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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic blaze erupted aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate crew training along with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas released from burning materials led to the deaths of 159 people. Initially, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this suspect also died in the fire and was not able to defend the accusations, the complete facts about the disaster remained concealed for a long time. Only in 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the blaze was probably set deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic series, Money to Burn, an unidentified narrator is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she notices an older man on the street. As the vehicle moves away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the route in search of him, the narrator enters a landscape that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She presents readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the pressures of their conflicted pasts. In the final pages of that volume, it is implied that the root of Kurt's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his account by a man referred to as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Approach

This second installment opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator explains her challenge to write T's story. “In this second volume,” she writes, “we were meant / to follow him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had successfully been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the pandemic, she tackles the story obliquely, as a type of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the dark force.”

A tale slowly emerges of a female character who spends lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a decade before, when she accepted an proposal from a man who professed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his intentions. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are devils all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic dedication to writing as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories teach us that it is the devil who does deals, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third storyline comes finally to light—the account of a young woman whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with societal norms or endure further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've created for it, there are a pair of outcomes: surrender or stay a beast.” A alternative path is finally unveiled through a series of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous British readers of the author's Scandinavian Star books will think immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, shares parallels in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be linked at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over people. In these initial volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book series, the fire on board the ferry and the series of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or implication yet casting a growing shadow over everything that occurs. Certain readers may question how much it is feasible to interpret this volume as a independent piece, when its aim and meaning are so deeply bound into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Fused

There will be others—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's project purely as written art, as properly innovative literature whose ethical and creative intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, attractive devotion to the craft as a statement. I will continue to follow this literary journey, wherever it leads.