I’ve been perched on the edge of my seat waiting for book three of the ‘Munch and Kruger’ series and was happy to find the usual intensity of the team dynamics are all present and correct, their personal dramas casting a shadow across any professional lines that have been drawn.

I also relish the spontaneous scene changes that always keep me on my toes, as they drive the unpredictable plots to inevitable life-changing ends.

Sadly, on this occasion, I failed to be 100% engaged by the usual erratic delivery and couldn’t help but feel a spark of similarity to one of the previous investigations. So while the strength of our duo's company is without fault I struggled to connect to this story as a whole.

“The Boy in the Headlights” may not be my favourite of the series, but I won’t quit reading further instalments based on this isolated experience. Probably best to try it for yourself, as the opinions appear to be mixed for this one.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of The Boy in the Headlights, the third novel to feature Norwegian detectives Holger Munch and Mia Krüger.

When the body of a ballet dancer, in full costume, is found dead in a remote lake the special unit is reactivated. Munch and Krüger have hardly got going when more bodies are discovered. The team is stumped but gradually start to build a picture.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Boy in the Headlights which is a slow burn of a read with an imaginative killer and some surprising twists and turns. The novel opens in 1990 with an old man driving home through remote countryside and finding a young boy with reindeer antlers tied to his head, the eponymous boy in the headlights. How he ties in to the rest of the plot only becomes clear later in the novel but it’s ingenious. The rest of the novel is set in the present, involving the hunt for a serial killer. I found it gripping and compulsive from the unusual killing method and investigative practices to the more mundane than you would guess motive through a series of well drawn vignettes of reactions to the investigation like the reporter and the general. It makes for a cohesive whole.

I like the characters too who are very human and frail. Holger Munch whose life outside work revolves around his family and still hopes to get back with his ex wife even though she’s married to someone else. Hope or delusion? Whatever, his customary good sense evades him on that subject. Mia Krüger is a more complex character. A brilliant investigator given to flashes of genius who always moves the investigation on she is precarious mentally. Suicide and death are never far from her thoughts and she struggles with alcohol and prescription drug dependencies, longing to join her dead twin, Sigrid. There are, however, green shoots of survival in this novel. She has ditched the drink and drugs and her determination to get to the bottom of Sigrid’s death suggest a desire to move on. I found her ups and downs very relatable and have nothing but praise for her portrayal. It is moving and all too human.

The Boy in the Headlights really hit the spot for me so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a great read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I wished I had read the first 2 books about Munch/Kruger but saying that I really enjoyed this typically Norweigan style book.

Being the third instalment in Samuel Bjork’s Munch/Kruger book series you know from reading the first two books what you are letting yourself in for with this series, and this book is as brilliant as the first one, I’m Traveling Alone.

The Boy in the Headlights brings back Holger and Mia this time on the hunt for a thrill-killer, a serial killer who is choosing his victims randomly and without motive making him even harder to predict and catch.

It begins with the opening scene of a young boy with antlers on his head being found in a remote frozen forest and the story goes full circle so we find out how the young boy came to be all alone in the middle of nowhere. The storyline in-between is a fast passed, clever, multi narrative that doesn’t take its foot off the gas right up to the last page.

It does leave you wanting more and now it will be another year until we find out what the future holds for the two outstanding detectives.

If you haven’t read the first two books in the series you could still jump straight into this one as it gives a slight back story, just enough so you won’t get too lost in the details, however I would recommend reading them, not only so you can follow the stories of the characters but also because they are definitely worth a read!

Many thanks to the author Samuel Bjørk, publishers Random House UK, Transworld and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest, independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/the-boy-in-the-headlights-munch-and-kruger-3-by-samuel-bjork/