The premise of The Tenant by Katrine Engberg drew me in immediately, as it sounded exactly like the dark and twisty stories I love, with a gruesome murder, people with secrets, and a flawed but honest detective. Those elements were all present, but this one just wasn’t a big hit for me. It felt like there were really great ideas in it, but they got kind of lost beneath explorations of the lead detectives less than stellar personal life, and way too many weird asides about his penis. I know more about his penis than I ever needed to know about anyone’s.

I still consider this a 3-star read, because the good parts were so good, and so well written. I also took into consideration that the issue might not be the writing/story, but the translation. Sometimes things just get lost or just don’t translate well. The parts of the book focusing on the murder(s)/investigation were really amazing; the other sections just didn’t seem necessary to me.

I received a free e-copy of The Tenant from NetGalley and Gallery in exchange for my review.

When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Copenhagen investigators Jeppe and Anette are surprised to find a writer whose unfinished book mirrors the crime. In pursuing all leads the police are led into a dark and twisted plot.

Do you like Nordic noir or police procedurals? The Tenant had me hooked from the first chapters! Jeppe and Anette are an interesting team each with their own strengths. It took me a bit to warm up to Jeppe and I hope the next installment gives us more on Anette. This was a dark read with layers of lies. The book kept me guessing. The Tenant makes a good winter read. Thank you to Gallery books, Scout Press and Netgalley for an ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There were not many characters I felt invested in in this story. The plot was a middle of the road detective procedural. The most interesting aspect of this novel was the descriptions of Denmark and its landscape and architecture. There was not much else I was able to grab onto to distinguish this book from the pack.

This is a Nordic noir novel, so it is characteristically a bit dark. That said, I really liked it. Clever plot, good character development, well written, fast reading; I couldn’t put it down. I look forward to more from this author.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this book was set in Copenhagen, and that the author was able to evoke the setting, especially the artists' colony. There did seem to be some grammatical errors in translation - at one point it seems the name of the murdered girl was transposed with that of her roommate. It was hard to read without tripping over some of the names (not the fault of the author, purely my own ignorance). But, the author's great sense of dry wit and turn of a phrase were enjoyable and kept me reading to see what observation she would make next (e.g., "He felt as if a merger of fifty incompatible companies had taken place in his body overnight.") The unfolding of the suspects came at a steady pace; I loved that there were no surprise characters, no deux ex machina to throw us off course, just a very complex and sophisticated story line. While this is a standalone, I would be interested in reading other books by this author.

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I had to stop reading about 1/3 of the way in; I hadn’t connected to any of the characters and the divorced detective trope was so overplayed that I found him annoying rather than sympathetic.

Woo! Okay, so the premise of this book is really interesting. We follow two Danish detectives who are working to solve the murder of a young girl. The girl is found murder in a horrific way with patterns carved into her face. Sounds amazing, right!?

Unfortunately this just didn't do it for me. I was so bored the entire time. I absolutely could have put this down 70% of the way through and wouldn't even have wanted to know who did the killing. I found the characters flat, the writing flat, and nothing shocked me. I am not sure if it was the translation, but it just wasn't for me.

There are so many mixed reviews though! So many have loved this so I would still recommend giving it a shot! It just wasn't for me but could be a new favorite for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*This review has been posted to Goodreads, Amazon and Instagram*

I received a free ARC electronic copy of this Danish Police Procedural from Netgalley, Katrine Engberg, and Gallery/Scout Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my honest, personal opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend this author to friends and family. Though this is a debut novel in this series, Engberg has a solid body of work behind her. This is the first of Engberg's works to be translated into English, and though at times the story is a little rough, it is an exciting example of what she can bring to the genre of Scandinavian Noir and why we need more!

Copenhagen police investigators Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner have worked together for eight years, and though they respect each other and the vision they each bring to an investigation, they know one another well enough to get snippy on occasion. He is recently divorced, she is happily married, both are a little middle-aged fluffy. But they can usually get the job done quickly, and they are respected by their peers. Like most modern police forces, some of the perimeter jobs have gone to private shops. In Engberg's Copenhagen, for example, crime scene investigators are hired out to a private business. Not necessarily a bad thing, but they are not trained police officers and there is more of an opportunity for a breakdown in communication.

The scene of this initial crime is a small building with four levels in a quiet area of Copenhagen, located at Klosterstraede 12. Recently retired professor Esther de Laurenti has lived in the top floor apartment her entire life. She was born there, and as a child, her parents ran a neighborhood pub on the ground floor. They have always rented out the two middle floors. Esther's two pug dogs keep her more healthy than perhaps she would like to be, with their walks along the riverfront morning and night, and now that she is retired, she is trying to write the novel she has always felt was in her and drinking a little too much wine. Occasionally her young friend Kristoffer Sigh Gravgaard drops by, like a homeless teenager, for a day or a week. Kristoffer is an enigmatic young man who works with costuming at the Danish Royal Theater, gives singing lessons, which is how he met and became friends with Esther and the other residents of Klosterstraede 12, and he loves to cook. When Esther has a party, which is more frequent now that she is retired, Kristoffer is her caterer and Kristoffer and Julie handle serving the guests.

Just under Esther is twenty-year resident Gregers Hermansen. Gregers, long retired,
is getting rocky on his feet and afraid the stairs are beginning to be more than he can handle but he can't stand the thought of moving. And he won't think about it, as long as he can still carry out his own trash...

On the next level down are a couple of twenty-something ladies, Caroline Boutrup, a family friend whom Esther has known since she was born, has been established in that apartment for a year and a half. A more recent resident is her hometown friend and now roommate, Julie Stender, a sweet young lady who's parents are family friends of Caroline's parents. Basically all family-type neighbors. The ground floor is now a small cafe called Java Junkie, which works out nicely for all the residents who don't like to cook.

And then Gregers trips over a bloody body while trying to carry out his trash, and has a stroke. Not a pretty picture for the staff of Java Junkie to find when they open the cafe in the morning... And with an evolving history of abusive teachers and young girls putting their babies up for adoption muddying up the clues, there is really no telling how this is going to work out. Or who will be the next victim...

A new detective series that promises to keep everyone on their toes and brings us some likable characters to follow. The series follows Copenhagen detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner as they work together (sometimes as unwilling partners) to solve crimes. In this first book, a young woman is brutally murdered and it seems to follow along with the pages that her writer landlord is putting into her new murder book. But as with most mysterious deaths....there is much more to the story and its Jeppe and Anette’s job to figure out all the clues and backstory of all the characters involved in the girl’s life. I had some problems with all the Swedish character and location names, but that goes with the story. Character development is in depth but I’m sure we will learn much more about the main character as the series evolves. The author does “glamorize” these characters and their team, and we already see that each has their own personal story with their own issues. Thanks to NetGalley and Galley/Scout Press for the opportunity to read and review this book in return for an honest review, which this has been. #NetGalley #TheTenant

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery/Scout Press, and Katrine Engberg for the opportunity to read and review this thriller - I loved it and am so excited to read more! This is the first in a series of police procedural mysteries taking place in Copenhagen. Three books have been big successes in the UK - this is a translation for release in the US and is a great addition to the Nordic/Swedish crime series. Fans of Jo Nesbo and Tana French will love this book!

We are introduced to Copenhagen detectives, Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner, as they are called to investigate the death of a young woman renting an apartment in a 3-story house. The elderly man who lived above the woman found her and it caused him to suffer a heart attack. The owner of the house, Esther, is a retired professor and a crime writer. These characters become linked when there is another murder but exactly how?

I really enjoyed these characters - especially Jeppe - and am so anxious to read more! I thought the mystery was well-written, even though it was a complicated, multi-faceted case. So glad the US is being introduced to another great writer and crime series!

I would definitely read more by this Swedish author. A young woman is murdered, brutally murdered. As the story unfolds, you are drawn in to the lives of the police investigators. I get the feeling these characters will continue on in the author's next book with the next crime that needs solving.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book!
The Tenant tells the story of those surrounding a murdered woman, including her landlady, Esther. As it turns out, Esther is in the process of writing a book based on that young girl; a book in which she is murdered in the same fashion in which it was truly done. Naturally, she had a hand in the murder, right?
I started this book not really sure what to expect, and do think there were some points where it dragged a bit, but once I knew enough of what was going on, I was invested about 1/4 of the way through the book. The author gave depth to the characters in a way that helped you to be interested in them, but didn't overshadow the plot. This book was different from anything I've ever read and I appreciate the intricacy of how everything fit together at the end. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a good crime mystery.

A young woman is found brutally murdered in her Copenhagen apartment. The police have few clues and no leads, except that the owner of the building was writing a crime novel that exactly mirrors the murder. The plot was complex and original, and I was looking forward to some good dark Scandinavian noir, like something by Jo Nesbo. But it was all over the place – there was too much going on, too much unnecessary backstory. Too much time was spent on the angst of one of the detectives, and almost no time was spent with the other one. I found both of the detectives in this police procedural to be unlikeable, and neither one seems to be very good at their jobs or enjoy what they do. This is the first book in a new series, and hopefully subsequent titles will be more developed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

I have to admit when I started this book I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. However, after the first chapter - I got sucked right into it.

The novel starts with the murder of a young girl, followed by another murder of her friend. Copenhagen detectives Korner and Werner were assigned to resolve the mystery of the double murder, and the more they looked into the past of the young girl - the more twisted it became: young pregnancy, affairs with older men, and more murders.

And the frightening (and in my opinion the best) part of it all - the murder was written a month before the victim's death by her very own landlady. Shocker, I know! This little twist spiced up the storyline.

This book held my interest from beginning to end. I had a few issues along the way with the characters and plot, but none of those issues were enough to ruin the reading experience. Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press publisher for a free and advanced copy of the novel.

This was my first Nordic Noir novel and while I didn't hate it, it wasn't my favorite either. It follows two police detectives as they try to stop a crazed murderer. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣It definitely focused on the police side of things which I actually found really interesting! ⁣⁣ But I felt some parts were just really slow or unnecessary and then other parts I found myself flipping through the pages quickly to find out what happens next!
After all of that ⁣⁣it was kind of obvious in the end who the killer was which was disappointing for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Scout Press for my advanced copy!

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg is her first American book although she is widely read in her native Denmark. This is a fairly dark mystery/police procedural. It gets very complicated with lots of subplots and seemingly minute details that turn out to be foreshadowing. This was an excellent novel and I look forward to more. An elderly man (Gregers) lives on the second floor of three. He is slowly making his way to the first floor to dispose of a full garbage bag when he notices the back door of the first floor apartment is ajar. He is concerned so he opened the door and started to enter when he discovered he wasn't strong enough to keep upright so he fell into the apartment. As he tries to right himself he senses he is lying on a shoe. As he tries to move it he realizes it is attached to a leg. He is in a panic; he believed he was going to die. He does indeed have a heart attack as he lies there. Fortunately the young men from the business on the ground floor discover all of this and call the police. It was a gruesome crime scene that Detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner enter after being called upon by the first responders: blood everywhere and gruesome carvings in the body of the victim. So many, they couldn't tell what she looked like. Shortly after they arrived at the third floor apartment of Esther de Laurenti, a retired college professor and aspiring mystery writer. Also a burgeoning alcoholic, which is why they had had to awaken her to give her the news of the murder.

This is truly an amazing book. Filled with misdirection and personal angst, it is a page-turner. As we come to the end and one item falls into place, the others follow for the reader a quickly as for the police. The major characters are well-written and well-rounded and the minor characters are filled out to an amazing degree. The Tenant deserves to be a best seller. It is a book to be reader and savored. I highly recommend it.

I received a free ARC of the Tenant from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #thetenant

Copenhagen police detectives, Jeppe and Anette, are assigned to the murder of a young woman in The Tenant. The woman, Julie, was brutally killed in her apartment. There are a number of suspects. But why was the same murder scenario previously written by the landlady in her unpublished thriller. Could she be reenacting her plot in real life?

I expect a certain dark foreboding in my Scandinavian detective thrillers. Unfortunately, that feeling was missing in this book. In fact, it has a distinctly upbeat feeling that may increase tourism to Copenhagen.

However, if you avoid my erroneous assumption, The Tenant is a well-plotted police procedural set in a beautiful country rarely used in thrillers. The plot sets a good pace. The perpetrator was a genuine surprise to me. The characterizations, especially of the two main characters, are spot-on. They will make me return for the next book in the series. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thanks to Scout Press, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

“The Tenant” by Kathrine Engberg raises attention-grabbing questions. What are the implications when an author’s work-in-process becomes an actual murder? Of all the crime novels in the world, why that one? Is the writer the culprit or is it someone who read the manuscript? A body of a young woman is found in a Copenhagen apartment, and the owner of the house, Esther de Laurenti, a writer working on a murder mystery, is incredulous; “No one dies in my building.” However, someone did.

Engberg’s detailed descriptions make the characters and settings familiar, alive, functional, and relatable. The focus of the investigation is the sensational crime, the murder of the tenant, but the heart of story is the people surrounding the horrible crime. Every point of view is given, every emotion described, every possibility explored.
The investigation is guided by Investigative Lead Jeppe Kørner and Detective Anette Werner. The pace is steady with the entire investigation taking just over one week; chapters are noted with the date. The investigation is conducted in a systematic, detailed manner with professionals in various fields rotating in and out of the story. The police uncover lots of information, some of it vital, some of it tangential, and some unrelated. Other bodies keep turning up, and multiple people claim responsibility for the same deaths. Clues point in a thousand different directions, and unusual revelations complicate an already complicated case.
“The Tenant” is filled with oddly shaped puzzle pieces that do not seem to fit anywhere, until the startling ending. I received a review copy of “The Tenant” from Kathrine Engberg, Gallery, Pocket Books, and Scout Press. Engberg created a complicated story and yet paid meticulous attention to details, thus creating a compelling book for readers and writers.

Julie ends up dead with mysterious carvings on her body and the other tenants of the building help connect the dots for the police case. It is clearly Nordic Noir mystery and settings of Copenhagen is interesting. The plot starts off years ago and come into light at various sections of the book. The owner of the building Esther has an interesting personality and adds a certain different flavour to the book. She is shown as a writer still making way through her draft plot and that exact plot is happening in the life of her tenant Julie.

Though there were two detectives, only one seemed to be more described in the plot. I liked the other detective Annette and she was not given much importance. It was good but based on the summary I expected it to be even better.

It was interesting and a fast read!

The Tenant is a delicious Nordic Noir. This debut novel from Katrine Engberg begins with the discovery of a gruesome murder scene and follows a windy road to discovery.

Upon retirement, professor Esther de Laurenti pursues writing the novel she has always dreamed of publishing. Her life is a little lonely and a lot boozy, but she has her lovely tenants, her singing coach, and her writers’ group. Her life is upended when one tenant stumbles across a murder scene in another apartment.

Detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are excellent foils, and their banter provides a bit of levity to an otherwise serious matter. Korner is moody and affected by his philandering soon-to-be ex-wife while Werner is practical and positive (and still in love with her husband). As facts of the murder are revealed and Esther de Laurenti realizes that the murder follows her work-in-progress quite closely, the web of deceit that Korner, Werner and their colleagues must wade through nearly strangles them. The red herrings, false starts and obstruction of justice create an understandable level of frustration for the team and allow the reader to hypothesize on various culprits and motives.

The cast of suspects and persons of interest are colorful and artsy. I enjoyed Ms. Engberg’s depiction of the creative community in Copenhagen. I particularly enjoyed the attention to detail about characters and places. From the inclusion of much-loved coffee and licorice to discussion of the high rate of taxation and the mediocrity of socialized medicine, Ms. Engberg gives her readers a realistic taste of Danish culture.

The Tenant is an engaging murder mystery and a good start to a detective series. A fairly well-paced plot and interesting characters kept me reading even though some plot points required a high level of suspension-of-disbelief. I look forward to reading more about Korner and Werner’s cases in the future!