(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought the idea behind this book was quite interesting, but I had a lot of trouble keeping track of the secondary characters. The start of this book almost reminded me of the television series Columbo, where you know who committed the murder but not how. Although this book didn’t exactly give it away, it did seem to reveal more than most. (Though that was contradicted as the book went on later…)
Thorkild and Frank were both, in my opinion, fairly interesting characters, but I was a bit disappointed that the book itself moved so slow. Plus, I couldn’t really say there were many ‘major’ twists. I think there were so many side characters, I got confused with who was doing what at which point. And by the time I got to the end, I’d completely forgotten certain details.
The book was quite detailed and I was really impressed that the authors translated it themselves. I noticed a few instances of strange phrasing, but I’ve read books by English authors with worse spelling and grammar.
One of the problems I’ve noticed a lot with crime books is the incompetence of the police force. Although there were a few instances in this book that kind of came across that way (like sending the guy-just-from-the-academy onto an established case just cause he’s your nephew), I was glad that the police came across as different to that.
It was interesting to see how things were fitting together and I came to a few of the same conclusions that the main characters did. If there had been fewer characters, I think I would have found the book a bit easier to follow. There were some scenes that were really quite effectively done, I felt. It was also interesting to read the interview with the authors at the end.
Ink of Blood 