VARDOGER

STEPHEN VOLK
VARDOGER

Gray Friar Press, 2009

Young couple, Sean and Alison, comes to the Shewstone Hotel to spend the weekend in each other's arms. However, on arrival the first dislocations start: Booked room was paid for the previous weekend, as Sean and his wife were in the hotel last weekend. Solving the problem with room and with a credit card someone used without the knowledge of the owner, a husband and a wife finally overrun in the room. But the annoying things continue to hurt Sean: staff of the hotel and local guests treats to him as if they met him before and knew his habits. Sean gets angry and categorically stated that he had never been in this hotel. These little things could not spoil the rest, but the very next morning after his arrival Sean looks out of the window his wife goes by the handle with a certain man. The stranger turns around, and Sean sees that Alison goes with anyone else but with someone so similar to him that Sean understands that this is he.

Volk, not only a novelist, but also a screenwriter, makes good job with a plot, confusing it no worse than a cat playing about with a ball of yarn. Is the kidnapper of Sean`s wife his counterpart and who`ll gave a clue, we do not know until the last pages. The author managed to hold down the hero in the grip so feeling of madness climbs from the pages of novella. Sean, confused and mix-uped, can not trust anyone and he is one on one with himself. But is he alone? And who is he? He`d want to know, too.

The Norwegian word «vardoger» will not appear on the pages of the book. Sean probably does not even know such a word, but if he knew he would doubt: who of the two of them, he or his twin, are the vardoger?

Volk, succeeding in creating a nearly ideal atmospheric thriller, in the end cheats so much that in a card game for such deception he could get it in the neck. Artificial end like a patch on the new trousers slurs over the impression from the story. Nevertheless, the book asks an important question: are we who we are? And the writer answers: vardoger knows.