Sandviken-Klinik is the psychiatric institution where Katrine Bratt has been treated and later chooses to stay after a relapse. Its significance in the story lies in the contrast between its role as a place of care and refuge and its unexpected use as a base for her renewed investigative work with Harry Hole.

Setting and Atmosphere

When Harry Hole arrives, Kjersti Rodsmoen hurries with him along the clinic’s corridor. Rain runs down its tall, narrow windows; beyond them are the fjord and green trees, an unexpectedly springlike view against the season. The setting is at once institutional and open to the landscape beyond it, a quiet threshold between confinement and the outside world.

Katrine Bratt’s Return

The staff still refer to Katrine as the patient to protect her anonymity after a murder investigation in which she had taken part nearly a year earlier. The strain eventually brought on a relapse, and she returned to the psychiatric clinic where she had previously received treatment. Her condition improved sooner than expected, and she was discharged, but the press continued to pursue details of the already-solved Snowman case. Three months before Harry’s visit, Katrine called Rodsmoen and asked to come back.

A Refuge with Uncertain Terms

Katrine tells Harry that the clinic’s staff want her to leave because they consider her well and believe she is occupying a place someone else needs. She does not share their urgency: despite poor room service, the clinic feels safe, she has a television, and she can come and go as she likes. She considers returning home in a month or two, but treats that possibility as uncertain, noting that mental illness can come and go. The clinic therefore offers her security without presenting recovery as a simple, completed transition.

Harry’s Visit and the Clinic’s Function

Harry arrives intending to speak with Katrine and tells her about recent events, including Rakel and Oleg moving abroad, his father’s illness, and the case he has taken on. He asks her to keep what he says confidential. Their conversation quickly turns practical: Katrine explains that the shared computer in the hobby room has no internet access, while she has a personal computer in her room. Harry gives her a mobile web stick and directs her to use the ward computer; Gunnar Hagen is paying for the connection. The clinic becomes more than the setting for a private visit: within the limits of its routines and safeguards, it enables Katrine to reconnect with the work from which illness and unwanted publicity had separated her.