Not all little old ladies are so innocent …

When ninety-year-old Irene Valborg is found brutally murdered in an affluent suburb of Copenhagen, her diamond necklace missing, it looks like a burglary gone wrong. When two more victims are attacked, the police lament a rise in violence against the elderly, but who is the young girl in the photo found by DI Henrik Jungersen on the scenes of crime?

Impatient to claim her inheritance, Irene’s daughter hires former Dagbladet reporter Jensen and her teenage apprentice Gustav to find the necklace. Questioning his own sanity, while trying to fix his marriage, Henrik finds himself once more pitched in a quest for the truth against Jensen – the one woman in Copenhagen he is desperate to avoid.

My Review

It all starts with the brutal murder of a little old lady in her mansion in an affluent district of Copenhagen. Bashed over the head with an ornamental elephant. Her Alsatian, Samson, is tied up in the garden and her house is like a fortress. So how did the killer get in and why is the dog well-fed and watered?

Just the first in a series of murders, two more elderly people – one on his allotment, the other in a nursing home. But how are they connected, or are they? A photo was left near the victims, though not in full view. Is it the same girl in the photos and what does it have to do with the murders?

This is the second novel in the Jensen Thriller series and it gets better and better. Jensen is almost as annoying as she was in the first book, though I liked her a lot more this time. DI Henrik Jungersen is still a slob, loud, rude and a bit of a creep where women are concerned. Following his affair with Jensen in book one, his wife has thrown him out and he is living at the office. I don’t know what Jensen ever saw in him.

But fellow Pigeon’s favourite character is still seventeen-year-old Gustav, all gangly legs and insatiable appetite. Typical teenager then. But he has a dark secret (he was expelled from school because of it) and no-one is talking. Jensen, with her investigative journalist’s hat on, is determined to find out.

However, there is so much more to this story. Another couple of threads run through it, which are no doubt setting up book three. I can’t wait!

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Heidi Amsinck, a writer and journalist born in Copenhagen, spent many years covering Britain for the Danish press, including a spell as London Correspondent for the broadsheet daily Jyllands-Posten. She has written numerous short stories for radio, including the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, Heidi lives in London. She was previously shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize. Last Train to Helsingør is her first published collection of stories. Her crime novel My Name is Jensen, set in Copenhagen, was published in August 2021. The Girl In The Photo is the second in the series.