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A review by earutherford
The Mountain King by Anders de la Motte
4.0
Happy Release Day to The Mountain King!!!!
The Mountain King is book one in a police procedural thriller series by a Swedish author. Listen, I am an avid consumer of My Favorite Murder and Karen consistently talks about how good the Nordic countries are at police procedural TV shows and I am happy to report that this is also true for books. I had a hoot reading this. It follows our main heroine, Leo Asker, as she works to track down a missing couple whilst dealing with both familial and work politics - resulting in her ending up in the "lost souls" department (i.e. the rejects department). Does she find the couple? Will she make it out of the "lost souls" department? Who can be trusted? Who can't? THE INTRIGUE
One thing that I really loved about this book was actually the multiple POVs. Not only do you get Leo's perspective, but also: (1) Martin's [a childhood friend of Leo], (2) Smilla's [one of the two people kidnapped], and probably most importantly (3) The Mountain King's [a local serial killer]. I loved seeing the story progress with each character's motivations changing their thought process. It also kept me guessing - every time I think I had figured it out, the story shifted again and led me down a whole different path. There was really only one element I got right from my original guess about a third of the way through the book. As someone who has a hard time with thrillers because I usually guess the ending, I was so happy the reader is really kept in the dark with this one.
The biggest downside, in my opinion, was that The Mountain King was a bit too long. I think a few of the chapters could have been edited down or completely removed. Furthermore, I also wish that we got more in Martin's character arc, as he appears to be a main character going forward. He was really just used to move the story along in this book but if Motte wants to use him in later books, he needs to be developed further.
BOTTOM LINE: The Mountain King is a super entertaining police procedural thriller! I can't wait for the other books in the series to be translated to English because I will definitely be picking those up! If you like thrillers, this one will keep you guessing until the very end.
Thank you to Anders de la Motte & Atria for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The Mountain King is book one in a police procedural thriller series by a Swedish author. Listen, I am an avid consumer of My Favorite Murder and Karen consistently talks about how good the Nordic countries are at police procedural TV shows and I am happy to report that this is also true for books. I had a hoot reading this. It follows our main heroine, Leo Asker, as she works to track down a missing couple whilst dealing with both familial and work politics - resulting in her ending up in the "lost souls" department (i.e. the rejects department). Does she find the couple? Will she make it out of the "lost souls" department? Who can be trusted? Who can't? THE INTRIGUE
One thing that I really loved about this book was actually the multiple POVs. Not only do you get Leo's perspective, but also: (1) Martin's [a childhood friend of Leo], (2) Smilla's [one of the two people kidnapped], and probably most importantly (3) The Mountain King's [a local serial killer]. I loved seeing the story progress with each character's motivations changing their thought process. It also kept me guessing - every time I think I had figured it out, the story shifted again and led me down a whole different path. There was really only one element I got right from my original guess about a third of the way through the book. As someone who has a hard time with thrillers because I usually guess the ending, I was so happy the reader is really kept in the dark with this one.
The biggest downside, in my opinion, was that The Mountain King was a bit too long. I think a few of the chapters could have been edited down or completely removed. Furthermore, I also wish that we got more in Martin's character arc, as he appears to be a main character going forward. He was really just used to move the story along in this book but if Motte wants to use him in later books, he needs to be developed further.
BOTTOM LINE: The Mountain King is a super entertaining police procedural thriller! I can't wait for the other books in the series to be translated to English because I will definitely be picking those up! If you like thrillers, this one will keep you guessing until the very end.
Thank you to Anders de la Motte & Atria for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.