Out of the Dark: A brand new Jensen thriller from Heidi Amsinck – a must read for 2025

A missing child … a tainted witness … Jensen’s darkest case yet …

Matilde Clausen, 9, vanishes from a crowded playground in the middle of Copenhagen, triggering a frantic search across the city. When a possible link emerges to the disappearance of Lea Høgh, 10, six years ago, DI Henrik Jungersen is thrown back into the nightmare that almost finished his career.

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Desperate for redemption, but barred from reopening the old case, Henrik turns to his estranged lover, Dagbladet chief crime reporter Jensen, for help. As the investigation reaches deep into Denmark’s underworld, how will Henrik, Jensen, and her troubled teenage apprentice Gustav, escape the darkness that threatens to engulf them, in time to solve the mystery? What really happened to Lea? And where on earth is Matilde?

My Review

This was definitely the best of the four books so far. It was so exciting that I flew through the last chapters to find out what happened before going to dinner in our hotel. Then afterwards I read the last part again, just to be clear.

We still have most of the characters from the first three books – Jensen’s boss at Dagbladet, editor-in-chief Margrethe Skov, her teenage nephew Gustav (who’s gone back to school now), agoraphobic hacker Fie, and of course married cop, and Jensen’s ex-lover Henrik Jungerson. I love Jensen more and more with each book, in spite of her flaws, but then she accepts them. Not so much Henrik, but I think the description of him makes him sound really unattractive. It’s once again set in Copenhagen.

It’s real seat of your pants stuff – going from Jensen to Henrik and back and forth. We also meet a fascinating lady called Bodil Le Cour, who’s 83 and lives in a block of flats where she claims to have seen a murder. Except no-one believes her including the police, they think she is getting doddery. Doddery she is definitely not. Jensen believes her, but little does she know how complicated it’s all going to turn out to be. And a race against time.

An afterthought. If Jensen ever got married (doubtful), would she keep her last name (probably) because Jensen IS her last name, or change it? Then she could change her first name to Jensen by deed poll. Not sure why this bothers me, but it does!

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Heidi Amsinck won the Danish Criminal Academy’s Debut Award for My Name is Jensen (2021), the first book in a new series featuring Copenhagen reporter sleuth Jensen and her motley crew of helpers. She published her second Jensen novel, The Girl in The Photo, in July 2022, with Back From the Dead out in February 2024. Out of The Dark is the fourth in the series.

A journalist by background, Heidi 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 BBC Radio 4, such as the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk and featuring in her collection Last Train to Helsingør (2018). Heidi’s work has been translated from the original English into Danish, German and Czech.