I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork
May. 10th, 2015 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Twelve days to go. Twelve days until ex-detective Mia Kruger plans to die. Her beloved sister has already gone, and soon she will join her. This is what she wants to do.
But veteran police investigator Holger Munch is about to save Mia. He must convince his ex-partner to come back and work just one more case.
Because a six-year-old girl has been found murdered, hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which reads, ‘I’m travelling alone.’ She is the first.
And Holger knows that only Mia’s brilliant but troubled mind can fathom the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of their careers …
Mia Kruger plans to commit suicide in 12 days. She let personal feelings interfere with an investigation and has been drummed out of the police force. There’s nothing now to stop her from joining her beloved sister. Nothing, except her former partner, Holger Munch, who needs her help in a new investigation. A six-year-old girl has been murdered, her body left hanging from a tree. She was wearing a stylised school uniform and around her neck was an airline tag bearing the words “I’m travelling alone” and the killer isn’t done – other six-year-old girls will also die unless Holger and Mia can stop it ...
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE is the first in a new Nordic Noir crime thriller series from Samuel Bjork (the pseudonym of Norwegian novelist and playwright Frode Sander Oien). It has all the familiar Nordic Noir elements – troubled detectives with tangled personal lives, dark and twisted murders and an insane serial killer and that’s precisely the problem – it’s very formulaic. This is noir by rote, a checklist of elements that never spark into life and which is further hampered by too many plot lines and too many characters, which makes it difficult to empathise with the leads because they’re not on the page for long enough. This is particularly true in the case of a plot line following an abused boy who decides to investigate a Christian cult living deep in the woods – although potentially fascinating, the time jumps make it difficult to keep track of what’s happened and there simply isn’t enough on it on the page to maintain tension. Mia and Holger are both stock characters – particularly Mia who doesn’t convince as the genius investigator with a unique eye for detail and a fan following on Facebook and her guilt over her sister’s death left me yawning. Holger’s not a lot better – an overweight divorcee who’s emotionally estranged from his daughter but devoted to his young granddaughter. The serial killer’s motivation is contrived and for all the careful planning they display in the novel, they end up as a stock loony on a mission in the final pages. The translation from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund is fine, although there is a heavy reliance on fragmented sentences, which I found grating. Ultimately there just isn’t enough that’s new or original for me to continue reading this series, but fans of the genre may feel more charitable.
The Verdict:
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE is the first in a new Nordic Noir crime thriller series from Samuel Bjork (the pseudonym of Norwegian novelist and playwright Frode Sander Oien). It has all the familiar Nordic Noir elements – troubled detectives with tangled personal lives, dark and twisted murders and an insane serial killer and that’s precisely the problem – it’s very formulaic. This is noir by rote, a checklist of elements that never spark into life and which is further hampered by too many plot lines and too many characters, which makes it difficult to empathise with the leads because they’re not on the page for long enough. This is particularly true in the case of a plot line following an abused boy who decides to investigate a Christian cult living deep in the woods – although potentially fascinating, the time jumps make it difficult to keep track of what’s happened and there simply isn’t enough on it on the page to maintain tension. Mia and Holger are both stock characters – particularly Mia who doesn’t convince as the genius investigator with a unique eye for detail and a fan following on Facebook and her guilt over her sister’s death left me yawning. Holger’s not a lot better – an overweight divorcee who’s emotionally estranged from his daughter but devoted to his young granddaughter. The serial killer’s motivation is contrived and for all the careful planning they display in the novel, they end up as a stock loony on a mission in the final pages. The translation from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund is fine, although there is a heavy reliance on fragmented sentences, which I found grating. Ultimately there just isn’t enough that’s new or original for me to continue reading this series, but fans of the genre may feel more charitable.
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE will be released in the United Kingdom in July 2015. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
Twelve days to go. Twelve days until ex-detective Mia Kruger plans to die. Her beloved sister has already gone, and soon she will join her. This is what she wants to do.
But veteran police investigator Holger Munch is about to save Mia. He must convince his ex-partner to come back and work just one more case.
Because a six-year-old girl has been found murdered, hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which reads, ‘I’m travelling alone.’ She is the first.
And Holger knows that only Mia’s brilliant but troubled mind can fathom the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of their careers …
Mia Kruger plans to commit suicide in 12 days. She let personal feelings interfere with an investigation and has been drummed out of the police force. There’s nothing now to stop her from joining her beloved sister. Nothing, except her former partner, Holger Munch, who needs her help in a new investigation. A six-year-old girl has been murdered, her body left hanging from a tree. She was wearing a stylised school uniform and around her neck was an airline tag bearing the words “I’m travelling alone” and the killer isn’t done – other six-year-old girls will also die unless Holger and Mia can stop it ...
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE is the first in a new Nordic Noir crime thriller series from Samuel Bjork (the pseudonym of Norwegian novelist and playwright Frode Sander Oien). It has all the familiar Nordic Noir elements – troubled detectives with tangled personal lives, dark and twisted murders and an insane serial killer and that’s precisely the problem – it’s very formulaic. This is noir by rote, a checklist of elements that never spark into life and which is further hampered by too many plot lines and too many characters, which makes it difficult to empathise with the leads because they’re not on the page for long enough. This is particularly true in the case of a plot line following an abused boy who decides to investigate a Christian cult living deep in the woods – although potentially fascinating, the time jumps make it difficult to keep track of what’s happened and there simply isn’t enough on it on the page to maintain tension. Mia and Holger are both stock characters – particularly Mia who doesn’t convince as the genius investigator with a unique eye for detail and a fan following on Facebook and her guilt over her sister’s death left me yawning. Holger’s not a lot better – an overweight divorcee who’s emotionally estranged from his daughter but devoted to his young granddaughter. The serial killer’s motivation is contrived and for all the careful planning they display in the novel, they end up as a stock loony on a mission in the final pages. The translation from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund is fine, although there is a heavy reliance on fragmented sentences, which I found grating. Ultimately there just isn’t enough that’s new or original for me to continue reading this series, but fans of the genre may feel more charitable.
The Verdict:
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE is the first in a new Nordic Noir crime thriller series from Samuel Bjork (the pseudonym of Norwegian novelist and playwright Frode Sander Oien). It has all the familiar Nordic Noir elements – troubled detectives with tangled personal lives, dark and twisted murders and an insane serial killer and that’s precisely the problem – it’s very formulaic. This is noir by rote, a checklist of elements that never spark into life and which is further hampered by too many plot lines and too many characters, which makes it difficult to empathise with the leads because they’re not on the page for long enough. This is particularly true in the case of a plot line following an abused boy who decides to investigate a Christian cult living deep in the woods – although potentially fascinating, the time jumps make it difficult to keep track of what’s happened and there simply isn’t enough on it on the page to maintain tension. Mia and Holger are both stock characters – particularly Mia who doesn’t convince as the genius investigator with a unique eye for detail and a fan following on Facebook and her guilt over her sister’s death left me yawning. Holger’s not a lot better – an overweight divorcee who’s emotionally estranged from his daughter but devoted to his young granddaughter. The serial killer’s motivation is contrived and for all the careful planning they display in the novel, they end up as a stock loony on a mission in the final pages. The translation from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund is fine, although there is a heavy reliance on fragmented sentences, which I found grating. Ultimately there just isn’t enough that’s new or original for me to continue reading this series, but fans of the genre may feel more charitable.
I’M TRAVELLING ALONE will be released in the United Kingdom in July 2015. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
