2016, a man is butchered in his home. A woman walks out of the house and stands, covered in his blood, looking into a CCTV camera. Her name is Anna, she walks away and is never found.
2019, Anna starts to send letters to journalist Heloise Kaldan. Cryptic notes that have the journalist confused, a claim of a link between her and Anna.
At the same time a woman walks into a police station in Copenhagen and claims she has seen Anna in France. Detective Sergeant Eric Schafer, the Chief Investigator for the murder, doesn’t really believe her until, she shows him the picture she took of the woman
Anna contacts Eric and the two start separate investigations.
What they uncover is chilling, a history of abuse of the worst kind. An apparently untouchable criminal hiding in the mist of being a respectful and powerful business man.
But what is the connection to Anna.
Who is pulling the strings. Both Anna and Eric work separately but remain in touch. One of them is being played.
This is a belter of a story. Like most scandi- noir it has a bit of over description, but like most of scandi-noir it seems more in tune with the story than it does in any other form of crime fiction.
The pace of the story occasionally wallows but it gives the reader a chance to take stock.
I believe this is the first book by Anne Mette Hancock, and that a second featuring Eric and Heloise is due to be published in November 2022. If this is right I will be looking for it on the bloggers review sites in the hope of getting an early copy. If I can’t get it there I will be preordering and waiting anxiously for it to land in my Kindle in November.
Print Length: 331. Publisher: Swift Press. Available now
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