“Its tone is soft and affectionate and much too close to her ear. But the voice doesn’t wait for an answer. For a moment it removes the thing that was stuck over her mouth, and Laura hears herself begging and pleading. She doesn’t understand anything. She’ll do anything. Why her – what has she done?”

The Chestnut Man
By Søren Sveistrup
Translated by Caroline Waight
Source: Advance review copy

There’s a serial killer terrorizing Copenhagen. He doesn’t just kill his victims but first puts them through hell through his torture. His signature are the chestnut dolls he leaves behind as his calling card and the case detectives will leave no stone unturned to find this psychopath.

Naia Thulin from the Major Crimes division is paired up with Mark Hess who has just arrived, or been exiled, from Interpol. She’s not excited to work with him and frankly, he seems a bit of a mess. For his part, Mark will do whatever it takes to get out of Copenhagen. Both of the main protagonists like all good fiction detectives are carrying a lot of baggage but their characters still feel interesting and you want to get to know them.

The stakes are high for both detectives as the fingerprint that was identified links the crime to the Minister of Social Affairs, Rosa Hartung. It’s her daughter’s fingerprint they have found and that raises the question about her disappearance many years ago. Everyone assumed her dead but now there is hope for Rosa but everyone has to work quickly as possible to catch the Chestnut Man.

One of my favorite characters in the book was Naia’s daughter Le who is smart and sweet. There are definitely some gruesome details of the killings so it was nice to have a character removed from all of that. The book is a bit on the longer side but it’s a thriller and it’s a good one. I enjoyed it so much and am really hoping there will be a sequel.

“The biggest irony about that night is that I was always scared to fly. Always. Ever since I was old enough to think about it. It seemed counterintuitive. Even a little arrogant. Why go up when gravity clearly wanted us to stay down?”

How To Walk Away
By Katherine Center
Source: Advance review copy

Margaret Jacobson can’t believe she’s let herself be talked into taking a plane ride but Chip wants to celebrate and besides he has a very important question to ask her and she said yes. She’s just agreed to marry him and then things go very, tragically wrong.

The plane crashes and at first Maggie thinks if she can just get her leg pulled out from where it seems stuck then all will be fine. They should even be able to make it back to town in no time and head out for dinner but once the ambulance is there and the rescue starts to happen it’s clear that Maggie and Chip won’t be going out to dinner that night.

Chip escaped the accident without barely a scratch but Maggie has suffered burns and can’t walk. She is going to face a long road ahead of her but as the days turn to weeks it looks like she’ll be facing them alone as Chip can’t quite cope with her injuries and the fact that he feels responsible.

About the only good thing in Maggie’s life is that her sister, Kitty, whom she hasn’t seen in years and is back. While Maggie knows there are things her family needs to work through, she’s learning to accept her limitations, realize that the grand plans she had for her life are changed and deal with a handsome but surly physical therapist.

While this a quick read I found it quite predictable. That’s not necessarily a bad thing at times if at least I’m really enjoying the characters and their interactions but not so with this book. I especially did not like the main love interest and found it hard to believe he could get away being that awful to a patient. Well, I believe it but why would anyone fall for him?