Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
21C: You’ve seen the TV show, you’ve bought the jumper, now you should read the book. The book was written based on the TV show which is unique as it’s normally the other way around. It really works though, it really does and it’s even better.
Sarah Lund should be clearing her desk – she’s coming up to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department before moving to Sweden.
But when the case of a student – Nanna Birk Larsen – comes in, Lund puts off her plans to relocate. She has been raped and brutally murdered in the woods outside the city and Lund is determined to solve the case before she leaves. And its not going to be an easy or a straight forward case to solve – links between the case and the City Hall soon come to light. At the same time, local politician Troels Hartmann is in the middle of an election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen.
Just what is the significance of all this? And could the case of a young girl really be mixed up in the dark corridors of power?
For the official Sarah Lund Tour – these are the people in the know – visitdenmark.co.uk/killing
Through the dark wood where the dead trees give no shelter Nanna Birk Larsen runs . . . There is a bright monocular eye that follows, like a hunter after a wounded deer. It moves in a slow approaching zigzag, marching through the Pineseskoven wasteland, through the Pentecost Forest.
Copenhagen as you have never seen it before – both murder scenes and the scenes set in the City Hall are as captivating as you could hope for. But Copenhagen here is not the quiet city that you might imagine.
This is Sarah Lund’s Copenhagen and she feels attached to it so that she has to stay and find out who could have killed a local teenager. The gloomy Scandinavian atmosphere is evoked well with the remote and cold scenes, the sparse environment of the police station and the constant bad weather
It really is like a giant rock/mountain in the centre of Copenhagen and is as stark as you imagine from the books. Sarah Lund, is your perfect guide. For her appartment in the upmarket area of Østerbro on the corner of Middelfartgade and Vardegade to the townhouse where she visits Birk Larsen in Humleby, the scenes are one of darkness and intrigue…
The houses on Jerichausgade were apparently inspired by terraced streets in the UK and there is a definite English atmosphere around this area. But its the Pentecost woods around Amager where Nana Larsen’s body was found that proves to be the spookiest place we’ve ever come across.
From the publisher’s website, Hewson apparently spent time with Søren Sveistrup, the series script writer in Copenhagen. There certainly is an essence of raw evocative atmosphere on each and every page.
Oh and you should definitely walk past the impressive City Hall and just imagine the dark and shady world that could have led a young girl to her death. David Hewson has paid a great homage to this story and made it his own, and then some.
Susan @thebooktrailer
David Hewson is one of my favourite authors in the way he describes the places he sets his stories in. The Killing has to be one of his best in the way that he evokes a Copenhagen hidden from public view, a Copenhagen so dark and dreary that it’s not the city you see in the tourist guides but one which enthralls and fascinates.
The novel The Killing is similar to the TV show and only changes the end but the sense of intrigue and the characters are excellently done and the twists and turns will have you pulling out your hair as you read.
Love the writing style and admire Hewson for what he’s achieved. You might want to wear one of the famous Lund jumpers whilst you read as this book is chilly in the extreme!
Twitter: @david_hewson
Web: davidhewson.com
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