Book Review: THE GIRL IN THE PHOTO

Title: The Girl in the Photo

Author: Heidi Amsinck
Publisher: Muswell Press
Pages: 384
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

The book is set in Copenhagen in March, year unknown, continues for two weeks in March, then jumps time to April.

DI Henrik Jungersen begins work on a case involving the brutal killing of an old woman, Irene Valborg. The body is found two weeks later in an extreme state of decomposition.

Close on the heels of this murder, he comes to know of the brutal killing of another old man, and then of a near-fatal attack on a dementia patient in a care home. In all three instances, he finds the photos of a young teenage girl.

His superiors believe that there is no link between the three cases, but Jungersen strongly believes there is. The case, however, is not the only thing bothering him. He is also suffering on the home front, with his wife having asked him to leave the house on coming to know of his affair with Jensen, a journalist, who is also conducting some parallel investigations of her own.

 
The novel is written in the 3^rd person past tense PoV of Jungersen and Jensen in alternate chapters.

I enjoyed the writing, but not the resolution of the book. It was obvious from the beginning, but neither of the main characters thought of it. I also thought the end was wrapped up too fast.

Since this is part of a series, not all the subplots find closure. The issue relating to Jungersen’s marriage is resolved, as also the subplot relating to a scandal at Gustav’s school, but the suicide of Carsten, a bankrupt man, is carried over to the next book.

What I found strange was that the series goes by Jensen’s name, but there was altogether too much information about Jungersen.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: ONE EYE OPEN

Title: One Eye Open
Author: Alex Grecian
Illustrator: Andrea Mutti
Publisher: TKO Studios
Pages: 100
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

One Eye Open by Alex Grecian reminded me of The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs. Their basic ideas were pretty similar.

Charlotte Jessen dies under mysterious circumstances, killed perhaps by her husband of 42 years, Tor. Her daughter, Laura Roux, returns to her childhood home with her teenage daughter, Juniper, two days after her mother’s funeral. The mother and daughter are recovering from a tragedy. Laura’s husband, Jacob, was killed in a tragic accident while attempting to teach Juniper how to drive.

They are here for good, although Juniper doesn’t know it initially. Laura hopes this will be their new beginning.

But Juniper is not happy with having to move to this small village in Denmark, away from her life in the US. To make things worse, she finds the townsfolk rather odd, every one of them behaving suspiciously.

Then Juniper comes to know of a horrible tradition that has prevailed over centuries. One that arose out of the need to ensure that there are enough hands to reap the harvest that the endless wheat fields in the village are blessed with.

But that’s the thing about tradition. It has to be repeated.

 

The book is written in the third person limited PoV of Laura, Juniper and Kaspar.

This was my first attempt at reading horror. It was disturbing but so well written that I just kept on reading. Who would have thought something as innocuous as wheat fields could induce a feeling of discomfort and horror? But the author has done it.

He has created the image of an insular community, holding dangerous secrets that have the power to turn against the community.

Most prologues are completely unnecessary, but here, the Prologue hitches us in, creating the right mix of intrigue and dread. Very quickly, we realise that something is terribly wrong.

Nine of the chapters began with beautiful watercolour illustrations that set its characters deeper in our minds. Of course, to be honest, I didn’t need the illustrations. My own imagination was doing a pretty good job of throwing up images to upset me. Having said that, I must say the illustrations were superb and added to the impact created by the book.

The writing was good, and the issues that it discussed, death, grief and loss are such as to resonate with all of us, particularly when the loss has been a sudden one. The accident which caused the death of Jacob was painful to read. We can relate to the pain of the mother and daughter.

Just one mistake, in Chapter 9, Kaspar turned into Konrad.

I couldn’t quite understand the title, One Eye Open. Perhaps it refers to the warning, Sleep with one eye open.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)