Mads Peder Nordbo

Readers beware, this is a very graphic crime novel (skinning and disembowelment of both people and animals) that also heavily features disturbing depictions of child abuse. For me the Tupaarnaq storyline felt contrived and did anyone else wonder how she managed to get her body completely (and professionally from the sound of it) tattooed when she had been in prison since a teenager?
This is a novel where the location and climatic conditions play almost a large a part as the main protagonists. Fans of graphic Nordic crime will enjoy this….
… (altro)

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

A frozen man is discovered in the ice near Nuuk in Greenland. There is a great stir when scientists opine that it could be a mummified Viking, and local journalist Matthew Cave is despatched by his editor to cover the story. Things change very quickly however when the eviscerated corpse disappears and the cop that was guarding it is found dead, with the same eviscerations. Soon there is a third such killing.

Cave, a newcomer to Nuuk, is asked to look into similar killings that happened in the 1970s, to see if there is a connection. In the process he runs into Tupaarnaq, a recently-released prisoner who was convicted of such a killing and is an immediate suspect.

The plot, which shifts between Matthew's contemporary investigation and the investigation of 70s policeman Jacob, is nicely paced and there are a few surprises. I have to say that I felt that the 1970s setting worked better. I'm afraid that the contemporary plot elements of an investigating Scandinavian journalist assisted by a non-conformist tattooed woman into crimes involving abuse was just a little, dare I say, too familiar.… (altro)