfy or confuse the reader, depending on your appetite for this sort of literary device.
I look forward to future installments in the adventurous life of Togrim Rygg and hope that Molsted keeps up the level of writing.

This book was, for me, a really good adventure story. The story spans quite a number of countries and flowed really well. The characters, Rygg, Marin and Lena (and Sasha) were interesting and likeable.

I can't remember ever feeling like any part of the book was filler - it was all good stuff, and fast paced, and the writing never bored me or made me groan because it was just cliche.

I hope there are more books featuring these characters and it does look like this is going to be a series, so hooray!

Review of Chasing the Storm by Martin Molsted

In this enjoyable debut novel, Torgrim Rygg, a burnt out lawyer for an oil firm, becomes caught up in international intrigue during a business trip to Germany. A high-jacked ship and its mysterious cargo are at the centre of a variety of missions Rygg undertakes for Marko Marin, a Russian journalist. While Rygg shows an aptitude for the spy business, he is also less slick and more realistic in this role than many fictional spies. The story is exciting and covers many exotic locales. Molsted approaches the plot from two angles which come together toward the twist at the end of the novel. The characters are appealing and memorable, and we are left wondering about Rygg's back story. I hope that there will be a series of thrillers based on Rygg and Marin.

"They had to go through two more metal detectors and a full pat-down (by a stern-faced blonde, to Rygg's lasting delight) before they entered the elevators." (Emphasis mine.) Page 124 of 250.

This was the paragraph that finally broke my reading enjoyment. Having received this novel as part of an Early Reviewers program, I had a fairly high level of commitment to finish it. It was tough going. One of the two story-lines -- the one on the boat -- are difficult to follow. The author has added so much colour commentary that some pages are in danger of moving from distraction to abstraction. Please keep the story moving!

I get that the author wanted to build the suspense by spending a page and a half explaining how difficult it is to get into the Russian Ministry of Defense (sic) with contraband material, but enough is enough. I will not finish this book. But maybe you like colour?

***LibraryThing Giveaway***

Built on a good premise but poorly executed. The dialogue was just plain boring but the plot redeemed it some.I also found that the main character was just thrown together, one minute he's a lowly lawyer, next he's this big bad James Bond type. Seems in-feasible to me. I believe this is the authors debut novel, if so it was as good as can be expected for a first book.

This book is a debut novel for Martin Molsted. Molsted lives in Norway and his hero Togrim Rygg comes from there. This was a book that I received from the publisher for an early review. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is well written, and the plot is tight and keeps up the tension throughout. It is certainly an international thriller. The story takes place in Norway, Germany, Russia, Greece and Cyprus. The story centres around the disappearance of a Russian ship and Rygg is recruited by a man that he meets by chance in Hamburg. Rygg is a lawyer in Oslo, and he has become disillusioned with his life and his job there. He is ex-special forces so he brings some skills to Marin's (the man he met in Hamburg) plan for uncovering a Russian/Iranian plot. This book is the first of a planned series with Rygg and Marin, and I am as excited about this proposed series as I've been with a new series for a long time. I love the characters and Molsted is a skilled writer. This is definitely a series to watch for if you like tightly written thrillers with believable characters.

I enjoyed this book set in foreign countries. You did have to pay attention as the book would jump back and forth between parallel and intertwined storylines and experienced from the perspective of different characters. It kept you guessing until the end.

Torgrim Rygg was a man who was deadened by his work. Why otherwise would he take a stranger with a bullet wound back to his hotel room, and then agree to every request the man made of him?

Martin Molsted has created a hero with a past we would like to know more of, to understand why he so willingly puts himself in the middle of a very dangerous international plot, and travels all over Europe at the drop of a hat to aid the stranger, who says he is a Russian investigative journalist.

This book is a great introduction to Rygg, and after following him through all the plot twists to the satisfying conclusion, we still want to know more about him and his past., and eagerly await future installments of Rygg's adventures from Mr. Molsted.

A great first novel!

I received this book in a give away. This book is filled with adventure, travel, and twist. I enjoyed reading, but did at first get a little lost with the characters. Read on it will all come together. I would read another book by this author and from the ending of this book more adventures are yet to come.

This is undoubtedly an ambitious book; something debut novels often are. Just as often, they don't live up to those ambitions as is the case with this one.
The protagonist, Togrim Rygg at first seems to be just some kind of business man - and suddenly, out of nowhere, he acts like James Bond. He refuses to take a map because he has "everything memorized. Safer." and likewise he declares "All hackers have big heads". There's absolutely no indication at that point in the book how he would know that - it's completely out-of-character. This is most likely the crudest way I've ever seen an author use to convey to the reader that there might be more to the unlikely hero than immediately meets the eye.
Similarly, his friend, Marko Marin, tells Rygg "That is what I need from you. Keep us in form.". At this point of the novel, Marin has no way of knowing that Rygg might be more than a random business man. Such inconsistencies are marring the entire book.
That's not all, though: Throughout the entire book, Rygg switches between being a James Bond parody and a disillusioned business man. His back story in the military is mostly implausible and doesn't really add up nor does it help the book in any real way apart from serving as a vehicle to allow our heroes to travel all over the world - because there hardly seems to be a country in which Rygg doesn't have friends.
It's not healthy to be friends with him, by the way, because pretty much all of his friends end up dead after talking to him. Who killed them and why exactly usually never gets cleared up as long as they die spectacularly (e. g. being beheaded). Not that Rygg cares either; all of his friends seem to be pretty expendable to him - he never mourns their deaths but just ponders whom to get into mortal danger next.
Speaking of danger: This is supposed to be a thriller. The problem is: There are no thrills at all. Even when in danger, the story never gets beyond luke-warm. The reader *knows* this can't possibly be the end of the respective character so we're not exactly left biting our nails, worrying for the hero to make it through. In fact, I found myself yawning and just waiting how the disillusioned business man becomes James Bond again and gets himself out of whatever situation he's in. Even if said situation has the potential to get people into fast-paced action, the author manages to drag the story aloooooong.
It's sad because there's everything in this book that *could* make it a thriller: Danger, corruption, organised crime (which is depicted as fat Vodka-drinking Russians, though...), traitors, etc. It's just that the author is completely and utterly unable to forge a decent story from his ingredients. It feels like he grabbed all clichés he could find, put them into a bucket and mixed them uninspiredly into a novel.
It doesn't help either that none of the characters are fleshed out: Marko Marin is a "kind of journalist" but we never get to really *know* him. He's simply around, a sketch of himself without any substance. What his real motivation is, we never get to know and nobody will really care about that either. Togrim Rygg isn't any better. He drifts along with whatever happens - mostly being passive, wishing his life hadn't become what it is and to bed the Marin's girlfriend. he latter usually being his greatest worry and desire. She in turn is so forgettable that I've indeed already forgotten her name. Her most important trait is wearing translucent underwear and not wearing bras. That's pretty much all she's doing. After all, she's just someone who happens to be in this book for no discernible reason.
There are quite a few lose ends as well - Rygg's love interest, Marko's girlfriend, gives Rygg strange last minute instructions at one point, supposedly as a messenger of Marko to whom Rygg had talked before. Rygg even wonders about that - but never asks either of them and it's just being forgotten about.
"Forgotten" is something I've used often throughout this review and forgettable is what this book is. It's not a complete let-down, though, so I'll still give it two stars out of five.
I read this as an ebook using Marvin (http://marvinapp.com/), the best ebook reader on iOS.

I don't generally read thrillers, but thoroughly enjoyed chasing the storm by Martin Molsted. At the start of the story, we meet Torgrim, a typical Norwegian attorney who unexpectedly stumbles upon adventure. He decides to drop his tedious life for one of action with a Russian journalist he meets. It was very fun to watch Torgrim transform and thrive in his new life. The action was well paced, juxtaposing the story of Torgrim with the action aboard the ship they are chasing. The author provided delightful descriptions of his settings, including Russia, Greece, and Egypt.

I found the pace of the story to be similar to any Dan Brown bestseller. Chasing the storm is a real page turner, and well written to boot. I gave the book 5 stars because I was genuinely surprised by the twists and turns. I can't believe that this is the debut novel for Molsted; it was that good.

I received a copy of this ebook as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers and enjoyed it as a good holiday read. I found most of the characters easy to like, particularly the side story of the ship hand Dimitry. There were some jumps in the story that were a little far fetched however overall the story flowed well and included a few unexpected twists. I look forward to reading future installments of the adventures between Torgrim and Marko and would recommend this book as a light thriller.½

Disclaimer: I received this e-book free as part of early reviewer program.

This book is the first of a series and it has decent character development. I did, however, have a hard time believing the mysterious Russian jounralist. No journalist I've ever heard of has such far-reaching contacts, money, and other resources. But it still made for an entertaining read. The plot twist at the end was not surprising to me, but it wasn't over-the-top.

Chasing the Storm by Martin Molsted was a very good story spun around a historical event. The story revolves around the hijacking of a Russian freighter in the Baltic Sea. Supposedly the freighter was carrying lumber. Eventually, the Russians recapture the freighter in the Atlantic Ocean.

This story is a fictional story about a Russian journalist who is hiding from the Russian government trying to gain information about what is going on with the freighter. His goal is to publish the truth about the cargo and who the hijackers are. The story starts with a Norwegian lawyer who is walking in a German square witnesses a woman being shot and chases the attacker only to lose him. He returns to the square to find another person who was wounded by the shots, who was the actual target. He helps the man back to his hotel and assists him. The man who was shot is eventually revealed to be the Russian journalist. The lawyer is a former Norwegian spy/military who is bored with his life.

The story moves from Germany to Norway to Croatia, Paros, Moscow, Cairo, to Crete. The journalist has a number of accomplices around Russia who help him out. The Norwegian has a number of contacts from a former mission that resulted in his leaving the service of the Norway government. All of these characters are artfully weaved into the story to make it a very good novel. This is not an American thriller, everything is set overseas with a foreign cast of characters.

This is undoubtedly an ambitious book; something debut novels often are. Just as often, they don't live up to those ambitions as is the case with this one.

The protagonist, Togrim Rygg at first seems to be just some kind of business man - and suddenly, out of nowhere, he acts like James Bond. He refuses to take a map because he has "everything memorized. Safer." and likewise he declares "All hackers have big heads". There's absolutely no indication at that point in the book how he would know that - it's completely out-of-character. This is most likely the crudest way I've ever seen an author use to convey to the reader that there might be more to the unlikely hero than immediately meets the eye.

Similarly, his friend, Marko Marin, tells Rygg "That is what I need from you. Keep us in form.". At this point of the novel, Marin has no way of knowing that Rygg might be more than a random business man. Such inconsistencies are marring the entire book.

That's not all, though: Throughout the entire book, Rygg switches between being a James Bond parody and a disillusioned business man. His back story in the military is mostly implausible and doesn't really add up nor does it help the book in any real way apart from serving as a vehicle to allow our heroes to travel all over the world - because there hardly seems to be a country in which Rygg doesn't have friends.

It's not healthy to be friends with him, by the way, because pretty much all of his friends end up dead after talking to him. Who killed them and why exactly usually never gets cleared up as long as they die spectacularly (e. g. being beheaded). Not that Rygg cares either; all of his friends seem to be pretty expendable to him - he never mourns their deaths but just ponders whom to get into mortal danger next.

Speaking of danger: This is supposed to be a thriller. The problem is: There are no thrills at all. Even when in danger, the story never gets beyond luke-warm. The reader *knows* this can't possibly be the end of the respective character so we're not exactly left biting our nails, worrying for the hero to make it through. In fact, I found myself yawning and just waiting how the disillusioned business man becomes James Bond again and gets himself out of whatever situation he's in.
Even if said situation has the potential to get people into fast-paced action, the author manages to drag the story aloooooong.

It's sad because there's everything in this book that *could* make it a thriller: Danger, corruption, organised crime (which is depicted as fat Vodka-drinking Russians, though...), traitors, etc.
It's just that the author is completely and utterly unable to forge a decent story from his ingredients. It feels like he grabbed all clichés he could find, put them into a bucket and mixed them uninspiredly into a novel.

It doesn't help either that none of the characters are fleshed out: Marko Marin is a "kind of journalist" but we never get to really *know* him. He's simply around, a sketch of himself without any substance. What his real motivation is, we never get to know and nobody will really care about that either.
Togrim Rygg isn't any better. He drifts along with whatever happens - mostly being passive, wishing his life hadn't become what it is and to bed the Marin's girlfriend. he latter usually being his greatest worry and desire.
She in turn is so forgettable that I've indeed already forgotten her name. Her most important trait is wearing translucent underwear and not wearing bras. That's pretty much all she's doing. After all, she's just someone who happens to be in this book for no discernible reason.

There are quite a few lose ends as well - Rygg's love interest, Marko's girlfriend, gives Rygg strange last minute instructions at one point, supposedly as a messenger of Marko to whom Rygg had talked before. Rygg even wonders about that - but never asks either of them and it's just being forgotten about.

"Forgotten" is something I've used often throughout this review and forgettable is what this book is. It's not a complete let-down, though, so I'll still give it two stars out of five.

I read this as an ebook using Marvin (http://marvinapp.com/), the best ebook reader on iOS.

That was an absolutely gripping and fast-paced reading. The story contains everything a fabulous thriller is needing. It is set out in different European and African countries. There are the good guys as well as the evil ones, agents, several kind of services, undercover work, ordinary people which are getting involved in one way or another, different escape routes and to be on the run. It starts out what is looking like a simple murder but soon it's clear that nothing and anything seems to be simple on the contrary it is getting complicated and wicked and all wits from the main characters are needed to solve the problem. It let me guessing until the very last page.½

Enthralling plot which is spanning several countries, quite a lot of persons and a good many different locations that are delineated realistically. Sure, as an Austrian reader it hurts a bit getting confronted with a few very bad German translations like the newspaper 'Der Spiegel' as 'Die Spiegel'. And the described 'computer power' - as if a good hacker can get any information just with a snap - seems to me exaggerated. However, I enjoyed reading it. No: I read it in three days, almost incessantly!

Chasing the Storm is the first novel in the Rygg and Marin series by author Martin Molsted. Torgrim Rygg is hired by investigative journalist Marin to assist his investigation into the hijack and disappearance of a Russian ship after Rygg saves Marin from people who are trying to kill him. As they work together they uncover a plot much deeper than they thought taking them to the heart of the Russian government.

This is more of a Bourne style action thriller than it is a typical Scandinavian police procedural crime thriller. Read the full review here