PUNISHMENT
Anne Holt
Publisher: Sphere
ISBN: 9780 – 7515 – 3714 – 7
July 5, 2007
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BOOK REVIEW
Anne Holt’s Punishment is a suspenseful and sophisticated crime
novel that is the first of a series, with the author’s first series
having sold over three million books, and this new book already selling
well over half a million copies in Europe. Having read Punishment, it
is easy to understand why.
A serial killer is on the loose in Norway - a killer of the worst kind.
He is abducting children and murdering them - in an undetectable
way that confounds the police. He then returns the child's body to
the mother with a desperately cruel note: You Got What You Deserved.
It is a perplexing and terrible case, and Police Superintendent Adam
Stubo is the unlucky man in charge of finding the killer before he
strikes again. There doesn't seem to be any clear connection between
the victims, and with the mode of death so obscure, his job seems
impossible. In desperation he decides to recruit legal researcher
Johanne Vik, a woman with an extensive knowledge and understanding
of criminal history. So far the killer has abducted three children,
but one child has not yet been returned to her mother. Is there a
chance she is still alive?
With characters that literally breathe into the reader’s airspace, Anne Holt has quite simply brought the embodiment of Norway’s police to life, with more than enough delicate description of the country for its full beauty to become apparent.
Tight, gritty and full of intrigue,
here is a novel that demands to be read from the moment it is picked
up and opened, although the final
fifty or so pages are more telling than showing which is always a
little disappointing. With that said, however, Punishment remains a
fine novel
and one that is guaranteed to keep the reader thinking long after
it has been finished.
8/10
Order this book online - Linghams Booksellers
break the rules as I see fit.” - Chris High 2003.