Reviews

• “[T]old in Engberg’s typically unflinching yet artful prose /…/ [The Sanctuary] is a brilliantly crafted novel /…/ Engberg has emerged as one of the leading authors of Scandinavian noir, and this is one of her best.”

• “Nothing short of a masterpiece.”

• “I rejoice, weep and shudder.”

• “Isola is, straight from the shoulder, the best crime novel I’ve read all year – and it will be difficult to find one to match it.”

• “Can someone please tell me why I haven’t read anything by Katrine Engberg before? Huge, huge recommendations.”

• “Nail-biting/…/ From the horrific opening to the final reveal, Engberg keeps readers turning the pages.”

• “The iden­tity of the culprit is an enormous surprise, but more surprising still is the closure Engberg brings to long-running storylines, resulting in a very poignant moment for fans of the series in addition to a satisfy­ing solution to the central mystery.”

• “This is a non-stop thrilling read from start to finish. In an extremely skillful way, Katrine Engberg manages to incorporate rare ingredients such as humor and warmth into a genuinely unsettling murder tale. She weaves the many plotlines together into a detective novel, well-suited to the reader looking for suspense and a well-told story, without the usual genre clichés.”

• “Let it be said at once: Katrine Engberg is part of the upper echelon of Danish crime writing. She knows how to construct a shrewd plot and create believable characters and scenes, and on top of that she formulates herself in a smooth and effortless language. All of this she proves once again in the fifth installment about police detectives Anette Werner and Jeppe Kørner, Isola. /…/ It’s well-devised and surprising.”

• “Engberg accomplishes the feat of keeping the reader guessing, right up until the point where everything falls into place in a wild finale.”

• “With Katrine Engberg you are always guaranteed a thrilling crime read.”

• “This one is something truly special.”

• “[Isola] kept surprising until the very end.”

• “Katrine Engberg has established as modern master of Scandinavian noir with her dark procedural series, and now her quartet drives to a thrilling conclusion in The Sanctuary.”

• “[Engberg] continues to show that she is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Nordic noir thrillers. The Sanctuary is indeed nightmare-inducing, and it will be nearly impossible for readers to shake it from their psyches.”

• “Engberg grabs our attention with the gory details of the killing, then shifts into epistolary storytelling mode, in the form of letters the anthropologist wrote in the 80s that reveal much about her complicated relationships with her children and her neighbors. /…/ In Engberg’s hands, [her characters’ struggles] don’t come off as glib identifiers. They feel real and relatable, which makes her work humane without ever being sentimental. In addition to being quite scary.”

• “The iden­tity of the culprit is an enormous surprise, but more surprising still is the closure Engberg brings to long-running storylines, resulting in a very poignant moment for fans of the series in addition to a satisfy­ing solution to the central mystery.”

• “Complex/…/ Enough plot twists and personal revelations to keep Ms. Engberg’s growing throng of U.S. followers happy.”