A DEATH IN DENMARK - Amulya Malladi

 I've had some pretty lousy luck in the past with picking up a book that is in the middle or nearing the end of a series run.  More often than not these books really do rely on knowledge of what has transpired in the previous book(s). And so it is with great pleasure that I announce that I managed to pick up a book that is the FIRST book in a new series. (Hooray for me!)

Like many who read and enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books (by Stieg Larsson), I found that I really liked what has been called 'Nordic Noir' - a dark mystery in which the climate and the Scandinavian landscape set a cold tone and add a dark character to the stories. With a book titled A Death in Denmark, set within memory of the events of World War II, I fully expected this to be a strong Nordic Noir styled thriller.

It's not.

Our protagonist is Gabriel Præst - a former police officer in Copenhagen and now a very modern private investigator. He loves jazz music and is a part-time Blues musician. He has a very complicated relationship with his ex-wife, Leila. He regrets not having done better by her, resulting in her leaving him and she, in turn, seems to miss intimacy with him (so why did she leave?) and is generally very pleasant with him.

When the ex-wife asks Gabriel to investigate a case - a case which has already gone to court and resulted in a guilty verdict - he can't say no to her and so begins his investigation.

The case revolves around a Muslim refugee from Iraq,Yousef Ahmed, who brutally murdered a politician, Sanne Melgaard. Leila doesn't believe he's guilty, despite the evidence against him in court.

Digging in, Gabriel follows a trail that leads back to World War II and a connection between some modern politicians and a horrific event when Danes who were helping Jews flee Germany were actually pointing the Germans to those fleeing. Those people in power would stop at nothing to keep this quiet and Præst will even face off against the Russian mob as he gets close to the truth.

This story could be quite an exciting thriller but I feel we get a little too much of Præst's personal life and his relationship with his ex. We should just be reaching the climax of the investigation when Gabriel and Leila have a romantic interlude, ending with:

Maybe it was okay, I told myself as I filled the bathtub and watched her watch me. She was naked and I loved watching her lean against the bathroom door, waiting for the bathtub to fill. She stepped into the water, and I joined her.

It was sex. It was adrenaline. It was fun. It was also comfort. It was just the thing I needed to get out of my slump and get back to work.

"Get back to work"? We didn't need this interruption at all and what it did was bring the inciting action to a screeching halt so that author Amulya Malladi had to try to work harder to get it revving again.

I understand that the first book in a series generally spends a lot of time establishing the characters, setting, and their situations, but it still needs to tell a solid story and that story here is semi-solid and too often interrupted.

Maybe it's more that Gabriel Præst just didn't interest me. I didn't find him funny, charming, tough, or determined - traits I find interesting in the detectives I read. He was quite bland and too insecure about his ex-wife to appeal to my tastes.

While I'm disappointed this wasn't Nordic Noir, it was the lackluster hero and interrupted story that brings my rating down.

Looking for a good book? A Death in Denmark by Amulya Malladi is a modern detective story that reaches back to WWII. The central figure, detective Gabriel Præst doesn't shine enough to escape his own shadow.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

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A Death in Denmark

author: Amulya Malladi

series: Gabriel Præst #1

publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

ISBN: 9780063235519

paperback, 336 pages