Description

‘This book reminds me of the things that crime fiction can do when it works well … Miller isn’t afraid to write characters who are opinionated. They don’t hold their tongue about what they believe in, they let rip. People are angry, people are passionate. I love the unorthodoxy of it, I suppose. It’s not what you expect it to be.” Val McDermid

She knew it was a weird place. She’d heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books. But now police Chief Inspector Sigrid Odegard has to leave her native Norway and actually go there; to that land across the Atlantic where her missing brother is implicated in the mysterious death of a prominent African-American academic.

America.

And not someplace interesting, either: upstate New York.

Plunged into a United States where race and identity, politics and promise, reverberate in every aspect of daily life. To find her older brother, she needs the help of the local police who appear to have already made up their minds about the case. Working with – or, if necessary, against – someone actually named Sheriff Irving ‘Irv’ Wylie, she must negotiate the local political minefields and navigate the back woods of the Adirondacks to uncover the truth before it’s too late…

Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award 2019

Publisher Review

American By Day is a terrific book - a high-class thriller with a neat Norwegian twist. You won't forget Sigrid, an Oslo detective on a mission in upstate New York; her outsider's take on American society gives this page-turner a unique and compelling sensibility. -- Erica Wagner A witty and intelligent fish-out-of-water tale * Sun * Not to be missed...A subtle crime story peopled with beautifully drawn characters -- Geoffrey Wansell * Daily Mail * Derek B Miller writes the kind of crime fiction the world needs right now. Principled, but not afraid to get down and dirty - and shot through with some of the sharpest humour you're likely to find. * Joseph Knox, bestselling author of Sirens * A superb novel on all levels...Miller is a classy satirist of American mores -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *