Why a Booktrail?
21C: She’s not called Denmark’s Queen of crime for nothing. Two crimes separated by many years…could they be linked?
Dead Souls
What you need to know before your trail
All Hallows’ Eve, a time where the ghosts of the past can come back to haunt you..
In the remote and unassuming landscape of Kalo Bay in Denmark – diver Kir Rojel finds a box full of human bones. Sixty years old but the victim has been garrotted.
Nearby, in Djursland, the body of a young nun is pulled from the moat of the local convent. She has also been garrotted and Peter Boutrup an ex convict, who works there as a carpenter, was the last person to see her alive. Peter Boutrup is visiting his best friend’s grave when her estranged mother appears. Her son, Magnus, has disappeared, and she begs Peter to look for him.
Are the two cases linked and if so how and why? And where will this investigation lead those who follow it? Maybe some things are left buried..
Travel Guide
Dead souls in Djursland, Denmark
A box of bones covered in algae and decades of decay opens up the book and introduces us to the chilling landscape of Kalo Bay. The water might be clear here, the sky a nice clean blue, but a box of bones is about to blow this town and its secrets to pieces. Diver Kir Røjel was there to discharge mines left over from the war but it’s this box of bones which may be the most historical find she could have hoped for – which will open secrets buried in war time Denmark.
Meanwhile up the coast in Gjerrild, ex con Peter is being taunted by a biker gang. Clearly in trouble and grieving the loss of a friend, his life is in danger. His work at the nearby St Mary’s Abbey takes his mind of his troubles, until the day he spots a young nun talking to a man in the grounds. A nun who is later found dead… Detective Mark Bille Hansen questions Peter but the cold black landscape – a winters Halloween night made sighting impossible.
The setting is as grim and deadly as the tale which unfolds. The convent deep in the heart of Sostrup is real but the story is very much fictional. Still the setting reveals many secrets which the Mark remembers-
“In the Djursland of his childhood, the convent had merely been part of the landscape, with its large gate and four wings with a tower an a moat, useful for playing war games…it had belonged to the Cistercian Order since 1960. In 1999 a new convent, called St Mary’s Abbey had been built a short distance south east of the manor house”
War times secrets then start to come thick and fast.. The landscape of this novel is wartime – from the bombings of Tistrup airport to the bones in Kalo Bay have German remnants, munitions and unexploded secrets…
“out here nature was wild and windy and didn’t let just anyone in”
Trail Gallery
Booktrailer Review
Clare:
Interweaving plots and complex characters make this story stand out. The way in which secrets from war time Denmark are woven into the present also provides a unique and exciting premise. What works really well is the fact that these places are real and have real history although much of the story is fictionalized, a lot can be learned of Denmark and its past from reading this. Utterly fascinating and quite grim!
Although the second in a series I never felt that this wasn’t a standalone and you learn enough about the characters who grow throughout the book to understand all the references etc, but it makes you want to read the other book !
Sometimes Denmark gets overlooked in Scandinavian Noir but this is a real shocker and thriller with many strands to its story and characters who jump off the page. Grim and deadly yes, but compelling in the extreme.
Where Next?
