A review by marvsbooks
The Last Grudge by Max Seeck

4.0

My first foray into the Scandinavian Noir sub-genre of Finnish noir, and it was fantastic.

A thriller with two unsolved murders, a hit man, a jacked bodyguard, weird neighbors, secret letters, a weirdly uber-rich policewoman, hallucinations, a missing bag, puzzles, not to mention a kidnapping? This book had it all.

This is the third book in the series, and while I think it would have made things slightly more clear when it came to the kidnapping storyline to have read the prior books, this one held its own without the backstory.

I thought the character development was spot on. Yusuf really comes a long way with his personal growth, despite getting disturbing news midway through the book. I loved watching him go from uncertain officer to solving the case, and loved seeing his relationship with his boss evolve as the case progressed too.

Because I didn’t have the backstory from the prior two books, the witch cult references and references to Jessica’s mom were a little confusing—but not to the detriment of the book as a whole.

Overall, a satisfying read. My first by this author, and I would read his future work!

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Berkley Publishing for a review copy!