I will be sharing a panel discussion with Swedish author Stefan Ahnhem at CrimeFest 2017 on 18 May and I have really enjoyed his latest novel The Ninth Grave. Here is a quick review:

Clever, complex and unexpected.

At first this is almost like two crime fiction stories in one volume- one set in Sweden with detective Fabian Risk and the other set in Denmark with detective Dunja Hougaard. The two plot strands come together later in the book and this is certainly a novel that requires the reader’s full attention, but it is well worth it. Risk is without doubt the lead character and he is an unusual one: clever and persistent, but hesitant and sometimes fearful, he does not behave as you expect a hero to behave at the climax (I won’t say any more as I don’t want to reveal too much). The killer is also unexpected, both barbaric and sympathetic, and I love the way the author introduces the killer’s motivation with a letter that travels half way around the world