Three Dog Night by Elsebeth Egholm

review by Maryom

Ex-convict Peter Boutrup wants to move on, forget the past and live a quiet respectable life - but things are rarely that easy, are they? First an old friend turns up talking about a lost treasure, then while out walking his dog Peter finds another old acquaintance  dead at the bottom of cliffs - and his reclusive neighbour Felix seems to know more about this than she's telling. At the same time, a local girl has gone missing and a body, which may or may not be hers, turned up in the harbour.  Can all these things be related? It looks like Peter's dreams of a rural idyll are going to be on hold for a while.

Three Dog Night is a complex thriller set against the backdrop of Denmark's coldest winter. The story moves from two directions - that of Peter and his neighbour Felix, and that of the police department who are investigating matters from a totally different angle. As the two begin to merge things turn bloody and brutal. It's a compelling read that goes beyond the mere working out of whodunnit and why, to create a whole cast of characters, each with their own secrets and foibles.
 There's such an array of wonderfully drawn characters that it's difficult to know where to start; Peter himself with his dreadful children's home upbringing and desire to leave his past behind; widowed amnesiac Felix, mourning the death of her husband and daughter; local police chief Mark Bille Hansen, down-sizing his career due to health issues and his former lover from Copenhagen, now his superior, and a potential new one, Kir, the local girl and army diving specialist. It feels  not so much like reading a book as slipping into a new town and playing 'fly on the wall'.
This is the first in a series featuring Peter Boutrup and I don't think we've heard all there is to know about Peter's time in prison or the reason he was there in the first place, and I expect the other characters will be back too.

It's the sort of thing we all love from Danish TV thrillers, but in a book!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - Adult thriller, Nordic Noir

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The Last Good Man by A J Kazinski

 Review by The Mole

Tommaso Di Barbera has noticed a trend that people all over the world are dying and tattoos are appearing on their backs. He alerts Interpol and Niels Bentzon is brought in to follow up the Danish side of the Interpol alert. When Niels talks to Hannah Lund, trying to find possible victims, he sparks her genius intellect and she discovers the 'why' of it all and predicts when and where the next two victims will die. But can they be protected and saved? Is this whole affair being played by players too big to be messed with?

Another Scandinavian book translated for the international market and it's easy to see why it has become a best seller.

I have read a few stories now that hinge around puzzles of one sort or another... The Da Vinci Code, Maranatha, The Altar of Bones, Sanctus - and I have liked each of them (although not so much The Da Vinci Code). These books must take a great deal of research and I often wonder at the boundaries of legends and actual fiction. (I also Google a lot to try to answer this as I'm sure a lot of readers must.)

The characters are real to me from the manic genius of Lund, the good and almost faultless Bentzon, the depressive Di Barbera, their bosses (who I suspect I've worked with!) and Karen the loving yet frustrated wife. I did feel that the very last page left me wondering.. Could Kazinski really  leave me not knowing what would happen next? I find the way some authors do that almost unacceptable!

However I found this to be another fantastic book that is an absolute must for readers of thrillers, with just a small section of a lot of blood and gore and tension right down the line to the end.

I enjoyed this book a lot - except for the last page! Having said that.... Wikipedia says.... it is to be part of a trilogy and I'm deadly curious as to where the story - apart from the one hanging question - can go from here!  Watch this space??

Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Genre - Adult Thriller

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Nothing by Janne Teller

Nothing Matters
review by Maryom

One day Pierre Anthon stands up in class and declares that nothing matters so nothing's worth doing and walks out. His school friends aren't amused by this. After all, they've always been told that schoolwork is important if you want to amount to something - and they do! They're even less pleased when Pierre Anthon decides that in future he'll sit up the plum tree in his front garden and heckle his friends about the futility of everything as they pass on their way to school. His friends feel the very foundations of their world slipping and set out to prove he's wrong and that some things do matter and do have value. They set out to collect things that have meaning for them in the belief that when they confront Pierre Anthon with them, he'll have to acknowledge that he is wrong. The pile starts innocently enough- old photographs and outgrown baby clothes from the neighbours; an old doll, a battered hymn book, a fishing rod of their own - but they soon realise that these aren't really the things that matter the most and that something more is called for....

There's always a risk that a book that you've clammered and begged for to review will fall flat and so after a lot of fuss I found myself starting to read Nothing just a little cautiously. I needn't have worried. I won't claim to have been hooked from the first page but from a small number in when Pierre Anthon packs his bag, leaves the classroom and the gaping door behind him smiles - that's where I was hooked.
I'd say this was a disturbing and thought-provoking book - but that seems rather too trite a comment. Pierre Anthon's attitude challenges what most of us would feel. If we start believing that nothing is of value, where will we end up? - this is the abyss that opens in front of his classmates - and the reader. His constant declaration that nothing has meaning reminded me of Renton's opening speech from Trainspotting "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family......But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else", but Renton's "something else" stops him asking about the meaning of life: Pierre Anthon is offering no such quick fix. More disturbing are the lengths his friends go to to prove him wrong...
Nothing is definitely a book that asks far more questions than it answers. It's not an easy, comfortable read but one to make you squirm or cover your eyes in horror. A very dark book but one I'd wholeheartedly recommend for teens looking for something beyond entertainment in their reading.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Strident
Genre - teen/YA fiction

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