Description
From Publishers Weekly Despite the episodic nature of the story and its many elements of soap opera, Hewson (Carnival of the Dead) ably adapts to the page the first season of the hit Danish TV series, which tracks the efforts of tenacious Copenhagen homicide detective Sarah Lund to find the killer of 19-year-old Nanna Birk Larsen. The case has no shortage of suspects, and a link to the campaign staff of liberal mayoral candidate Troels Hartmann threatens to affect the election, as he tries to upset wily Lord Mayor Poul Bremer. Virtually everyone lies to the police, including suspects and witnesses. Dirty tricks from members of both campaign staffs, as well as corruption within police ranks, ensure an investigation in constant turmoil. Lund's planned and imminent departure for a job in Sweden lends urgency, and working with her replacement and co-investigator, Jan Meyer, adds to the tension. (Oct.) From Booklist *Starred Review* First up: this novel is based on the original Danish television series The Killing (more precisely, the first-season screenplay by Søren Sveistrup), and not on the American remake. Second up: this is such a good book, so rich in its characters and writing, that familiarity with its source material is completely unnecessary. Its story, in which a Copenhagen police detective lands a politically sensitive murder case the day before she’s scheduled to move to Sweden, is wonderfully told. Hewson is, of course, the author of several excellent mysteries, including the popular Nic Costa novels, and he was an excellent choice here: his own elegant prose style perfectly captures the mood of the story. Not merely a spin-off of a high-profile television property, this is a fully realized novel that stands on its own two feet, while at the same time reimagining the television series, taking its characters and story in new directions and exploring them in new ways. A splendid book and perhaps a new benchmark for literary adaptations of screen stories. --David Pitt "David Hewson—the author of more than a dozen detective novels set in Italy and with no need to stoop to anything too hurriedly commercial—has taken what was television gold and turned it into literary gold.xa0This is one of the most engrossing detective novels I’ve read in a long time, with no easy solutions or insulting pay-offs and no easy moral to its story."xa0 — Telegraph "David Hewson has achieved the seemingly impossible.xa0His novelisation of the drama is a different take on the original . . . just as gripping as the television serial.xa0Whether you missed, hated or love The Killing onxa0TV,xa0this book is worth reading."xa0 — Literary Review “A splendid book and perhaps a new benchmark for literary adaptations of screen stories.” — Booklist “Hewson has done an excellent job capturing the chilly flavor of Nordic noir... an excellent novelization of a hit Scandinavian TV series.” — Library Journal David Hewson is thexa0author of the highly acclaimed Detective Nic Costa series, including A Season for the Dead , The Villa of Mysteries , and The Fallen Angel , as well as such stand-alone titles as Death in Seville and The Promised Land . Read more
Features & Highlights
- A page-turning adaptation of the first season of the original Danish television series
- The Killing
- , from the author of the Detective Nic Costa series
- Through the dark wood where the dead trees give no shelter Nanna Birk Larsen runs . . . There is a bright monocular eye that follows, like a hunter after a wounded deer. It moves in a slow approaching zigzag, marching through the Pineseskoven wasteland, through the Pentecost Forest. The chill water, the fear, his presence not so far away . . . There is one torchlight on her now, the single blazing eye. And it is here.
- Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department before moving to Sweden. But everything changes when 19-year-old student Nanna Birk Larsen is found raped and brutally murdered in the woods outside the city. Lund's plans to relocate are put on hold as she leads the investigation along with fellow detective Jan Meyer. While Nanna's family struggles to cope with their loss, local politician Troels Hartmann is in the middle of an election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen. When links between City Hall and the murder suddenly come to light, the case takes an entirely different turn. Over the course of 20 days, suspect upon suspect emerges as violence and political intrigue cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer.
