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The Dinosaur Feather

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 361 ratings · 43 reviews

How could one man inspire such hatred?

Professor Lars Helland is found at his desk with his tongue lying in his lap. A violent fit has caused him to bite through it in his death throes. A sad but simple end. Until the autopsy results come through.

The true cause of his death - the slow, systematic and terrible destruction of a man - leaves the police at a loss. And when a s...more

Paperback, 536 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Quercus Books (first published 2008)

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Feb 24, 2013 Bettie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: danish-root, one-penny-wonder, mystery-thriller, winter-20122013, tbr-busting-2013, paper-read, under-500-ratings, next

Translated from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund.

Opening: Solnhofen, Southern Germany, 5 April 1877

Anna Bella Nor was dreaming she had unearthed Archaeopteryx, the earliest and most primitive bird known. The excavation was in its sixth week, a fine layer of soil had long since embedded itself into everone's faces and the mood had hit rock bottom.

Front cover quotes:

Danish Crime Novel Of The Decade.

If you enjoyed The Killing you'll love this.

Let's see...

on and on and on it went but I forced myse...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

The Dinosaur Feather is a very different book from the norm. It is compared to the Millennium Trilogy but the similarities are few and far between.

The basic plot is the same as any whodunnit- in this case a scientist is killed horribly. It's seen from the perspective of three characters- Anna Bella, a student studying towards her thesis, Soren, the detective in charge of the case and Adam Freeman, an American scientist who is the murdered scientist's big rival.

The book isn't about the murders,...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I sat down to read this book wanting to love it. I liked it. But what could have been a completely absorbing debut fell just wide of the mark. [This book is partially hidden because although it does not contain actual spoilers, it does contain some details you might want to come to fresh]

The premise is fascinating. Anna Bella Nor is a postgraduate student struggling to juggle the pressures of her impending PhD viva and caring for her young daughter, Lily, only to find these compounded when her s...more I sat down to read this book wanting to love it. I liked it. But what could have been a completely absorbing debut fell just wide of the mark. [This book is partially hidden because although it does not contain actual spoilers, it does contain some details you might want to come to fresh]

The premise is fascinating. Anna Bella Nor is a postgraduate student struggling to juggle the pressures of her impending PhD viva and caring for her young daughter, Lily, only to find these compounded when her supervisor is murdered and herself a suspect. The University of Copenhagen's Biology department is likewise a great setting for a thriller, with oddball academics, underfunded projects and cut-throat internal politics providing a potentially explosive combination.

The narration is shared between three characters: Anna, Superintendent Søren Marhauge – the brilliant detective with a troubled past assigned to the case, and Clive Freeman – the murdered professor's academic nemesis. Anna's thesis, a scientific review on the evidence for and against the theory that dinosaurs have evolved from birds, puts her in direct competition with the increasingly unhinged Freeman, who holds fast to the increasingly discredited theory that dinosaurs evolved separately.

The novel is really more interested in the backstories of these 3 characters than in the resolution of the murder. This makes for a more gradual unravelling of the plot, and adds an extra dimension to your by-numbers whodunnit as you delve deeper and deeper into the stories that brought each of the characters to this point. You learn a lot about scientific method and review process, as well as dinosaurs, understandably given Gazan's background in university biology.

There are some brilliant moments in the novel:

Søren was Denmark's youngest police superintendent, he could identify a murderer from the mere twitching of a single, out-of-place eyebrow hair, he could knit backwards, and everyone he had ever loved had died and left him behind.

But there are also some terrifically stilted ones:

Anna knew perfectly well she hadn't bumped into the World's Most Irritating Detective in the supermarket by accident. [...] She hated him! Since he had entered her life, less than a week ago, everything had started to unravel. How dare he buy a loaf of bread for Maggie, how dare he carry her daughter? She wanted him to leave her alone and she didn't want to hear what he had come to say. [...] Tears started rolling down her cheeks. The steamy mashed potatoes were in a bowl in the sink, and suddenly she slumped forward as if she had been stabbed.

This kind of frustrated outrage is characteristic of Anna's tone, and while pop-psychologists might be able to explain it through some of her subsequent discoveries (I won't spoil them here), I found a lot of her reactions were pretty unbelievable, and rang kind of hollow. Maybe this is partly down to issues of translation, but I get the sense it runs deeper than that.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy the novel. The science is well done, the characters interesting, and the narrative propels you forward making this ultimately very entertaining. But that propulsion is brought about by promises that the book seems about to deliver, and then shies away from. For example, the novel opens with a dream sequence about the discovery of the first feathered dinosaur fossil. It sums up Anna's ambition, it gives us a bit of background to what is at stake in this academic debate, but it's the last time we ever see into somebody's subconscious, and as we get dragged into the petty squabbles of a university department and the characters' apparently unsurmountable past traumas, we totally lose sight of it.

Likewise, Freeman had the potential to be a phenomenal character, bringing out as he does the uncomfortable truth that the academic's single-mindedness is often closer to mania. But this, and his fraught relationship with Jack, is never quite brought to the fore. We are supposed to believe that Anna must, must defend her thesis at all costs, rather than postponing it another month in light of a series of horrific murders (I have done my time as an academic, and can tell you that another month is never, never an unwelcome prospect – grizzly murders or no).

I wanted to start SecondShelfDown's reviews with The Dinosaur Feather because it contains a lot that I love about good commercial fiction: it puts a unique spin on a time-honoured genre, and doesn't shy away from the science either (incidentally, in this it reminds me a bit of The End of Mr. Y – I'll do a piece on Scarlett Thomas in due course as she's a very interesting hit and miss writer). It was well-packaged, well-conceived, and in parts, well-written. And that's why it was so infuriating when it didn't deliver. But it was – as I hope all the books on my second shelf will be – worth reading.(less)

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Aug 30, 2009 Mizumi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: in-dutch

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Be aware as I spoil the end of the book in this review!

In the Netherlands, the tag 'literary thriller' is often used - sometimes I really wonder why. This is such a case in which I'm left wondered.

Dinosaurens Fjer, or 'The Dinosaur's Feathers' if I translate the Dutch title, at least deserves the tag 'scientific' on the cover. That, and I'd like to add 'soft' to 'thriller'. The reasons? Well, this book is in fact mostly about the feathers found on dinosaurs' fossils.
Main character Anna is work...more Be aware as I spoil the end of the book in this review!

In the Netherlands, the tag 'literary thriller' is often used - sometimes I really wonder why. This is such a case in which I'm left wondered.

Dinosaurens Fjer, or 'The Dinosaur's Feathers' if I translate the Dutch title, at least deserves the tag 'scientific' on the cover. That, and I'd like to add 'soft' to 'thriller'. The reasons? Well, this book is in fact mostly about the feathers found on dinosaurs' fossils.
Main character Anna is working on her thesis that deals with the controversy that still exists over the relationship between modern birds and dinosaurs. She's frustrated with the professor who's supposed to guide her and neglects his task, but it gets even worse when he's found dead in his office, his tongue bitten off. How weird this case might be, the book continues on to tell about Anna's thesis and her personal life, and then shifts to the cop Søren, who's investigating the case. We get to know his personal life too, plus the life of paleo-ornithologist Clive Freeman who insists birds are not descendants from dinosaurs, before the story reaches a thrill around page 200 - another person, a co-worker of Anna, is found dead.

[spoilers beneath:]

Personally, I thought it was interesting to read about this matter. I've been interested in dinosaurs since I was a little girl and was fascinated with the fact birds might be living dinosaurs, but I never really went into the whole question. However, if you just want to read a thrilling book, this is not the one for you. It takes quite long before the thriller-aspect of the book takes off, and as it turns out the two deaths were not murders, but in fact unrelated accidents, it kind of puts a damper on the cases. Promises made on the back of the book were simply not always fulfilled.

However, I still grant this book four stars. I thought it was an interesting book, the backgrounds made you understand the characters a little; characters that were in fact not perfect and had flaws any person could have, and it was a nice change that the main climax was actually reached as Anna found an inventive way to work out her thesis and graduate, instead of 'murder case solved'.

I wouldn't recommend this book to fans of thrillers and page-turners, but I would recommend it to anyone who isn't scared away by difficult words and would like to learn a couple of things from this book. As the writer is a biologist herself, I'm assuming she got her facts straight.
Perhaps it's an idea to change the tag to 'scientific literary soft-thriller'. Or that might be too long to attract people...(less)

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Jan 19, 2013 Prince rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: 2013-reads, avoid-at-all-costs

There are too many things I dislike about this book.

1. Pointless back stories - In the first few pages, we have a fairly interesting murder take place. Then follows 200 pages of back stories. Characters are introduced quickly followed by a tonne of history, all of which have nothing to do with the central mystery. And all this delivered in the rich prose found in a phone directory.

2. Everyone is angry - Yes EVERYONE. Our lead character Anna Bella Nor is an angry young woman who yells at everyone...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of Scandinavian crimes stories and those interested in biology

Shelves: crime, general-novels

Was uncertain how to rate this book. The scientist in me loved the setting in academia with at its heart the debate over whether or not dinosaurs are the predecessors of bird or not. Some Goodreads reviewers I see are put off by the attention given to the detail of this, but I found it fascinating and not a distraction. Similarly I appreciated the book's questioning of how we perceive and value science and what merits attention and funding or not. I've also taken to Scandinavian crime stories, a...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Seonaid rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: danish-crime-fiction

As much an exploration into the long term effects of childhood events as a murder mystery, The Dinosaur Feather revolves around the horrific murder of a respected Danish scientist and the ripples this causes across the international world of paleo-biology. The novel is not without flaws, and towards the end one might wonder why Soren, the detective, even bothers, but I found the back stories to Anna Bella, Soren and Clive Freeman, the murder victim's arch rival, compelling and the subtle interpl...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scandinavia-noir

Another avalanche of irrelevant detail from the Scandinavians... seriously, as well as all the detailed palaeontology, for the first half of the book every time a character appears and I thought we were getting to some action, we had to have a long account of a troubled (or fine-but-in-retrospect-troubled) childhood. No need for that, nor for the many versions of child-parent relationships, though that is obviously a deliberate theme here. As a result the central mystery, which is indeed pretty...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Radhika Meganathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A good introduction to contemporary Denmark, its families, its children and of course, its academia, specifically that of natural history and scientific debates. The translation (while perfectly adequate) could do with a bit more flavour, but I'm happy that it exists at all - this book makes you understand what a big beast science research is, and the many faces of a discipline where discoveries and milestones are disproved time and again. Not for lovers of 'race against time' thrillers; this on...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, review-books, scandinavian

January is often a very good reading month for some reason. That alone doesn't make a lot of sense - it's normally hot enough to melt the tin on the roof, which isn't conducive to concentration. Making THE DINOSAUR FEATHER look like a rather risky choice. At 535 pages it was way too big for any struggle with concentration, and after starting the book and finding myself deep in discussions on paleo-ornithology and not a lot of "crime action", I was feeling somewhat sceptical to say the least. Add...more January is often a very good reading month for some reason. That alone doesn't make a lot of sense - it's normally hot enough to melt the tin on the roof, which isn't conducive to concentration. Making THE DINOSAUR FEATHER look like a rather risky choice. At 535 pages it was way too big for any struggle with concentration, and after starting the book and finding myself deep in discussions on paleo-ornithology and not a lot of "crime action", I was feeling somewhat sceptical to say the least. Add to that a central character who is just a little inclined to be whingy, very prickly, with more than a hefty dose of self-entitlement and I really did question my sanity for starting this book off at this time of the year.

But there can be something appealing about the idea of a character being somewhat unpleasant, as long as there is a very realistic feel to the portrayal. Leaving aside a slight personal tendency to sympathise with prickly, Anna Bella Nor is extremely realistic. Complicated, with a messy personal life, she's completely focused on the completion of her degree to the detriment of many of her personal relationships. Not that her relationship with her divorced parents ever seems to have been plain sailing. Her dislike and antagonism for her supervisor - Professor Lars Helland - isn't hidden, even when his sudden and very odd death becomes the subject of a police investigation. In contrast to Anna, her colleague Johannes is considerably more placid, accepting and caring. He's got a lot more reasons for life to disappoint than Anna, yet he's always able to see the good side in the people around them. Superintendent Soren Marhauge is also a man with a complicated personal life, full of regret and loss, yet he is also more like Johannes in outlook, if not lifestyle - he also finds himself dangerously fascinated by Anna Bella.

Looking at that summary it would be very easy to assume that this is yet another book in which the women are volatile and complicated and the men all tolerant and straightforward. Goodness knows I've been dragged down that path a bit recently. Whilst there is a lot of that classification going on, this author has managed to create a level of reality to these people that doesn't exaggerate the roles or overplay that comparison. Anna Bella is a tricky woman to deal with (as is her mother), but there are also kind, controlled women around them, and not everything in Anna Bella is bad, or wrong, or off kilter. The men may seem controlled, kind and wise, but they are all hiding secrets and behaviour which is less than perfect. It's those aspects of the characters that keeps them from feeling like roles have been assigned for the purposes of creating a reaction, and more like people who could very well be the reader, or people the reader knows.

Be warned though, it takes quite a while for the "crime" to happen in this book, possibly because there are all these complicated and rather fraught personal backgrounds and relationships. There's a lot of stuff that's not directly related to the crime itself going on, and whilst some of that did get a little repetitive at points, and there was just a slight inclination to tell, rather than show; mostly the plot, the story and all it's elements filled the 535 pages pretty successfully. Having said that, you're going to have to find the world of the evolution of birds and their relationship to dinosaurs interesting because at some points in the book you'll be pulled well into the discussion. Not, I'd hasten to say, in an overly scientific or learned manner, all of the information was quite readable, and personally I found it quite fascinating. Perhaps because it was compelling it didn't always feel like too much of a distraction or deviation from the crime itself.

The cause and resolution of the crime, getting back to the point of crime fiction after all, was nicely constructed, and despite one of the most bizarre methods of killing I've come across in a long while, perfectly feasible in the world in which it was placed. As a pure puzzle solver there were clues along the way for the reader to work with, and whilst it does take a while to get to the point where the resolution of the crime starts to be drawn out, I doubt it will come as a massive surprise to most. What probably appealed to this reader most of all about THE DINOSAUR FEATHER was the journey, and the unusual setting and environment in which the story is conducted. Regardless of what made the book work, it was a real surprise to find that this book was the one that's kept my perfect strike rate of at least one favourite book of the year coming in the first month of the year.
(less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Tom Raftery rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was one of the most unusual and interesting books I've read in a long time.

It probably helped that I worked in a biology lab for a number of years as a researcher, so I can sympathise with parts of the plot (if not with the characters, as much!).

This is less thriller, and more murder mystery - if you approach it with that mindset (and you don't mind a bit of science) you won't be disappointed!

Oh, and I read the English version, obviously!

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Apr 04, 2012 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Honestly, when I started this book, I didn't think I would finish it. Anna, for the most part, is unlikeable. Soren, is a stereotype. Clive is an arrogant academic stereotype. Even though the characters needed work, the idea for the story is unique (from my perspective). It was interesting, well thought out and well written. The murderers in this book, are far from predictable and I liked this, even though it did seem a bit of a tease.

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Jan 06, 2013 Angelika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites, scandinavian, crime

What an extraordinary novel! It captured me right from the start. Well embedded in a scientific dispute and the extensive elaboration of the various protagonists with their own unique and touching past and very differing characters a murder takes place. The criminal case itself would have been thrilling enough, but it's the genre mix between a sketching of characters together with (for a layperson) intense scientific discussion and murder mystery, which makes the book special. Some readers may f...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Rasmus Paulsen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kriminal

I was very impressed by this book. In particular, I liked the characters. The setting at the institute for Biology, KU is fun (since I know it). The mix of scientific discussions and murder mysteries worked very well. Even though it is exagerated, I can still recognise the fight for funding and the internal university politics.

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May 26, 2012 Rachel Nowakowski rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really rather liked this. I love the whole Scandinavian fiction genre and this is very nice. As a 'retired' archaeologist I liked the dinosaur angle. The strand concerning scientific integrity and philosophy was also interesting to me as I'm reading another book on the subject and I learned something new. I'd give this a try if you like other stuff in the same vein.

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Feb 13, 2012 Helen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't read this in Danish! I really liked this book though as the characters were very convincingly drawn - I found Anna horrible and couldn't be sympathetic towards her despite all the difficulties she had had. An excellent plot with many twists and turns that kept me guessing.

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May 17, 2013 Colin rated it 1 of 5 stars

I would normally stop reading a book if I hated it so much but this was a discussion book at the local book club so I ploughed through it to the bitter end. If you enjoy quality Scandinavian crime fiction or any good fiction come to that read this at your peril.

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Feb 11, 2012 Vivian rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this debut billed as the "Danish crime novel of the decade". Interesting police procedural mixed with science and more information than I care to know about the anatomy of birds. I'd be interested to see what this author does next.

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Dec 17, 2011 Kent Hayden rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Uh, not so much. Can one select 'no stars?' This is one of the many books coming out of Sweden, Denmark and things Finlandic that profess to be the next 'The Girl Who . . .' series. Not recommended in anyway.

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Dec 14, 2012 Katarzyna888 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Kryminal jakie lubię. Poza ciekawą intrygą i duńskim entourage, mnóstwo informacji z nieznanej wcześniej dziedziny wiedzy, tym razem paleontologii, i o sporze czy ptaki pochodzą od dinozaurów :)

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Oct 22, 2011 The Twins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wish I could give another 1/2 star as I really enjoyed this book but it didn't deserve 5 stars as some of the science was a bit long winded for my taste. I enjoyed how Sissel-Jo Gazan gave you a lot of background and personal information on the characters. Definitely recommend the book if you're into crime novels.

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May 03, 2013 Ian Hind rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Please note I stopped this book quarter of the way through!!!

Due to some implausible moments, out of character moments and ridiculous bits. To its credit I liked the idea but fear it has become, erm, lost in translation

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Jan 24, 2013 Michael Bafford rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was quite disappointed wirh this book. The academic/scientific milieu was interesting as were the interfoliated discussions of dinosaur development. But especially in the beginning there were long - dull - passages with character childhood background. The "murder mystery" was not well-developed either nor resolved. Tingeling

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Jun 30, 2011 Wendy Orr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Unusual and intelligent crime novel.I loved being caught up in a compelling and modern mystery without the degradation of women that so often marks crime writing.

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Jun 03, 2012 Kenneth Fredette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a fascinating book that could have actually happened. It tended to drag out in some of the longer sections describing people. However that seem to be compensated by what happen next.

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Apr 28, 2012 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-crime

It was a bit heavy going at the start with all the scientific jargon, but once I got into it I really enjoyed this. I'll be looking forward to the next book!

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May 15, 2011 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-read

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Jan 31, 2013 Johanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: denmark, mystery, contemporary

I read the English version of this, clearly, but can't seem to be find it on goodreads.... Anyway, I really liked this book. It was a really good mystery.

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Jul 21, 2011 Hayley Crandell rated it 5 of 5 stars

First-class translation, and a riveting read that kept me awake for two nights in a row. Brilliant.

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Aug 18, 2012 Dorthe Hornhaver rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Elsker historien og handlingen - men luften går lidt af ballonen hen imod slutningen.

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About Sissel-Jo Gazan

Biologist and author. Currently living in Berlin.
In 2008 she published her 4th novel Dinosaurens fjer.

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