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cclaytonr's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Loved Jensen. Gonna read all the books.
radella_hardwick's review against another edition
Not in the mood for amateur slueths
booksbybindu's review
5.0
‘My Name is Jensen’ is a brilliantly compelling debut from Heidi Amsinck. This book was a slow-burning narrative, but with a complex plot with numerous twists and turns. It is an example of Nordic Noir at its finest. Simply put I adored this book.
Jensen has just returned to Copenhagen after being a correspondent in London for numerous years. But she has lost her mojo and hasn’t written an article in weeks. On her way to work she comes across a homeless young man who has perished in the snowstorm from the previous day. What is weird though is he was holding a card which only had one word written on it - Guilty! This encourages Jensen to find out more about the man and how he ended up on the streets. She soons find connected murders, estranged families and much more! She also is given an intern in the shape of her boss’s nephew and initiates contact with one of her exes DI Jungerson, who just happens to be running the case.
Jensen is a character that you will fall in love with straight from the get go. She is spunky, fiery, passionate, loyal, nosey, excellent at her job and highly intelligent but also useless at her personal life with no home, hardly hanging on to her job and don't even start with her love life! I love her paired up with the nephew Gustav as they really bounced off each other! I certainly hope this is a relationship which develops further.
Copenhagen almost felt like a character and who doesn't love a book when it comes with a map. It's definitely the place I am visiting first after I'm allowed out the country again! This book was brilliantly plotted, rich with character and emotion, and was so captivating I devoured it in two sittings. Amsinck tackles some big themes in her work - homelessness, mental health, social service procurement and the government in general and they fitted seamlessly into the plot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this exciting debut! If you pick it up please let me know your thoughts.
Jensen has just returned to Copenhagen after being a correspondent in London for numerous years. But she has lost her mojo and hasn’t written an article in weeks. On her way to work she comes across a homeless young man who has perished in the snowstorm from the previous day. What is weird though is he was holding a card which only had one word written on it - Guilty! This encourages Jensen to find out more about the man and how he ended up on the streets. She soons find connected murders, estranged families and much more! She also is given an intern in the shape of her boss’s nephew and initiates contact with one of her exes DI Jungerson, who just happens to be running the case.
Jensen is a character that you will fall in love with straight from the get go. She is spunky, fiery, passionate, loyal, nosey, excellent at her job and highly intelligent but also useless at her personal life with no home, hardly hanging on to her job and don't even start with her love life! I love her paired up with the nephew Gustav as they really bounced off each other! I certainly hope this is a relationship which develops further.
Copenhagen almost felt like a character and who doesn't love a book when it comes with a map. It's definitely the place I am visiting first after I'm allowed out the country again! This book was brilliantly plotted, rich with character and emotion, and was so captivating I devoured it in two sittings. Amsinck tackles some big themes in her work - homelessness, mental health, social service procurement and the government in general and they fitted seamlessly into the plot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this exciting debut! If you pick it up please let me know your thoughts.
hellsie's review against another edition
4.0
I've just read this book over 10 days with the Pigeonhole reading app and despite not having read much Scandi noir in the past, I found myself enjoying this book very much.
The two main characters, Jensen and Henrik are very flawed individuals which personally I didn't mind so much - I don't have to actually like the characters to enjoy a book and people in their professions are very likely to be self-centred and single-minded, so their flawed characters seemed realistic to me. I didn’t quite get their relationship though, and how Henrik could be so unconcerned by the hurt that it could inflict on his family, however as this is the first one in a series I'm happy to see that develop more in the next book.
In this case the character that I actually felt for the most was the one who died right at the beginning of the book, especially as more and more of his story unfolded - poor Thomas never stood a chance. The living character I liked the most was Gustav - Jensen's editor's nephew, who was foisted on Jensen to help keep him out of whatever unspecified trouble he'd got himself into. In fact there is a great cast of supporting characters in this book, who all help to create a world that I definitely intend to visit again in the next book!
The two main characters, Jensen and Henrik are very flawed individuals which personally I didn't mind so much - I don't have to actually like the characters to enjoy a book and people in their professions are very likely to be self-centred and single-minded, so their flawed characters seemed realistic to me. I didn’t quite get their relationship though, and how Henrik could be so unconcerned by the hurt that it could inflict on his family, however as this is the first one in a series I'm happy to see that develop more in the next book.
In this case the character that I actually felt for the most was the one who died right at the beginning of the book, especially as more and more of his story unfolded - poor Thomas never stood a chance. The living character I liked the most was Gustav - Jensen's editor's nephew, who was foisted on Jensen to help keep him out of whatever unspecified trouble he'd got himself into. In fact there is a great cast of supporting characters in this book, who all help to create a world that I definitely intend to visit again in the next book!
ianl1963's review
3.0
Ah, done like a kipper!
Constructing my smug and pithy review, then ..
Hoist on my own petard.
Quite enjoyable.
Constructing my smug and pithy review, then ..
Hoist on my own petard.
Quite enjoyable.
generalheff's review
4.0
Heidi Amsinck was the worthy recipient of a sale as part of my push to read more fiction (over non-fiction) as well as checking out the (now probably a bit passé) Scandinavian trend of Nordic Noir. So there was a lot going for her debut novel My Name is Jensen before I even opened it up! That should probably highlight I am no expert in these types of books and might confuse novelty with cliché or stylistic edginess with tropes, meaning caution is in order perhaps with my enthusiastic 4 star score.
Caveats aside, the Copenhagen setting in which Jensen, the possibly autobiographical journalist-protagonist (recently returned from London, where Amsinck herself still lives having previously left the Danish capital), finds a dead body of a man holding the word 'guilty' and the cycle of suspects and surprises erupts from there.
Jensen is an engagingly complex mess of a character - who will resonate with many a thirty-something millennial. Her on-again-off-again lover DI Henrik Jungerson is a bit more thinly drawn - something of a gruff-but-brilliant police stereotype but with enough family baggage to make me give him a pass in the believability stakes. There are a few standout side characters, particularly the hapless but well-meaning Gustav, who bears a bit of a resemblance (aside from moral bankruptcy) to Cousin Greg from HBO's Succession.
The plot zips along at a ready pace and has a healthy number of plot twists. The chapters are, predictably, extremely short which promotes a general sense of racing to the conclusion. As someone much more familiar with reading lengthy non-fiction books with 40+ page chapters, this was a welcome change. While page-turning as a phenomenon is not something I'm particularly used to, this book certainly kept me coming back; and I'd have finished it much faster were I not reading David Chalmers work of philosophy Reality+ at the same time (for an exceptionally over-written review of which, see here; spoiler alert - it wasn't as enjoyable as this).
Overall, My Name is Jensen didn't surprise me in any shocking ways and I don't believe it will be revelatory from a character-building or dialogue perspective, but I found the plot rewarding and the cast well rounded. All in all, this has left me wanting more. Bring on the sequel and any further novels in the author's nascent 'Jensen Thriller' series.
Caveats aside, the Copenhagen setting in which Jensen, the possibly autobiographical journalist-protagonist (recently returned from London, where Amsinck herself still lives having previously left the Danish capital), finds a dead body of a man holding the word 'guilty' and the cycle of suspects and surprises erupts from there.
Jensen is an engagingly complex mess of a character - who will resonate with many a thirty-something millennial. Her on-again-off-again lover DI Henrik Jungerson is a bit more thinly drawn - something of a gruff-but-brilliant police stereotype but with enough family baggage to make me give him a pass in the believability stakes. There are a few standout side characters, particularly the hapless but well-meaning Gustav, who bears a bit of a resemblance (aside from moral bankruptcy) to Cousin Greg from HBO's Succession.
The plot zips along at a ready pace and has a healthy number of plot twists. The chapters are, predictably, extremely short which promotes a general sense of racing to the conclusion. As someone much more familiar with reading lengthy non-fiction books with 40+ page chapters, this was a welcome change. While page-turning as a phenomenon is not something I'm particularly used to, this book certainly kept me coming back; and I'd have finished it much faster were I not reading David Chalmers work of philosophy Reality+ at the same time (for an exceptionally over-written review of which, see here; spoiler alert - it wasn't as enjoyable as this).
Overall, My Name is Jensen didn't surprise me in any shocking ways and I don't believe it will be revelatory from a character-building or dialogue perspective, but I found the plot rewarding and the cast well rounded. All in all, this has left me wanting more. Bring on the sequel and any further novels in the author's nascent 'Jensen Thriller' series.
charf47's review against another edition
4.0
My name is Jensen is a well written, engrossing read from start to finish. I have always enjoyed Scandi Noir and I have added Heidi Amsinck to my list of must-read authors. Highly recommended. Thanks to Pigeonhole and the author for the ARC.
gray5217's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lindsays_books's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0