Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson #bookreview #translatedbook

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Death at the Sanatorium in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: September 10, 2024   Summary: Fresh off his career-changing standalone co-written with Icelandic PM, Reykjavík, #1 Icelandic bestseller Jonasson presents a riveting new thriller spinoff from The Darkness, soon to be a TV series. 1983 At a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland, now a hospital ward,…

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Killing Moon by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #series

Thank you Knopf #partner, for the finished copy of Killing Moon in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: April 30, 2024 (first published 2022)   Summary: THE HUNT IS ON AND THE POLICE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. Two young women are missing, their only connection a party they both attended, hosted by a notorious real-estate magnate. When one of the women is found murdered, the police…

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Mini Reviews – Thriller Edition #bookreviews #thrillers #bookpurchases

This month I attended Hamptonswhodunit, a Mystery and crime festival, and in prepping for it, I picked a few books from my shelves by some of the authors I knew would be attending. Not only did this help me get to know some of these authors better but it also allowed me to read some books that had been sitting on my shelf for a while. And now I’m quite…

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The Ice Child by Camilla Lackberg #bookreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Harper Collins Published: March 10, 2016   Summary: SEE NO EVIL It’s January in the peaceful seaside resort of Fjällbacka. A semi-naked girl wanders through the woods in freezing cold weather. When she finally reaches the road, a car comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t manage to stop. HEAR NO EVIL The victim, a girl who went missing four months ago,…

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The Woman Inside by M.T. Edvardsson #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Celadon Books, #partner for the advanced copy of The Woman Insider in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Celadon Books / Macmillan Audio Published: June 13, 2023   Summary: A wealthy couple ends up murdered in the nicest part of town in this compulsively readable, page-turning thriller from M. T. Edvardsson, The Woman Inside. Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide…

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The Mountain King by Anders de la Motte #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and Atria Books #partner,  for the finished copy of The Mountain King in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Atria Books / Simon & Schuster ALC Published: January 30, 2024   Summary: This atmospheric and sinister mystery, perfect for fans of the Nordic thrillers of Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson, follows an overachieving female inspector investigating the darkest side of humanity.…

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You Will Never Be Found by Tove Alsterdal #bookreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Harper Published: January 10, 2023   Summary: Detective Eira Sjodin, introduced in the electrifying Swedish crime thriller We Know You Remember, races to solve a disappearance that hits chillingly close to home in the second book in the High Coast series, hailed by People as “Nordic noir at its best.” In the small mining town of Malmberget, north of the Arctic…

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The Sanctuary by Katrine Engberg #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC of The Sanctuary in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio Published: February 7, 2023   Summary: From internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, the series that is a “gripping addition to the Scandinavian crime fiction pantheon” ( Oprah Daily ) comes to a stunning conclusion as Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner rush to untangle a long-simmering mystery before a brutal killer strikes…

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The Spider by Lars Kepler #bookreview #series

Thank you to Knopf Books, #partner, for a finished copy of The Spider in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group Published: July 25, 2023   Summary: A killer is spinning a sinister web and the police are caught dead center. Three years ago, Saga Bauer received a postcard with a threatening message. It mentioned a gun and nine white bullets–one of which was intended for Detective Joona Linna.…

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Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg #bookreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Harper Collins UK Published: April 10, 2014   Summary: Easter, 1974. A family vanishes without a trace from the island of Valö outside of Fjällbacka. The dinner table has been exquisitely set, but everyone except the one year-old daughter Ebba is gone. Are they victims of a crime or have they voluntarily disappeared? Years later Ebba returns to the island and…

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Rekjavik by Ragnar Jonasson, Katrin Jakobsdottir #bookreview #authorevent #translatedbook

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Reykjavik in exchange for my honest review.    Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: September 5, 2023   Summary: With over three million copies sold worldwide, Ragnar Jónasson, along with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, brings us a gripping and chilling new thriller, Reykjavík. What happened to Lára? Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island…

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The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

Thank you PRH Audio for the ALC and Knopf #partner,  for the advanced copy of The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher:  Knopf / Penguin Random House Audio Published: August 29, 2023   Summary: Lisbeth Salander returns, in a trailblazing new installment to the best-selling Millennium series Change is coming to Sweden’s far north: its untapped natural resources are sparking a gold rush with the…

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The Last Grudge by Max Seeck #bookreview #series #translatedbook #blogtour

Thank you Berkley Books, #partner, for the finished copy of The Last Grudge in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Berkley Books Pub date: February 7, 2023   Summary: While her colleagues investigate the brutal murder of a prominent businessman, Jessica Niemi must battle demons from her past in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Hunter. Powerful executive Eliel Zetterborg has been found murdered in his…

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Gallows Rock by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, translated by Victoria Cribb #bookreview #series #translatedbook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: May 28, 2020   Summary: On a jagged, bleak lava field just outside Reykjavik stands the Gallows Rock. Once a place of execution, it is now a tourist attraction. Until this morning, when a man was found hanging from it… The nail embedded in his chest proves it wasn’t suicide. But when the police go to…

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Hidden in Snow by Viveca Sten, translated by Marlaine Delargy #bookreview #audiobook #translatedbook #series

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner for the ALC of Hidden in Snow in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: December 1, 2022   Summary: The splendor of the Swedish mountains becomes the backdrop for a bone-chilling crime. On the day Stockholm police officer Hanna Ahlander’s personal and professional lives crash, she takes refuge at her sister’s lodge in the Swedish ski resort paradise of Åre. But it’s a…

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The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn #bookreview #backlistreview

Thank you Orenda Books, #partner for the finished copy of The Bird Tribunal in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Orenda Books Published: January 1, 2017 (first published 2013)   Summary: Two people in exile. Two secrets. As the past tightens its grip, there may be no escape… TV presenter Allis Hagtorn leaves her partner and her job to take voluntary exile in a remote house on an isolated fjord.…

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Knife by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: June 2, 2020 (first published 2019)   Summary: Brilliant, audaciously rogue police officer Harry Hole from The Snowman and The Thirst is back and in the throes of a new, unanticipated rage–once again hunting the murderer who has haunted his entire career. Harry Hole is not in a good place. Rakel–the only woman he’s ever loved–has ended it with him, permanently.…

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A Harmless Lie by Sara Blaedel #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Dutton Published: March 22, 2022 (first published 2019)   Summary: A woman is haunted by a heartwrenching decision she made as a teenager in this darkly atmospheric, deeply emotional thriller from #1 internationally bestselling global superstar Sara Blaedel. Detective Louise Rick is on a beach in Thailand when the panicked call from her father comes through. Louise′s beloved brother, Mikkel,…

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The Thirst by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: January 30, 2018 (first published 2017)   Summary: In this electrifying new thriller from the author of Police and The Snowman, Inspector Harry Hole hunts down a serial murderer who targets his victims . . . on Tinder. The murder victim, a self-declared Tinder addict. The one solid clue–fragments of rust and paint in her wounds–leaves the investigating team baffled.…

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Smoke Screen by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger #bookreview #series

I borrowed this book from the library. Publisher: Orenda Books Published: June 1, 2021 (first published 2019)   Summary: When the mother of a missing two-year-old girl is seriously injured in a suspected terrorist attack in Oslo, crime-fighting duo Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the case, and things aren’t adding up … The second instalment in the addictive, atmospheric, award-winning Blix & Ramm series. Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The…

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Police by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: July 15, 2014 (first published 2013)   Summary: The police urgently need Harry Hole. A killer is stalking Oslo’s streets. Police officers are being slain at the scenes of crimes they once investigated, but failed to solve. The murders are brutal, the media reaction hysterical. But this time, Harry can’t help anyone. For years, detective Harry Hole…

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Dark Music by David Lagercrantz #bookreview #newseries

Thank you Knopf Publishing Group, #partner, for the advanced copy of Dark Music in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group Published: August 23, 2022   Summary: Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, an exhilarating new thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web–a murder investigation in which two unlikely allies race to uncover a shadowy international conspiracy. Professor Hans Rekke is a world authority on interrogation techniques,…

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The Harbor by Katrine Engberg #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and Gallery/Scout Press / Netgalley #partner, for the advanced copy of The Harbor in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press / Simon and Schuster Audio Published: February 22, 2022   Summary: From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Butterfly House, called “brazen and original” by The Toronto Star, comes a timely, suspenseful, and darkly original new novel about a missing child…

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The Collector by Anne Mette Hancock #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Dreamscape Media/Netgalley, #partner for the ALC of The Collector in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Dreamscape Media Published: November 8, 2022   Summary: When ten-year-old Lukas disappears from his Copenhagen school, police investigators discover that the boy had a peculiar obsession with pareidolia: a phenomenon that makes him see faces in random things. A photo on his phone, posted just hours before his disappearance, shows an old barn…

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Phantom by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: April 23, 2013 (first published 2012)   Summary: When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn’t…

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The Leopard by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: June 26, 2012 (first published 2009)   Summary: In the depths of winter, a killer stalks the city streets. His victims are two young women, both found with twenty-four inexplicable puncture wounds, both drowned in their own blood. The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of…

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Blood Ties by Ruth Lillegraven #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner, for the ALC of Blood Ties in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: July 26, 2022   Summary: Betrayal, secrets, revenge, and murder: they’re in the blood in a provocative novel of psychological suspense by the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of Everything Is Mine. As Norway’s newly appointed minister of justice, child-rights advocate Clara Lofthus has a chance to accomplish something meaningful on behalf…

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Everything is Mine by Ruth Lillegraven #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner, for the ALC of Everything Is Mine in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: March 9, 2021   Summary: Family secrets, revenge, and righteous fury collide in an international bestselling novel of psychological suspense and intrigue. Clara and Henrik are married and living in a beautiful inherited villa in Oslo. She is a single-mindedly ambitious child-rights activist at the Ministry of Justice.…

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The Resting Place by Camilla Sten #bookreview

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Resting Place in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: March 29, 2022   Summary: A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten. The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you. When Eleanor walked in on…

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Outside by Ragnar Jonasson #bookreview

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner,  for the advanced copy of Outside in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: June 28, 2022   Summary: With three million copies of his books sold worldwide, “world-class crime writer”(The Sunday Times, UK) Ragnar Jónasson brings us a chilling new standalone thriller with Outside. Four friends. One night. Not everyone will come out alive . . . When a deadly snowstorm strikes the…

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The Snowman by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #seriesreview

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: June 28, 2016 (first published 2007)   Summary: Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity. Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his…

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Short & Sweet Review: The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: September 9, 2014 (first published 2005) Source: Personal copy   SUMMARY A fantastically gripping thriller from the best-selling author of The Snowman. Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. A gunshot cuts through the music and the bitter cold: one of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range. Harry Hole—the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and…

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Short & Sweet Review: The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo

  Publisher: Vintage Published: April 6, 2016 (first published 2003) Source: Personal copy   SUMMARY: A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star – a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially…

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Review: Black Ice by Carin Gerhardsen

Publisher: Scarlet Suspense Published: June 29, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher   Summary: January in Gotland. The days are short, the air is cold, and all the roads are covered in snow. On a deserted, icy backroad, these wintery conditions will soon bring together a group of strangers with a force devastating enough to change their lives forever when, in the midst of a brief period, a deadly accident…

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Short & Sweet Review: Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Vintage Published: 2008 (first published 2002) Source: Personal copy   Summary: How do you catch a killer when you’re the number one suspect? A man is caught on CCTV, shooting dead a cashier at a bank. Detective Harry Hole begins his investigation, but after dinner with an old flame wakes up with no memory of the past 12 hours. Then the girl is found dead in mysterious circumstances and…

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Review: We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal

Publisher: Harper Published: October 28, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer.  It’s been more than twenty years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to…

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Review: The Redbreast by Harry Hole

Publisher: Harper Perennial Published: 2006 (First published January 2000) Source: Personal copy   Summary: Detective Harry Hole embarrassed the force, and for his sins he’ been reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks. But while monitoring neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, Hole is inadvertently drawn into a mystery with deep roots in Norway’s dark past, when members of the government willingly collaborated with Nazi Germany. More than sixty years later, this black mark…

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Review: The Mirror Man by Lars Kepler

Publisher: Knopf Published: January 18, 2022 Source: Publisher   Summary: In the latest internationally best-selling installment of the Killer Instinct series, Detective Joona Linna is on the trail of a kidnapper who targets teenage girls and makes their worst nightmares a reality. Seventeen-year-old Jenny is abducted in broad daylight and taken to a dilapidated, isolated house where she is chained and caged along with several other girls. Their captor is…

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Review: The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund

Publisher: Harvill Secker Published: April 14, 2016 Source: Personal copy   Summary: The most terrifying thriller you’ll read this year It starts with just one body – the hands bound, the skin covered in marks. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg is determined to find out who is responsible, despite opposition from her superiors. When two more bodies are found, it becomes clear that she is hunting a serial killer. With her…

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Review: Death Deserved by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

Publisher: Orenda Books Published: February 20, 2020 (first published July 2, 2018) Source: Personal copy   Summary: Police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm join forces to track down a serial killer with a thirst for attention and high-profile murders, in the first episode of a gripping new Nordic Noir series… Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always…

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Review: The Jealousy Man and Other Stories by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group Published: October 5, 2021 Source: Publisher   Summary: A veritable crime lover’s delight from a true master of mystery and suspense. Experience the #1 New York Times best-selling author as never before in this dark and thrilling short story collection that takes us on a journey of twisted minds and vengeful hearts. Jo Nesbø is known the world over as a consummate mystery/thriller writer. Famed for his deft…

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Review: Why Did You Lie by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: August 11, 2016 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing. Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea. They have one thing in…

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Review: The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe (reread)

Publisher: Random House Audio Published: December 27, 2016 Source: Library   Summary: Acclaimed Swedish author Camilla Grebe makes her solo American debut with a psychological thriller as cunning in its twists as it is captivating in its storytelling – for fans of the celebrated crime fiction of Camilla Läckberg, Jo Nesbø, Ruth Ware, and Fiona Barton. Winter’s chill has descended on Stockholm as police arrive at the scene of a…

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Review: The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson

    Title: The Girl Who Died Author: Ragnar Jonasson, translated by Victoria Cribb Published: May 2021, Minotaur Books Format: ARC Paperback, 320 pages Source: Publisher   Summary: Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the WorldUna wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at…

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Review: The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg (audio)

  Title: The Butterfly House Author: Katrine Engberg Series: Korner & Werner, #2 Narrator: Graeme Malcolm Published: January 2021, Simon Schuster Audio / Gallery/Scout Press Length: 10 hours 1 minutes / 352 pages Source: Audio via Simon Schuster Audio / Print – ARC E-copy via Netgalley Summary: Detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner return in this thriller as they race to solve a series of sordid murders linked to some…

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Review: The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

Title: The Tenant Author: Katrine Engberg Series: Korner/Werner, #1 Published: January 2020, Gallery/Scout Press Format: ARC Paperback, 368 pages Source: Publisher Summary:  An electrifying work of literary suspense from international bestselling author KatrineEngberg, this stunning debut introduces two police detectives struggling to solve a shocking murder and stop a killer hell-bent on revenge. When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of…

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