KILLED
by Thomas Enger
trans. Kari Dickson
Crime reporter Henning Juul thought his life was over when his young son was murdered. But that was only the beginning…
Determined to find his son’s killer, Henning doggedly follows an increasingly dangerous trail, where dark hands from the past emerge to threaten everything. His ex-wife Nora is pregnant with another man’s child, his sister Trine is implicated in the fire that killed his son and, with everyone he thought he could trust seemingly hiding something, Henning has nothing to lose … except his own life.
Packed with tension and unexpected twists, Killed is the long-awaited finale of one of the darkest, most chilling and emotive series you may ever read. Someone will be killed. But who?
Killed is the 5th book in Thomas Enger’s Henning Juul series. It would be a shame to begin here as this is the final book in a storyline that’s been emotional. Having said that, like the other books in the series it works as a stand alone read.
It is two years since Henning Juul’s son was killed in a fire and he has returned to work. The story opens with Juul at a lake. The investigative journalist meets an explosive opening which also manages to recap his story – of how he had come close to finding out why his son died, only coming to a dead end.
I have to be careful not to reveal anything that might spoil the plot so I’ll just say that the killing of Jonas, Henning’s six year old son, continues to provide a key plot line. Jonas was not supposed to be there during the night of the fire he perished in.
This story weaves in and out of another. There’s a crime lord who gives thugs their orders, a former gun-for-hire, and a current gun-for-hire, in a book that looks at the workings of criminals however rich or legitimate that may appear. There are new relationships, estranged ones, and help from old ones as the investigations face crimes of theft, torture and murder in the fast-paced plot with several satisfying set pieces.
When all seems hopeless can there finally be closure? I will say that this is a fitting finale to a compelling series.
My Review of CURSED (the previous book in the series)
About Thomas Enger:
Thomas Enger (b. 1973) is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndod) in 2009, which became aninternational sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of 5 books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo's underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 26 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.