Author: Sara Blaedel 
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Series: Louise Rick Series
Genre: Crime | Thriller | Mystery | Suspense
Edition: Ebook (mobi)
Pages: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Source: Publicist
Buy it here: Amazon

Rating: ★★★★

Blurb:

Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She’s assigned a case involving a fifteen-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend’s long-ago death . . .
Louise’s investigation takes her on a journey back through time. She reconnects with figures from her past, including Kim, the principal investigator at the Holbaek Police Department, her former in-laws, fanatic ancient religion believers, and her longtime close friend, journalist Camilla Lind. As she moves through the small town’s cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets.

Review

I read The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel, not so long ago, and quite liked it. I was able to connect to the author’s writing and the story was interesting, to say the least, so when I was contacted for this book, I immediately accepted.

The Killing Forest is the kind of novel that’ll keep you up at night and would pull you into the story making you forget about the world outside. I really liked this book as it kept me intrigued. Like the previous book by author Sara Blaedel, there was not a lot to guess in this book, but the pacing was good enough to keep things interesting throughout. The author again shocked me towards the end with a smart plot twist.

The premise of the story was great and pacing was also good. The suspense was mild but I was able to feel a sense of urgency throughout the book (which is a big plus.)

The characterisation was good and I was happy to read about all the characters from the previous book in detail. I felt a connection with the main lead of the book,  detective Louise, though it was not as strong as it felt in the previous book. Still, the story being the hero in this book, I enjoyed reading it.

The writing was good but I did notice 2 major flaws that made it difficult for me to come up with a proper rating for this book when I was done with it.

Firstly, there are a lot of places in this book where the translation played tricks and hindered the flow of the book. This issue wasn’t there in the previous book so I was a little displeased this time around. The dialogues didn’t feel real and, at more than a couple of places, I was left wondering what the hell was the original dialogue anyway.

And the second thing that bugged me was that there was more ‘telling’ than ‘showing.’ It happened in more than a dozen places and it really affected the entire reading process altogether.

But, in spite of these two flaws, I still enjoyed the book and would love to read the next parts in Louise Rick series. I’d recommend this book to crime and mystery lovers.

Other Stuff

Opening Line: He hesitated before grabbing the dead chicken his father held out to him, its white feathers peppered with blood close to where its head had been chopped off.

Highlights: Story and ending.

Lowlights: Translation.

Memorable Quotes:

“…This is hell. No one gets out.”

Final Thoughts: A nice mystery read.

You can also read this review at Goodreads, Netgalley, and Amazon.