Ruthless

by Anne Mette Hancock

Overview

For fans of Jo Nesbø and Katrine Engberg, international bestselling author Anne Mette Hancock’s third thrilling novel in the series Harlan Coben calls “the best series I’ve read this year,” is a pulse-pounding Scandinavian noir about secrets, buried truths, and what happens when we go digging into the past.

When Jan Frischof, a dying elderly man, gives a deathbed confession too unbelievable to be true, journalist Heloise Kaldan immediately knows there’s a deeper story to uncover. Her gut soon proves to be right—Jan immediately backtracks and warns her that they will both be in danger if she asks any more questions. Could this kind and elderly man really be a cold-blooded killer?

Heloise quickly realizes that this is a darker, and far more complicated, investigation. Jan is clearly afraid of something, but who or what he’s afraid of could be a dangerous question for Heloise to find the answer to. As she digs deeper, Heloise begins to see that Jan's confession is connected to a string decades-old disappearances. But next of kin and police are lying to her at every turn, and she has no idea what else Jan could be hiding.

Enlisting her friend, detective inspector Erik Schäfer, Heloise begins her descent into the past, unsure of what she will unearth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639104895
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Series:	A Kaldan and Scháfer Mystery , #3
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	398,243
Product dimensions:	5.77(w) x 8.53(h) x 1.16(d)

About the Author

Anne Mette Hancock made her debut as an author in 2017 with The Corpse Flower. This poignant suspense novel debuted at #1 on the Danish bestseller charts. She was awarded the Danish Crime Academy's debutant prize and was named Author of the Year in Demark.

Editorial Reviews

08/07/2023

Hancock’s uneven third outing for Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan (after 2022’s The Collector) starts with a vague deathbed confession from the terminally ill Jan Fischoff, with whom Kaldan has bonded while writing a story about hospice care. Fischoff tells Kaldan that he’s fearful of hell, and mumbles something about “Mads Orek.” After some light research, Kaldan discovers that a man named Mázorek drowned in the late 1990s in Fischoff’s hometown in southern Jutland. Though the death was ruled an accident, Kaldan believes there’s a cold case mystery to solve; her editor disagrees, but she takes time off work to investigate anyway. Her suspicions pay off after she arrives in Jutland and slowly uncovers a web of criminal activity related to missing young women, prostitution, trafficking, and murder. Though Kaldan’s usual investigative partner, Det. Erik Schäfer, stays back in Copenhagen to field unrelated cases, he gets more involved as the story unfolds. Hancock is a strong stylist, and she generates real suspense while giving such serious themes as elder care and violence against women their due. Unfortunately, she bogs down the central mystery with too many subplots, and brings everything to a muddy, unsatisfying conclusion. Series fans will hope for a return to form next time out. Agent: Anna Frankl, Nordin Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Ruthless:
“Hancock saves a whopper for the deceptively quiet climax.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Scandinavian noir fans of writers like Jo Nesbø will love this dark tale.”
—Booklist

Praise for the Kaldan and Scháfer Mystery series:
“Gripping, endearing, dark, and funny, Anne Mette Hancock has written the best series I've read this year.”
—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Hancock writes with a razor-sharp pen, wittily and with originality. I simply adore her books.”
—Katrine Engberg, #1 international bestselling author of The Tenant

“A guaranteed page-turner.”
—Emelie Schepp, international bestselling author of the Jana Berzelius series

"Anne Mette Hancock has written a killer book. This one has it all—a great story, compelling characters, and a page-turning plot."
—Harry Hunsicker, author of The Devil’s Country

“Absolutely wonderful. Superbly constructed and totally enthralling.”
—Helene Tursten, author of Snowdrift

“Structurally flawless.”
—The Washington Post

“If you enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you will thoroughly enjoy this [Danish]  thriller full of action, family secrets, and intrigue.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune, Recommended Reads

“Scandinavian noir at its noirest. It’s hard, maybe unthinkable, to imagine how Hancock will follow it up.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“[A] gripping debut . . . Assured prose matches the intricate plot. Hancock is off to a strong start.”
—Publishers Weekly

 “A cat-and-mouse race against a killer.”
—Jules Herbert, B&N Reads

“[A] tense sequel . . . [Hancock] does a good job portraying her leads’ complex motivations. Scandi noir fans will want to stay tuned.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A suitably nightmarish snap . . . reads like top-line American procedurals.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Intricate, well-constructed suspense, with a sophisticated premise.”
—New York Journal of Books

“If you enjoy Scandinavian crime stories, you will definitely want to check [it] out.”
—San Francisco Book Review, 5-star review

“A fantastic psychological thriller . . . Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French.”
—Seattle Book Review

From the Publisher

2023-08-25
A dementia patient dying of cancer in a nursing home holds the key to the third case for Copenhagen DS Erik Schäfer and Demokratisk Dagblad reporter Heloise Kaldan.

Heloise, who’s been visiting Jan Fischhof repeatedly for an article about a charitable group called Vigil, is spooked when, called to his bedside by a volunteer convinced that he’s at death’s door, she hears him mutter something about “Mads Orek” and his fear that he’ll be held accountable for his wrongdoings. Jan’s feeble attempts at backtracking the next time she sees him convinces Heloise that she needs to dive into the case of small-time criminal Tom Mázoreck, who drowned when his boat caught fire back in 1998. Confronted by Mogens Bøttner, a former colleague turned supervisor who forbids her to work the story further, she abruptly announces that she’s taking a week off. Schäfer meanwhile is challenged by superstar forensic scientist Jakob Sandahl, who blithely maintains that has-been jazz great Lester Wilkins’ bloody death was due to natural causes. So unlike virtually every other police officer in Denmark, he’s ready to work intermittently with Heloise, who links Mázoreck’s death to the vanishing a year or two earlier of Mia Sark, 19, and Nina Dalsfort, 17. Both disappearances are also connected to gang leader Jes Decker, whose pit bull met a condign fate soon after he attacked Mázoreck. Jes has mostly settled into a managerial role, but his son, René, makes no secret of his desire for Heloise to let sleeping dogs lie. As the investigation moves forward, there seems to be less and less room for surprises, but Hancock saves a whopper for the deceptively quiet climax.

A model of the police/reporter partnership that’s especially effective in managing the counterpoint between its two leads.

Kirkus Reviews