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Immigration and cultural differences. Small town in Denmark. Mislead police focus on the family but the photographer is to blame.
I've read a bunch of fantasies in a row, so it was fun to take a break and read a mystery. I've read one Blaedel book already, and the publisher was nice enough to reach out to me to offer an advance ebook, so I was looking forward to this one. It's a good story, and it makes you think, not only about whodunit, but about cultural norms and trying to fit in. Being a typical self-centered American, I don't usually think about immigrants in other countries, but obviously it happens. I had to wrap my head around the idea that families from Jordan might end up in Denmark, or that Denmark has Jehovah's Witnesses (I mean, intellectually that makes sense, what with their evangelicalism, but I never placed them there until now). But once you get past the exotic (and not cold--this story takes place in a Danish autumn) setting, you can see that kids can be bullied wherever they are, and blood can be thicker than water, no matter what country you live in. The author doesn't flinch at putting gruesome detail on the page, but it's presented matter-of-factly, not spectacularly, so it's not gratuitous. We learn who the culprit is along with the characters, and it makes sense, in a horrible way, who did it and why the crime happened. It was nice to read an intellectual mystery that didn't presume its readers knew legalese but also didn't dumb things down for the casual consumer. I found myself pausing to think things over while reading this, but then going back so I could find out how it ends. I'll be glad to read more books by this author.
Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
An interesting novel that explores cultural differences between Jordanian immigrants and their new neighbors in Denmark. A young Jordanian girl is found murdered -- is it an honor killing?
This is among the worst books I have ever read. On a pure plot level, the main character seems to be a terrible detective. SPOILERS: The entire police force basically assumes without evidence from the get-go that the victim was killed by a member of her own family, simply because she's a Muslim and so-called "honor killings" are something that occur in some corners of the Arab world. They spend HALF the book trying to get the girl's family to confess to an honor killing and then it turns out that it was a secret boyfriend, which is all explained and resolved in like 3 pages of a 250 page book. I was shocked at how poorly plotted this book turned out to be.
Beyond that, the characters are racist, sexist, and homophobic for no apparent reason.
This was a hugely unpleasant read.
Beyond that, the characters are racist, sexist, and homophobic for no apparent reason.
This was a hugely unpleasant read.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This series never seizes to wow me! While this definitely isn’t one of my favourites of the 4 I have read (The Forgotten Girls and the 2 books before this one in the series) it still was a fascinating and entertaining read. It dug into prejudice and racism with the focus around honour killings in Muslim families. It could have done a much better job I feel in really fleshing it all out with Louise’s character, but it truly felt like reading a true story with the differing opinions on the subjects talked about, whether you liked the opinions or not, whether they were right or not, it had a clear view of how diversely people can view the world and others. At the same time focusing foremost on solving a murder case—something that will never seize to interest me.
medium-paced
Formulaic, boring and underdeveloped characters, would not recommend.
This novel is released on December 24, 2018
This was my first novel my Bleadel and to me, the mystery factor didn't wow me very much.
It had very intriguing storyline which is what made me want to read it, but while I was reading, I started losing interest about halfway through the novel. That being said, it was still very good. Detective Louise Rick is such an interesting character and I loved her persistence and how she never gave up on the case. It's very rare that we got a female detective in books and that's one thing that I liked about this novel. The fact that Louise was given a sort of small love life in the novel is very different to see in a mystery since usually the plot is simply focused on the murder. It's nice of Bleadel to do that for Louise!
I loved the plot of the novel but the ending was a not very good one. The killer was revealed simply out of the blue and personally, I think that it was not a very good twist. The reasoning as to why it was done was somewhat shocking since secrets were revealed and all the puzzle pieces came together.
I do think that it could have been a little more mystery based and the killer could've been a little more of a shocker. I would love to see how the relationship with Louise and Mik will work out in future novels.
Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel.
This was my first novel my Bleadel and to me, the mystery factor didn't wow me very much.
It had very intriguing storyline which is what made me want to read it, but while I was reading, I started losing interest about halfway through the novel. That being said, it was still very good. Detective Louise Rick is such an interesting character and I loved her persistence and how she never gave up on the case. It's very rare that we got a female detective in books and that's one thing that I liked about this novel. The fact that Louise was given a sort of small love life in the novel is very different to see in a mystery since usually the plot is simply focused on the murder. It's nice of Bleadel to do that for Louise!
I loved the plot of the novel but the ending was a not very good one. The killer was revealed simply out of the blue and personally, I think that it was not a very good twist. The reasoning as to why it was done was somewhat shocking since secrets were revealed and all the puzzle pieces came together.
I do think that it could have been a little more mystery based and the killer could've been a little more of a shocker. I would love to see how the relationship with Louise and Mik will work out in future novels.
Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel.