Abandoned by Booklikes

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

So this was a really good thriller. I have never read a book taking place in Denmark before. Or at least I don't think I have. It was interesting to see how the partners in this book (Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner) deal with the murder of a young woman and then the twists and turns the murder case takes. We do get to see more of Jeppe in this one, or least his emotional state. The main reason why I didn't give this five stars though is that I wish that we had gotten to see Anette's home life. We hear how happy she is with her husband via Jeppe or her from now and then. Engberg chooses to delve more into Jeppe and his emotional state after the divorce from his wife. I definitely would like to read more about these two in the future.

"The Tenant" follows Danish detectives, Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner. Jeppe has been out on medical leave while also mourning the end of his marriage. His first day back though he and Anette are called into a brutal murder scene. The young woman, Julie Stender's life seems to be a mystery until the detectives realize that Julie's murder may have links to a mystery writer's group. 

Jeppe we find is mourning his ex-wife and their marriage. I ended up feeling pity for him though Engberg gives us enough clues that he may be interested in someone that he works alongside. Anette is blunt, but does what she has to in order to not only back up Jeppe, but to solve Julie's murder. The two of them work well together, they are definitely opposites and seem to know what buttons to push on each other as well as when to not take offense about things. 

Engberg also introduces others who work with Jeppe and Werner as well. The way the detectives are set up it seems as if everyone is the same rank, but each of them take turns in being leads. I do hope in the next book we get to see Werner in charge as well as her home life. 

We also get a different insight into Julie via her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who has quit her university job in order to pursue her dream of being a murder mystery writer. Esther's points of views I thought were good. We get a different sense from her about the loss of dreams, and regrets that she has over things that occurred when she was younger. We have her fearing she has inadvertently caused someone to seek out Julie to kill her and the wonder of why someone would. 

The writing was really good though there were a few translation issues here or there. Not enough to take me out of the story. Engberg does a great job with keeping you guessing about the murderer and why they killed Julie. I thought it was a great reveal that we slowly got and the ending to the case was a shocker. 

The flow works with the book bouncing back and forth between Jeppe, Werner, the landlady of the building that Julie lived in, and another detective working with Jeppe and Werner. 

The book takes place in Copenhagen and besides reading about some of the bars/food that Jeppe and Werner eat, I still wanted to get more of sense of the city. 

The ending leaves things on a slightly okay note with Jeppe, but once again, we don't get any insight into Anette.