Ruthless
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Jo Nesbø and Katrine Engberg, international bestselling author Anne Mette Hancock’s third thrilling novel in the series Harlan Coben calls “the best series I’ve read this year,” is a pulse-pounding Scandinavian noir about secrets, buried truths, and what happens when we go digging into the past.
When Jan Frischof, a dying elderly man, gives a deathbed confession too unbelievable to be true, journalist Heloise Kaldan immediately knows there’s a deeper story to uncover. Her gut soon proves to be right—Jan immediately backtracks and warns her that they will both be in danger if she asks any more questions. Could this kind and elderly man really be a cold-blooded killer?
Heloise quickly realizes that this is a darker, and far more complicated, investigation. Jan is clearly afraid of something, but who or what he’s afraid of could be a dangerous question for Heloise to find the answer to. As she digs deeper, Heloise begins to see that Jan's confession is connected to a string decades-old disappearances. But next of kin and police are lying to her at every turn, and she has no idea what else Jan could be hiding.
Enlisting her friend, detective inspector Erik Schäfer, Heloise begins her descent into the past, unsure of what she will unearth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hancock's uneven third outing for Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan (after 2022's The Collector) starts with a vague deathbed confession from the terminally ill Jan Fischoff, with whom Kaldan has bonded while writing a story about hospice care. Fischoff tells Kaldan that he's fearful of hell, and mumbles something about "Mads Orek." After some light research, Kaldan discovers that a man named Mázorek drowned in the late 1990s in Fischoff's hometown in southern Jutland. Though the death was ruled an accident, Kaldan believes there's a cold case mystery to solve; her editor disagrees, but she takes time off work to investigate anyway. Her suspicions pay off after she arrives in Jutland and slowly uncovers a web of criminal activity related to missing young women, prostitution, trafficking, and murder. Though Kaldan's usual investigative partner, Det. Erik Schäfer, stays back in Copenhagen to field unrelated cases, he gets more involved as the story unfolds. Hancock is a strong stylist, and she generates real suspense while giving such serious themes as elder care and violence against women their due. Unfortunately, she bogs down the central mystery with too many subplots, and brings everything to a muddy, unsatisfying conclusion. Series fans will hope for a return to form next time out.
