Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Young girls are being found- numbers engraved in their nails…others going missing…
I’m Travelling Alone
What you need to know before your trail
When the body of a young girl is found hanging from a tree, the only clue the police have is an airline tag around her neck. It reads ‘I’m travelling alone’.
In response, police investigator Holger Munch is immediately charged with assembling a special homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must track down his former partner, Mia Krüger – a brilliant but troubled detective – who has retreated to a solitary island with plans to kill herself.
Reviewing the file, Mia finds something new – a thin line carved into the dead girl’s fingernail: the number 1. She knows that this is only the beginning. To save other children from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons and stop this murderer from becoming a serial killer.
Travel Guide
The forests
The forests of Rundvann and other sites such as Isegranfort and Frederikstad are referenced to the tragedy of these missing girls and something in the woods which two young boys stumble upon one day. This is a forest full of those spindly trees you see on the cover of the book, white snow and grey earth all around. A body hanging in the trees with a satchel and the message “I’m Travelling Alone” The girls who are found are dressed in life size dolls clothes – chilling as it is unnerving.
Åsgårdstrand – Munchs Hus
One of the police officers on the case is named Munch and the references to this famous painter are woven into the story. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker who painted chilling psychological themes – The Scream is possibly his best known painting. Everything that picture represents is evoked in this novel. So Munch and the references to his world and the chilling, frightening nightmares he seems to paint are very reminiscent of the emotional torture that this investigation will cause.
Oslo
The bleak hinterland of rural Norway, the threadbare woods, the horror of what is found in the forests, what is lurking in the forests, come into sharp contrast with the thrum of the city. Missing children, the police chasing clues that seem to lead no where and a debut hacker in the team and everything is up in the air. Oslo is a city surrounded by dark dark woods and even darker shadows
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
This had all the ingredients of a Scandi Noir book I loved – icy landscapes, chilling woods with even more chilling things happening in them, a city on the edge, a messed up heroine, links to Norwegian artist and painter, staged murders with mysterious clues…..
The characters were interesting and very readable – I felt as if I ‘d known them for some time – this didn’t feel like a debut at all and I was genuinely interested in finding out more about them – the relationship between Munch and Mia for example, the newbie Gabriel…. oh yes there is a lot of material there still to unravel. So to find out there are more books on their way – I could not be happier!
This was a packed book but with various different view points moving back from the woods, two small boys hunting in the woods and then bang – in the middle of the investigation with the police. Then the island with Mia and the background story of Munch himself. I was hooked. This thriller presents with lots of action, is fast paced then slows slightly before BAM there is something else happening you didn’t spot earlier.
Hats off Mr Bjork – aka singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. I’ve already got my hands on your second novel The Owl Only Hunts At Night. Yes, I’m back with Mia and Munch. I miss them already.
Finally I want to say thank you to Charlotte Barslund. Smooth translation. Because of her, so many more people are going to enjoy this book!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: I’m Travelling Alone
Author/Guide: Samuel Bjork Destination: Oslo, Åsgårdstrand Departure Time: 2000s
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