by Heidi Amsinck
SYNOPSIS
When ninety-year-old Irene Valborg is found brutally murdered in an affluent suburb of Copenhagen, her diamond necklace missing, it looks like a burglary gone wrong.
When two more victims are attacked, the police lament a rise in violence against the elderly, but who is the young girl in the photo found by DI Henrik Jungersen on the scenes of crime? Impatient to claim her inheritance, Irene’s daughter hires former Dagbladet reporter Jensen and her teenage apprentice Gustav to find the necklace.Questioning his own sanity, while trying to fix his marriage, Henrik finds himself once more pitched in a quest for the truth against Jensen – the one woman in Copenhagen he is desperate to avoid.
REVIEW
An elderly woman is murdered in a suspected burglary and when her daughter Regitse visits the crime scene, she informs DI Henrik Jungersen that a priceless diamond necklace is missing from her mother's belongings. Despite not being close to her mother, Regitse is convinced that the police are not taking the case seriously enough, so she contacts Jensen and asks her to investigate.
In the meantime, Henrik is looking into another murder of an elderly man at an allotment, wondering if there might be a connection to the other death. There are similarities in the extreme level of violence for a straightforward burglary, and both victims had very little contact with their families, preferring to spend time alone. This could just be a coincidence, but after finding a photograph of a girl at both crime scenes, Henrik begins to suspect that something much more sinister is occurring in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
I love pairing up a detective and a journalist to work on a case. Both have very different styles of investigating and it's interesting to see how each job lends itself to a murder case - the DI Henrik Jungersen is bound by more rules and regulations but Jensen doesn't have the same level of access to information (especially historical cases). Bringing the two together creates the dream team, despite the fact that their personal issues have left them in a slightly awkward situation. The only downside for me reading The Girl In The Photo was that I hadn't read the first in the Jensen series, so even though the reason for the tension between Henrik and Jensen was roughly explained, I didn't fully understand what had happened, so I would suggest reading My Name Is Jensen first before moving on to this second instalment.
The investigation itself had all of the hallmarks of a traditional Nordic Noir - brutal crimes, a detailed and complex police case, links to a historical investigation, and, in this case, two troubled protagonists. I was also very intrigued by the continuing case that Jensen was looking into alongside the main storyline, it was actually quite sinister and sounds like it could make a very interesting Book 3!
The Girl In The Photo is the perfect choice for Scandi Crime fans who enjoy the journalistic angle in an investigation and it put me in mind of both The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock and the fantastic Blix & Ramm series by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heidi Amsinck, a writer and journalist born in Copenhagen, spent many years covering Britain for the Danish press, including a spell as London Correspondent for the broadsheet daily Jyllands-Posten. She has written numerous short stories for radio, including the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, Heidi lives in London. She was previously shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize. Last Train to Helsingør is her first published collection of stories. Her crime novel My Name is Jensen, set in Copenhagen, was published in August 2021.
Thanks to Anne Cater @RandomTTours, Muswell Press @muswellpress and Heidi Amsinck @heidiamsinck for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Muswell Press
Fiction: Scandi Crime / Thriller
ISBN: 978-1739879419
Pages: 384pp
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