Published by Orenda Books on 15th May 2017 in Paperback. My thanks to Karen at Orenda for the review copy and Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour.
Evil remembers…
Falkenberg, Sweden. The mutilated body of talented young
jewellery designer, Linnea Blix, is found in a snow-swept marina.
Hampstead Heath, London. The body of a young boy is
discovered with similar wounds to Linnea's.
Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of
the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a
human again.
Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they
connected to shocking events at Buchenwald?
Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian
Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea's friend, French truecrime
writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They
travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past,
as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.
Plumbing the darkness and the horrific evidence of the nature of
evil, Block 46 is a multi-layered, sweeping and evocative thriller
that heralds a stunning new voice in French Noir.
My Thoughts:
Block 46 is a book that has been expertly translated by Maxim Jakubowski. The writing flowed seamlessly.
This book held me completely and utterly transfixed from the first page to the last. It is shocking and daring, real and raw. I have been trying to gather my thoughts for the last couple of hours, but I am still stunned by what a talented writer Johana Gustawsson is.
This is a complex story with many, many layers. One layer is the investigation and hunt for a depraved serial killer. Another layer is the concentration camp of Buchenwald during Nazi Occupation. The two stories are inextricably linked but the author is a master of her craft in revealing this to the reader piece by piece.
Set in London, Germany, and Sweden. This added to the size and enormity of the events that take place within the short, sharp chapters. There are a lots of characters all that worked well and added to the remarkable plot. The pace of the story is perfect, never stilted nor moving to rapidly.
There is violence within the pages, for some it will shock and for all it should. Violence that isn't in any way gratuitous, but is the vehicle by which the story is told. We all know that terrible events occurred at concentration camps. Events that should never be forgotten to people that should never be forgotten. People who's lives were forever changed and that is the ones who made it out alive.
Having visited what was a concentration camp whilst living in Germany, the sections set in 1944 moved me profoundly. Writers should never shy away from retelling the events that occurred and I admire the author immensely for the meticulous amount of research that she must have done.
The past have been perfectly blended with the present when dead bodies start to turn up, young boys and Linnea a talented Jewellery designer. What links these murders with the past and can the killer be stopped before he/she strikes again.
Dark and disturbing this book has left me with much to think about. I certainly won't be forgetting it in a hurry. Characters that make your skin crawl with a convincing and intriguing plot. I also thought the working partnership between Emily Roy and Alexis Castells worked really well. There really is nothing to dislike about this book.
This is the best book I have read so far this year!
Block 46 is a book that has been expertly translated by Maxim Jakubowski. The writing flowed seamlessly.
This book held me completely and utterly transfixed from the first page to the last. It is shocking and daring, real and raw. I have been trying to gather my thoughts for the last couple of hours, but I am still stunned by what a talented writer Johana Gustawsson is.
This is a complex story with many, many layers. One layer is the investigation and hunt for a depraved serial killer. Another layer is the concentration camp of Buchenwald during Nazi Occupation. The two stories are inextricably linked but the author is a master of her craft in revealing this to the reader piece by piece.
Set in London, Germany, and Sweden. This added to the size and enormity of the events that take place within the short, sharp chapters. There are a lots of characters all that worked well and added to the remarkable plot. The pace of the story is perfect, never stilted nor moving to rapidly.
There is violence within the pages, for some it will shock and for all it should. Violence that isn't in any way gratuitous, but is the vehicle by which the story is told. We all know that terrible events occurred at concentration camps. Events that should never be forgotten to people that should never be forgotten. People who's lives were forever changed and that is the ones who made it out alive.
Having visited what was a concentration camp whilst living in Germany, the sections set in 1944 moved me profoundly. Writers should never shy away from retelling the events that occurred and I admire the author immensely for the meticulous amount of research that she must have done.
The past have been perfectly blended with the present when dead bodies start to turn up, young boys and Linnea a talented Jewellery designer. What links these murders with the past and can the killer be stopped before he/she strikes again.
Dark and disturbing this book has left me with much to think about. I certainly won't be forgetting it in a hurry. Characters that make your skin crawl with a convincing and intriguing plot. I also thought the working partnership between Emily Roy and Alexis Castells worked really well. There really is nothing to dislike about this book.
This is the best book I have read so far this year!
About the Author:
Born in 1978 in Marseille and with a degree in political
science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for
the French press and television. She married a Swede and
now lives in London. She was the co-author of a bestseller,
On se retrouvera, published by Fayard Noir in France, whose
television adaptation drew over 7 million viewers in June
2015. She is working on the next book in the Roy & Castells
series.
You can find Johana on Twitter: @JoGustawsson
Please have a look at the author stops on the blog tour:
Please have a look at the author stops on the blog tour:
No comments:
Post a Comment