The Corpse Flower is a stunning example of Nordic Noir, which took me right back to the first books that made me fall in love with this genre. An incredibly dark subject matter, investigating old secrets, a string of murders and a collection of determined characters in a story that is set against the archetypal backdrop of Copenhagen. The story is based around three main characters - Journalist Heloise Kaldan, Detective Erik Schäfer and the mysterious Anna Kiel - who find themselves in a complex cat-and-mouse game as a mystery from the past comes crashing into the present day.

Anna is wanted for the murder of a lawyer and Detective Schäfer has been waiting for the opportunity to arrest her ever since she fled the murder scene. After three years in hiding, Anna sends a cryptic letter to Heloise which gives the impression that the pair are connected somehow. Desperate for a hot story to report on, Heloise speaks to a former colleague who was the lead reporter during the original investigation, and after warning her to stay away from the case, he is found dead in his apartment. This prompts Heloise and Detective Schäfer to begin unravelling a disturbing web of lies, cover-ups and violence which could have personal and devastating repercussions for them both.

This story was beautifully written, multi-layered, intense and fast-paced - it hooked me from the first page and I couldn't bring myself to put it down, what a powerful and emotional debut!

happy 1st of december everyone!! it’s been so long since I’ve been active on this page, I thought it’s about time I updated you with all my reads before it’s the new year! 🤭

I finished #thecorpseflower way back in august (I know, a century ago) and it honestly left me with chills for days (maybe even weeks) afterwards… 💀

It’s set in Denmark, and follows the story of a journalist, Héloïse, uncovering a murder - a murder in which the killer, Anna, has been wanted for the past 3 years - and there seems to be some sort of connection between the two.

This was a brilliant story and really kept me on edge, but I’d go so far as to say it verges on being a bit gruesome and horror like! That’s the only reason it’s missing a 5 star review from me - dark thrillers aren’t my fave. Other than that, a brilliant read to keep you hooked!

This book was released in October so add it to your Christmas wishlist asap - thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for the advanced readers copy 🤍

The Corpse Flower follows a danish journalist named Heloise. Heloise is in trouble at work because one of her sources was caught lying and she is close to losing her job over it. To make matters worse, she starts receiving letters from Anna Kiel who is wanted for fatally stabbing a young, wealthy lawyer a few years prior.

As Heloise starts digging into this murder, she uncovers a lot of shady stuff involving some very wealthy and dangerous people. She has trust issues because of her source and her mysterious past and she is somehow connected to Anna Kiel which puts her at the center of this case.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I’m realizing that Nordic noir is one of my favorite genres so I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this. I love how dark and mysterious this was and I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of the story. Definitely recommend if you enjoy a dark thriller.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3825827607

StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f9eef4b6-21f5-4c9a-af64-b60cd7fa0b04

3 or 3.5 stars I’m not sure, but this was a super quick and engaging read. I had fun with most of it - it was just a hit out of my usually thriller reads.

This was a super fast paced read for me, somewhere between thriller and police procedural. I really enjoyed the story as it unfolded. I blew right through this book, but it felt like a slow burn all at the same time.

It’s been four years since Anne Mette Hancock debuted in Denmark with Ligblomsten. What started off as a new crime series, the Kaldan and Schäfer mysteries, has grown into, so far, a series of three books. Thanks to Crooked Lane books and Tara Chase’s translation English readers can now also enjoy the first of the series, The Corpse Flower (Ligblomsten).

Journalist Heloise Kaldan’s career is at a turning point. After breaking a controversial story for her newspaper, the Demokratisk Dagblad, it comes to light that her anonymous source has lied, and Heloise and the newspaper’s reputations are in jeopardy. To add insult to injury Heloise’s source, Martin Duvall, the head of communications at the Ministry of Commerce, is also her lover. The betrayal is both professional and personal and leaves her on unsteady ground.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/11/14/the-corpse-flower-anne-mette-hancock/

I really enjoyed this one. Especially the insane ending. I felt myself almost hoping for either a sequel or an adaptation to be made. I would love to read this one again, or more from this author.

Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan knows she won't lose her job after an expose she wrote is revealed to be inaccurate. She knows she secure, but it isn't her security at work that she's worried about. A letter has arrived from Anna Kiel, the famed murderer that's been missing since she was last spotted on a security camera at the scene of the crime. The letter is confusing, written in a unique way, but refers to a connection that Heloise can't help but want to know about. What follows is a mixture of journalistic investigating and police procedural.

While The Corpse Flower starts off quite slow, like many Scandinavian thrillers there is a lot of detail given up front, it picks up in pace about 40% in and doesn't let up until the very last page. Heloise is a likeable character and while I initially was hesitant about Officer Schafer, I grew to love his dedication to his work. The Corpse Flower, named after a truly unique species of flower, is a murder mystery, a thriller, and a crime novel all rolled into one. There is a lot going on, and even more characters to remember, but it is a truly classic Nordic Noir style novel. Impossible to put down with page after page filled with the truly gory details that mark a Nordic police procedural.

I absolutely could not guess this book, we're given the bad guy from the start, but Anna's reasonings are revealed over time and by the end, well you'll have to read to see if you feel the same. The atmosphere in this one, the red herrings, the topic...it's all just done incredibly well and if you like your reads unpredictable and moody, The Corpse Flower is the novel to pick up.

The Corpse Flower is the debut novel by Anne Mette Hancock. I’ve really enjoyed the plot, pacing and character development.

Héloïse is a journalist who has received letters by a murderer on the run claiming to be innocent and needing Héloïse’s help to tell her story - the alleged real story behind the gruesome murder of a a son of a wealthy businessman with dark ties and shady dealings.

True to her craft Héloïse is curious and can’t help but become involved. Even when those who hold keys to unlock this mystery wind up dead.

This is a thrilling and gripping story that kept me fighting through many weeks of not having much time, motivation and energy to read. So, that’s really saying something!!

Trigger warning ⚠️
Child abuse, sexual abuse, rape, pedophilia, gender based violence

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock is a nordic thriller and the very first one I have read. Murderer Anna Kiel gets in to contact with Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan via cryptic letters sent from different locations. Kaldan begins investigating the case and finds out very interesting things along the way. Anna is wanted for the murder of a young lawyer Mossing and has been on the run for three years. Did she commit the murder or was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? We get introduced to Detective Eric Schaefer who was dealing with the Kiel/Mossing case originally. I loved the character development in this book and the twists and tuns the story line took. It kept me invested one hundred percent.

The story fits together like a perfect little jigsaw puzzle and I absolutely loved the ‘aha’ moments along the way. This book has been translated from Danish and reads like a dream. Anne Mette Hancock’s first novel and it definitely won’t be the last on I read from the author.

The Corpse Flower, the English translation of a classic Danish thriller, Kaldan og Schäfer #1, is a dark, compelling thriller that starts with a fascinating premise and blooms into a full-blown den of secrets.

A corpse flower is also known as the penis plant. It smells like rotten flesh. Its nickname refers to the shape of the bloom. The same week that The Corpse Flower was released, a penis plant bloomed in the Netherlands, marking only the third time that species has bloomed in Europe since 1997. It is ugly and smells like rotting flesh.

So why are people fascinated with the flower? As a character in the book points out, it’s because the corpse flower has evolved to survive.

The flower is a fitting symbol for this excellent crime story. I knew it was going to get uglier, but I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to look away.

A lawyer from a powerful and wealthy family was murdered, and security footage showed Anna Kiel covered in blood and walking away from the building. Anna was to undergo trial for the murder, but she vanished without a trace. Three years later, Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan suddenly receives cryptic letters signed by Anna. Those letters prompt an investigation to revisit the cold case and figure out how it triggers later events.

Throughout the novel, Anne Mette Hancock introduces new characters with seemingly different secrets and deftly connects each to the story. All of the characters were connected to the plot in some way, and their thoughts and actions made sense. We see how these characters have evolved to survive. The tight story starts dark and gets even darker as Kaldan and Detective Erik Schäfer work to uncover the mystery of the letters and ultimately the truth behind the lawyer’s murder.

Hancock set the right mood as she dragged me deeper and deeper into the plot. The story grows more horrifying as it progresses toward the explosive climax. The resolution reasonably ties up the major plot issues. While the reader is aware of the characters’ secrets, there are still plenty that are hidden from other characters. Those secrets could impact future books in the series. At least I hope they do.

The Corpse Flower is smelly and ugly and fascinating, just like the actual flower. It is also well-written and enthralling and a wonderful choice for thriller seekers.

I enjoyed the majority of the book, but the "twist" at the end seemed unfittingly dark as compared to the rest of the book. I had a hard time relating to a lot of the decisions that the characters made.

Before I get into my review, some of you all may not know what a corpse flower is. So here’s a definition of it:

a tropical perennial herb (Amorphophallus titanum) of the arum family that is native to Sumatra and produces a tall, erect, yellowish-white spadix partly enclosed by a showy, white-spotted, green spathe which opens during bloom to reveal a reddish-purple interior and emit an odor of rotting flesh

Ok. School is over. Did we learn anything? No? Okay carrying on. This book was good, but also a struggle for me. Mainly because this whole month i have been in a massive reading slump. I’d pick up a book and put it down, and continuously do this for about 3 or 4 books. But with CF i made sure to push through at my own pace and finish it when i can. And that happened at 12:37 this morning friends.

I am a sucker for a thriller that takes place in a foreign country, mainly anywhere in Europe where i cannot pronounce any of the cities. I love the imagery authors give in these settings because i truly feel like i have been transported into that city. I’m also a sucker for a thriller that follows a journalist who gets letters from murders and somewhat works with the cops to unfold a mystery as to why someone was killed.

I started to piece together what happened and who all was involved by 80-85% of the book, and for the most part, i was correct, which was very satisfying. HOWEVER! I wish i had just one more chapter to give it a nice pretty bow at the end. But i am excited to read the next book in this series and see if they will continue with this story, or if it’ll be an entirely different story with the same characters.

I enjoyed this suspenseful story. This is a newer author for me which I enjoyed her writing skills from beginning to end. She pulled me into her story by her use of details that gave the story a realistic feel. This is a well written story that has characters that not only brought the story to life but kept it engaging. I found this book to be a fast paced, action filled story that makes the characters go back to the past and dark secrets. I enjoyed the growth of the characters and the plot throughout the story. This is a great story that was fun and entertaining to read. It made a great story for a gloomy afternoon read. Find out what happens when Anna is confronted by someone she swore she would never see again? How dark is her past? This really is a great story that I truly enjoyed. I highly recommend this book.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo meets Sharp Objects" was a great way to describe this book, the characters were great and I loved the mystery in this book.,

Dark, twisty, and perfectly paced, this was a book that really drew me in. I loved the complexity of Heloise, the reporter drawn into a story after she receives letters from a murderer on the lam. The woman claims that Heloise has a personal connection to the story, and the reader is carried along for the ride as Heloise discovers just what that connection is.
I read it within a day!

I loved the writing style of this novel. The author is a word artist and paints her story on the pages. The plot was very good and kept me engaged. I look forward to more of this author’s work.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Heloise Kaldan is a journalist looking for her next big story to write. But before she has time to begin working her next piece, she’s getting chewed out by her boss for having written a story that wasn’t completely true. In fact, she didn’t do her due diligence for the piece. Her ass is on the line for real and Heloise isn’t sure what she can do to fix this grave error.

While she’s wondering if she still has a job or not, she receives a strange letter that, at first glance, appears as though this person knows her personally and what was even more disturbing, the letter was from Anna Kiel. Who is Anna Kiel? She’s wanted for murdering a high-profiled attorney three years prior. Why would Anna Kiel write to a journalist? How is it she seems to know intricate details about Heloise’s life when Heloise never met Anna Kiel?

As the reader continues to journey through all the clues and evidence, one thing becomes clear rather quickly, it appears as though Heloise isn’t telling the complete truth about what she knows and is closer to the alleged murderess than at first thought.

I’m a little on the fence with this book. I loved the idea of what the story lends to the reader, but I found it a bit boring in sections. I’m not exactly sure where the disconnect came for me, but it just didn’t seem to live up to the hype. I’ve never read this author before and her writing style is pretty strong, but I think since this book had been translated to English, perhaps some of what I needed was lost in translation. I’m not completely sure?

It’s frustrating to explain what I mean about this book. It’s not a bad book. It’s a good read and one that any avid reader can work their way through, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

A murder, a reporter, a missing suspect, a retaliation

“The Corpse Flower” revolves around a murder, either a cold case or a solved case in which the perpetrator escaped. For a reporter, solving this very complicated case would definitely be the next “big” story. The opening scene grabs readers as Anna dreams about killing him, running the blade across his throat.

The story unfolds in alternating points of view so readers know what the characters do not. Characters are approaching the same problem but from different directions. Heloise Kaldan needs to repair her reputation as a reporter after her prominent story went terribly wrong. Someone has something important to show Police Detective Sergeant Erik Schäfer that relates to a murder he investigated three years ago. A security camera shows Anna Kiel covered in blood. Relationships and people are not as they seem on the surface. Connections are hidden at first, but then become crystal clear. People never forget, and revenge runs deep.

“The Corpse Flower” is not about a simple case; chapters are both cryptic and revealing. Implications There are unanswered questions, complicated implications, and buried secrets, all waiting to be resolved. I received a review copy of “The Corpse Flower” from Anne Mette Hancock and Crooked Lane Books. The story, like the title flower, is pretending to be something it is not. It is surprising on every page.

Journalist Heloise Kaldan (the h is silent!) receives a series of cryptic letters from an alleged killer. Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years previously, Anna Kiel hasn't been seen since she left the crime scene covered in blood. The reporter who first wrote about the case is found murdered in his apartment and homicide detective Erik Schafer starts to investigate. Each of these characters becomes linked as the story progresses and it progresses at a rapid pace.

This novel is translated from the Danish and is really well written with short chapters that just seemed to fly by. The culmination of this twisty story was a real jaw-dropper for me but very well done. I enjoyed the characters, especially Heloise (did I mention the h is silent?!). I understand there are two more books in this series so far and I'm looking forward to their translation. I feel it's necessary to issue a trigger warning but I don't want to give anything away so just be prepared. Highly recommended.

The book contains some interesting information about the corpse flower although the flower doesn't really have a lot to do with the plot other than the statement that "... the corpse flower pretends to be something it isn't ...", much like some of the characters in the book.

Appreciation to Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an uncorrected proof of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Published October 12, 2021