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Chilling,
disturbing, and terrifyingly believable, an extraordinary thriller
by one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction
When
an old man is found dead on the road—seemingly run over by a
Hungarian au pair—police investigator Anna Fekete is certain
that there is more to the incident than meets the eye. As she
begins to unravel an increasingly complex case, she’s led on a
deadly trail where illegal immigration, drugs, and, ultimately,
murder threaten not only her beliefs, but her life. Anna’s
partner Esko is entrenched in a separate but equally dangerous
investigation into the activities of an immigrant gang, where
deportation orders and raids cause increasing tension and result
in desperate measures by gang members—and the police themselves.
Then a bloody knife is found in the snow, and the two cases come
together in ways that no one could have predicted. As pressure
mounts, it becomes clear that having the law on their side may not
be enough for Anna and Esko.
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Copy provided by the publisher in
exchange for an honest review.
Finland. When a Hungarian girl runs
over an old man on the road, it turns out that the man has already
been dead. Murdered!
Senior Constable Anna Fekete is called
for the road accident because of her Hungarian origin. But knowing
the Hungarian language isn't the only thing that connects her with
this case. Soon the murder becomes her priority case that starts to
reveal much more than a dead body on the road.
Sammy arrives in Finland hidden in a
truck like many immigrants like him before. He runs away from war in
Pakistan and leaves behind him his family. But the dream for the
promised land soon becomes nightmare. Sammy becomes drug addict and a
criminal. Few robberies here and there, just to get the dose he
needs. But murder was never on his mind!
An old lady is missing. A neighbor
from the building where the man found on the road lived. Is there a
connection?
When two girls find a bloody knife in
the woods, no one knows who the blood is from. But very soon, Anna
starts to connect the dots.
Anna has to deal with her own skeletons
in the closet. She is an immigrant from Serbia, part of Hungarian
minority that lives in Vojvodina, northern Serbia. One of her
brothers dies during the war in the nineties, and her family leaves
for Hungary in order to save the other son. Anna leaves for Finland,
but she finds no peace there. No matter how much she tries to mix
with the rest, she is always the outsider, she is always the
immigrant. At least she is a hard-worker, not like her brother who
likes to depend on social care.
This is my first book by this author,
but it certainly won't be the last. As a lover of Scandinavian crime
noir, I've found this book very thrilling and interesting. What starts
like a car accident, ends like totally jaw-dropping planned crime.
The plot is fast-paced, creepy and sometimes very emotional. Murder
is there, also enough blood, mystery is all over the scene. The
author also deals with the issue of the immigrants, all from
different countries and all there from different reasons. She gives
the perspective from the eyes of the immigrants but also from the
eyes of the local Finnish people. The ending of the story left me
little bit wandering, some things were left untold, but I suppose
that was because a sequel it's on its way. I would love to read a
sequel of this book.
My opinion: 4,5 / 5.
