About The Book
One blustery October morning in a quiet Copenhagen suburb, the police make a terrible discovery. A young woman is found brutally murdered with one of her hands missing. Above her hangs a small doll made of chestnuts.
Ambitious young detective Naia Thulin is assigned the case. Her partner, Mark Hess, is a burned-out investigator who’s just been kicked out of Europol. They soon discover a mysterious piece of evidence on the chestnut man – evidence connecting it to a girl who went missing a year earlier and is presumed dead; the daughter of politician Rosa Hartung. But the man who confessed to her murder is already behind bars and the case long since closed.
Soon afterwards, a second woman is found murdered, along with another chestnut man. Thulin and Hess suspect that there’s a connection between the Hartung case and the murdered women. But what is it?
Thulin and Hess are racing against the clock, because it’s clear that the killer is on a mission that is far from over . . .
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. The author of this book created the very successful TV drama The Killing. It is a programme that I have never watched. After reading this book I think it’s one I will be watching soon. If I hadn’t been aware of this I would still feel that this book has been written with TV in mind. I could see nearly every scene like it was on the TV.
It starts in 1989, but only for a chapter. After that you are in modern day and I soon forgot to think about what the connection could be. It was only in the last third of the book that the events are mentioned again. And you start to realise why the murders are happening. It is not the only part to think about. There is also Hess, I was aching to know why he had been removed from his position with Europol and when it was revealed it wasn’t what I expected.
The murders are gruesome and they are very imaginative. When you got to know more about the victims and their families you became aware of how bad life is for some families. And how you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. A few cops were unpleasant and should have had a different career but I did like Thulin and Hess, even if I didn’t get to know them that well. I had two suspects and I was correct on my second choice. But not for the right reasons.
This is an author I would read again, and I will definitely watch this if it is televised. Along with The Killing.
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