
Isola The Sanctuary
The Copenhagen series #5
A man wakes to the nightmarish sound of an industrial saw. Tied up and unable to move, he can only watch as the blade approaches…
Jeppe Kørner is on leave from the police force and has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm for the winter. Back in Copenhagen, Anette Werner is tasked with leading the investigation into a severed corpse discovered in a trunk buried in a downtown playground. Also on Bornholm, Esther de Laurenti is writing a biography on a female anthropologist with a mysterious past, Margrethe Dybris, all whilst coming to terms with her own crushing sense of loneliness. When Jeppe lends a helping hand at the island’s local sawmill, he unwittingly finds himself in the crosshairs of a sinister mystery rooted in the past, forcing him to once more team up with Anette and Esther to unravel the island’s secrets before the murderer strikes again.
Katrine Engberg’s Isola is the fifth novel about the Police Sergeants Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner.
Awards
Shortlisted for the Mofibo Awards (Best Crime & Suspense) Denmark | 2021 |
Reviews
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“[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.”
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“Nothing short of a masterpiece.”
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“I rejoice, weep and shudder.”
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“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.”
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“Can someone please tell me why I haven’t read anything by Katrine Engberg before? Huge, huge recommendations.”
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“Nail-biting/…/ From the horrific opening to the final reveal, Engberg keeps readers turning the pages.”
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“Engberg accomplishes the feat of keeping the reader guessing, right up until the point where everything falls into place in a wild finale.”
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“With Katrine Engberg you are always guaranteed a thrilling crime read.”
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“This one is something truly special.”
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“[Isola] kept surprising until the very end.”
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“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.”
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“[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.”
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“Complex/…/ Enough plot twists and personal revelations to keep Ms. Engberg’s growing throng of U.S. followers happy.”
- Author
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Katrine Engberg
- Published
- 2020
- Genre
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- Crime
- Pages
- 355
- Reading material
Danish edition
- Rights sold
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Denmark, Alpha
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
Finland, Otava
France, Fleuve Editions
Germany, Diogenes
Italy, Marsilio
Netherlands, Bruna
Norway, Bonnier Norsk
Portugal, Minotauro
Sweden, Forum
UK, Hodder & Stoughton
US, Scout Press