From Søren Sveistrup — the writer behind the brilliant Scandinavian crime series The Killing — comes The Chestnut Man, his first novel, which probably should’ve skipped straight to its inevitable television adaptation.
Young detective Naia Thulin and burned-out ex Europol investigator Mark Hess are partnered to handle the investigation of a series of murders distinguished by the presence of ‘chestnut men’ — small dolls made of chestnuts — at each crime scene. They quickly suspect that the murdered women are linked to the missing daughter of the Minister for Social Affairs, and that they’re working against the clock to catch the killer before he strikes again.
Sounds like the perfect setup for a dark, creepy, Scandi-noir thriller; and some readers will likely think so. But The Chestnut Man suffers from a serious case of bloat — the book doesn’t need all of its 500 pages — and coruscates with far too much bloody violence for my tastes. Seriously, if I never read about an amputation again, it’ll be too soon. But even putting this aside, Sveistrup bounces between far too many characters who don’t deserve the spotlight. With a tighter focus on the two investigators, who share such little chemistry despite the author’s assurance they’ve formed an inseparable bond, The Chestnut Man would’ve been a taut, pacey affair. Instead, its constant jumps to different personnel — which works on the screen far better than in prose — frustrated me; I could feel the author attempting to orchestrate my enjoyment, and it’s never a good thing when you can detect the presence of the writer.
So, this was a disappointment. The Chestnut Man felt very much a 10 episode television season sculptured into a serviceable prose thriller. It’s got enough thrust to keep the pages turning, but its characters are mere sketches; waiting for skilled actors to give them life on the screen.
ISBN: 9780241372111
Format: Paperback / softback
Pages: 512
Imprint: Michael Joseph Ltd
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date: 26-Oct-2018
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
There are breakneck thrillers — and then there’s The Chain.
A crisp, unpretentious action thriller packed with extravagant shootouts, in which the bad guys are the very worst, but the good guys are always that little bit better. In the world of action lit, Mark Greaney’s ‘Gray Man’ is up there Mitch Rapp, Jason Bourne and Orphan X.
“I had absolutely no interest in being someone else’s muse.
When eleven-year-old Tippy Chan learns of her teacher’s murder, she forms ‘The Nancys’ — an amateur detective club inspired by Nancy Drew — with her visiting Uncle Pike and his new boyfriend, Devon. Together, the trio converge on Riverstone — a small town in New Zealand with a kaleidoscopic population of less than 4000 
In his nineteenth Joe Pickett novel, C.J. Box reminds readers that among the weeds of the seemingly idyllic Twelve Sleep County is a world filled with violence, fear and anger. What begins as a routine inquiry into the misuse of an unregistered drone aircraft that terrifies a herd of mule quickly spirals into something far more menacing and deadly, as Joe, Katelyn Hamm and Nate Romanowski, are pitted against a quartet of savage killers.
A deliciously engaging exploration of love, parenthood and belonging, The Place on Dalhousie charts familiar fictional territory, but Melina Marchetta’s inimitable artistry elevates the novel far beyond the sum of its parts into one of my favourite books of the year.