Book Review: The Collector

 

For fans of Katrine Engberg and Lars Kepler, the second chilling novel in Anne Mette Hancock’s #1 bestselling Danish crime series is a psychological whirlwind that explores the nature of truth and what it means when we can no longer trust what we know to be real.

When 10-year-old Lukas disappears from his Copenhagen school, police investigators discover that the boy had a peculiar obsession with pareidolia—a phenomenon that makes him see faces in random things. A photo on his phone posted just hours before his disappearance shows an old barn door that resembles a face. Journalist Heloise Kaldan thinks she recognizes the barn—but from where?

When Luke’s blood-flecked jacket is found in the moat at Copenhagen’s Citadel, DNA evidence points to Thomas Strand, an ex-soldier suffering from severe PTSD. But then Strand turns up dead in his apartment, shot in the head execution style.

What did the last person to see Lukas really witness that morning in the school yard? Was it really Lukas, or an optical illusion? Can you ever truly trust your eyes?

My Review

This is my first introduction to author, Anne Mette Hancock. After reading this book, I really want to go back and check out book one, The Corpse Flower. While I was reading this book, I was getting vibes of another Danish author, David Newson. He is the author of The Killing that was made into a television series by the same name. The show is sadly no more.

As soon as I started reading, I immediately got sucked into this book. To the fact that I literally finished it in a matter of a few hours in one sitting. Heloise and Schafer both had different ways of investigating the case of the missing child. It was intriguing to get both viewpoints. 

I honestly had no clue as to where the story was going to take me. In other words, I never saw the ending coming. Which is the biggest reveal of this story. A strong ending to a strong story with The Collector!