Review by Booklist Review
This is the fourth Copenhagen detective Konrad Simonsen thriller (after The Vanished, 2016) from Danish sister and brother Lotte and Søren Hammer. Simonsen is as brilliant yet fallible as ever in a piece of Nordic noir that will leave readers chilled to the bone, even though it is set in spring and the thaw is on. Female remains are found by a hunting dog at a lake in a forest north of the city. The investigation runs head-on into the sex-trafficking underworld and its upper-class connections. The Lake scores highly as both a police procedural and an enthralling, sometimes appalling study of depravity and heartlessness. The Hammers' coppers are good and genuine people, in sharp contrast to the baser elements that lurk in the corners of Danish society. The ending is left somewhat open for the continued pursuit of one of the most deplorable characters, although many readers are likely to feel that this is one psycho we don't need to hear from again. Recommended for fans of Jussi Adler-Olsen, Stefan Ahnhem, Jo Nesbø, and, of course, Henning Mankell.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the outset of the Hammers' searing fourth thriller featuring Det. Supt. Konrad Simonsen (after 2016's The Vanished), sex trafficker Benedikte Lerche-Larsen and her confederate, illiterate hit man Henrik Krag, drive into the country north of Copenhagen with a frightened passenger in their car-a young Nigerian brothel worker known as Jessica, who has been disobedient. Jessica knows that if she tries to flee, she can expect no help from the Danish police, who will simply send her back to Nigeria. They stop at an isolated cabin, where Krag administers a torture beating that goes too far. The killers dispose of Jessica's body, weighted with a granite block, in a nearby lake. Six months later, a hunting dog at the lake retrieves a skull, and soon Simonsen and his team are on the trail of a prostitution ring that preys on kidnapped African teenagers, ostensibly offering jobs as au pairs in Danish households. The Hammers (a brother-sister writing team) expose the moral turpitude of a country lacking a national law that criminalizes the buying of sex. Agent: Sofie Voller, Gyldendal (Denmark). (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The fourth book in the Konrad Simonsen series (after The Vanished) from the Danish sister-and-brother writing team exposes a darker side of Denmark. An African woman's body is found in a lake north of Copenhagen, and when a local police officer's racist comment goes viral, the case is handed over to Detective Superintendent Simonsen of the Copenhagen Police. It soon becomes clear that the victim was part of a much larger operation involving human trafficking and prostitution. Svend Lerche and his wife, Karina Larsen, along with their adult daughter Benedikte, have made it their very profitable family business and will go to great lengths to protect themselves and their money. As the machinations of this brutal world come to light and inevitably involve many prominent people, Simonsen and his team must figure out how to find justice for the trafficked women. Verdict Readers know from the beginning how the murder happened, so the thriller relies on slowly revealing the sadistic details about those involved and the intricacies of the police investigation. The ending, however, delivers some interesting twists. A solid bet for fans of Scandinavian noir.-Melissa DeWild, BookOps, New York P.L. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The fourth of the Hammer siblings' accounts of Danish skulduggery follows a human trafficking ring to its untidy but logical end.Identifying the skeletal remains of a young woman killed six months ago, her body dumped in a lake in Hanehoved Forest, is obviously going to be quite a challenge for Detective Superintendent Konrad "Simon" Simonsen (The Vanished, 2016, etc.) and his colleagues in the Copenhagen Homicide Department. It will take months before their painstaking, brick-by-brick investigation reveals what the reader has known all along: the dead woman, an uncooperative Nigerian teenager who'd been smuggled into Denmark and forced into prostitution, was accidentally killed in the middle of a punishment administered by Henrik Krag, a newcomer to this kind of work, while his more experienced partner, Jan Podowski, and Benedikte Lerche-Larsen, the boss's daughter, looked on. Simon and his crew deferentially interview Adam Blixen-Agerskjold, the chamberlain and gentleman farmer who owns the forest, and his lady, Lenette, before they develop a more serious interest in estate bailiff Frode Otto, whose four-year-old conviction for assault makes him a much more likely prospect. And indeed Otto, questioned by the police, smilingly confesses to three additional rapes on which the statute of limitations has run out. While Simon and company are running down unpromising leads, the tale keeps turning to Benedikte's hate/hate relationship with her father, poker and prostitution king Svend Lerche, and his helpmeet, Karina Larsenwho want to keep their daughter on a short leash even as they groom her to take over the family businessand her unlikely romance with Henrik Krag, which promises to be equally dysfunctional. The Hammers, who put the procedure in procedural, keep the pot simmering at such a low temperature you'll wonder if they've mistaken the fridge for the stovetop. The stubborn lack of momentum makes this one a natural for travelers on endless flights. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
