Detective Harry Hole of the Oslo police is investigating the disappearance of women that coincide with the first snowfall. Aided by his new partner Katrine he tries to join the dots between the disappearances.

Based on a book in the Jo Nesbo crime thriller series, directed by Tomas Alfredson who made the sublime Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Let the Right One In and starring a hugely talented cast including Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Toby Jones, J.K. Simmons and Val Kilmer this should be a cracking crime thriller. But unfortunately it’s a damp squib. In fact, had I not read the book I am unconvinced the connective tissue between the crime scenes and characters would have made much sense to me.

The film mostly stays true to the book with only a handful of changes, but where it seems to fall apart is in not really explaining the links between characters. Especially across the flashbacks with Val Kilmer, which feel entirely incongruous, even more so because Kilmer seems to have overdubbed all of his lines and they barely sync in some scenes.

The film it reminds me of, purely due to the failed book adaptation is The Girl on the Train which came out around this time last year. Both are entirely adequate, but at the same time fail to leverage the entertainment factor of the book and the abilities of the cast on show. A disappointment.