I received this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Violence against women, child abuse, childhood sexual trauma

Women are being killed, and ominous chestnut man dolls are being left at the scene of the crimes as part of the killer's calling card. Police detective Naia Thulin is assigned the case, alongside ex-Europol invetigator Mark Hess. As the two of them race against the clock before more women are murdered, they find a connection between the chestnut dolls, and a missing girl from a year earlier, who happens to be the daughter of a Danish politician.

This book was extremely intricate and was the type of thriller that you had to bundle down with and just swamp yourself in. It's a long one at close to 500 pages but the story is really addicting, and it's easy to turn the pages at a lightning speed as you race to find out what happened and who is the cause of it all.

This is a book that I would advise people read with doors closed, no chance of creepy shadows and loud noises, and possibly a dog at your side to guard you because the action scenes are quite intense and it's easy to start feeling a bit uneasy and paranoid - even while safe at home! The atmosphere delivered is perfection.

I think the story played out really nicely, and I definitely didn't guess the killer until quite late along when it was pretty much delivered to be on a plate by the author. The translation of the story from Danish into English also didn't serve up any problems and seems to have been done well.

There were mentions of diverse, ethnic communities in the book at times and there were a couple of times the way characters would talk about others of a different race and/or gender would make me slightly uncomfortable. The word "Paki" was used a good bit by characters but I think in a way that was suppose to make the reader flinch a bit and feel uncomfortable, and there was some crude sexism from certain characters as well.