After a six-year-old girl is found dressed up like a doll and hanging from a tree, police investigator Holger Munch rebuilds his disbanded Oslo Violent Crimes unit. Once he has located and brought brilliant detective Mia Krüger back from her self-imposed exile, Munch rounds out the team with colleagues both old and new, including Gabriel, a bright young computer hacker who has just been recruited to the force. When more girls go missing, the team race against the clock to find the killer before it's too late. Mia's deductive skills rival those of Sherlock Holmes, but even she is having trouble getting to the bottom of this mystery that may involve one of Munch's old unsolved investigations, a nursing home, a famous actor, and a religious cult. It soon becomes apparent that the killer has a special grudge against Munch and Mia. VERDICT A breath of fresh air in the crowded Scandinavian crime genre, this suspenseful novel (the first of the author's works to be published in United States) by Bjork, the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright, and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Oien, will hook readers early and keep them on the edge of their seat until the final pages. Fans of Jo Nesbo are sure to enjoy the flawed yet likable characters. [See Prepub Alert, 8/24/15.]-Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Bjork (the pen name of Norwegian novelist Frode Sander Oien) makes his U.S. debut with this brooding serial killer thriller. Oslo detectives Holger Munch, a math nerd who dotes on his six-year-old granddaughter, and Mia Krüger, a brilliant profiler who has burned out on her disheartening job and is on the verge of self-destruction, are on the trail of a murderer, whose first victim, a six-year-old girl, was found hanging from a tree by a jump rope, perfectly bathed and groomed, dressed in doll clothing. Similar killings follow. Munch and Krüger realize that they're dealing with a resourceful perpetrator who plans meticulously and seems always to be a step ahead of them. Krüger eventually discovers that the killer may have a personal vendetta, and when Munch's granddaughter is threatened, she and Munch must gaze into their own pasts for crucial clues. Bjork doles out characterization and exposition in multiparagraph lumps, but harrowing and enthralling action sequences more than compensate. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Children stolen and dressed like dolls before they're murdered bring suicidal detective Mia Kruger out of hiding and back to police work in Bjrk's complicated, yet compelling, tale. Mia, excoriated by the media when she killed her dead sister's drug dealer, is biding her time, counting the days until she can kill herself. But her old police boss, Holger Munch, has different ideas. He needs Miaa genius at reading crime scenesto help him solve the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old girl. The girl, wearing a backpack and a sign around her neck that says, "I am traveling alone," was found hanging in a tree. Now, Munch fears, the murders of other children will follow. Lured back into service just 12 days from the date she had been planning to die, Mia starts finding things in the crime scene photos that others failed to see. Meanwhile, Munch is balancing his relationships with his daughter, granddaughter, and elderly mother. As Munch and Mia cobble together their old team and add a few new faces to the unit, two young brothers find another dead girl in the woods. Like the first victim, she is only 6 and wearing a backpack and the same sign. Before long, the killer strikes yet again, and soon it will become very personal for the two police detectives. Bjrk has constructed a labyrinthine plot with plenty of red herrings and rabbit holes, but even with a cast of many, he manages to do justice to the story. Munch and Mia, who are very good at their jobs, are also interesting and vulnerableespecially Mia, who is clearly disturbed and shows it. Other than stuffing the book with an overabundance of characters who play little to no role in the case, Bjrk provides good solid reading. Bjrk constructs a plot like a jigsaw puzzle with many pieces, and somehow it all works. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* The shocking murder of a little girl reunites Oslo police investigator Holger Munch and his brilliant, intuitive colleague Mia Krüger. When the body of the six-year-old is found, dressed in doll clothes and wearing the airline tag, I'm traveling alone, Mia spots the numeral one scratched on the girl's fingernail and predicts there will be more such murders. Mia, reclusive and suicidal since she shot the junkie boyfriend of her late twin sister, rejoins the Violent Crimes Section and sees her prediction hold true, as the body count of six-year-old girls rises and Munch's beloved granddaughter becomes a target. The investigation eventually encompasses a nursing home, where aging residents are urged to leave their estates to a strange nearby church, and brings up a cold case from six years earlier in which an infant disappeared. And finally it turns personal, for both Munch and Mia. Nordic writers seem to reach a colder, darker place in their crime fiction than most other writers do, and Bjørk (the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright, and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien) exemplifies this in his American debut. A suspenseful, skillfully wrought thriller with the potential for a sequel, this is thoroughly chilling and an excellent read-alike for Jo Nesbø fans.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2015 Booklist