Slow Burn
ââ?¬Ë?Tell me, are we in the middle of some f***ing crime novel, or what?ââ?¬â?¢
If you haven�t already noticed from my blog and Goodreads profile, I am very partial to crime novels. Although I have written before on some of the pitfalls of the genre, it is still one that I hold close to my heart and in general I tend to find such books engaging and easy reads. The Tenant is the first in a Scandi noir crime thriller series and I was excited to dive into it.
Unfortunately, The Tenant fell very flat on my expectations for a number of reasons. It�s hard to pinpoint exactly what is so wrong with the story when it comes to a work that has been translated. I think the translation wasn�t as good as it could have been, it felt clunky in places whereas other books that I have read like this you would hardly know they�ve been translated at all. The book is also too long and drawn out with not enough happening to keep my interest piqued. It also got tiring when so many people were presented as red herring suspects. I honestly think that nearly every character you meet is spun as a possible suspect by the end of the book.
I also didn�t like how the blurb spells out a minor spoiler about the crime being linked to a plot of a book one of the characters is writing (and even who that character is). As this isn�t revealed properly until quite a way into the story it ruined the suspense the book had tried to build up until that point.
The two main characters Korner and Werner are interesting, although they fulfilled the trope I have talked about on my blog before as ââ?¬Ë?DI OldSchool GrizzleMan and his partner DC Woman WithIssuesââ?¬â?¢. Korner is certainly DI OldSchool GrizzleMan with a recent divorce and a substance abuse of painkillers. He does feel refreshingly real though and we see some bad decisions in terms of relationships from him which I think may come back to haunt him in later books. As this is the first book in the series, there is a lot more focus on Jeppe than Annette so hopefully she will be more of a feature in latter books.
Overall, The Tenant isn�t the best opening to a crime thriller series that I�ve read but hopefully it will pick up for the next installment. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
