Kaikella on hintansa

Konrad Simonsen #2

by Lotte Hammer, Søren Hammer, Sanna Manninen (Translator)

Grönlannin jäätiköltä löytyy raa'alla tavalla surmatun tanskalaisen naisen ruumis, joka on ollut piilossa 25 vuotta. Rikosylikomisario Korad Simonsen lähetetään selvittämään tapausta, ja hän muistaa tutkineensa aiemmin täsmälleen samalla tavalla tehtyä murhaa. Tuolloin syylliseksi todettu mies on tehnyt itsemurhan, ja pian Simonsen tajuaa tämän olleen syytön. Oikea syyllinen löytyy pian, mutta todisteita ei kerta kaikkiaan ole.

Tieto syyttömän miehen ajamisesta kuolemaan piinaa Simonsenia, ja hän päättää saada murhaajan vastuuseen teoistaan keinolla millä hyvänsä. Murharyhmän tutkimusten edetessä uhreja löytyy lisää, ja alkaa vaikuttaa siltä, että murhien taustalla on voimakkaita poliittisia vaikuttimia. Lopulta Simonsen joutuu päättämään, miten pitkälle hän itse on valmis menemään läheistensä vuoksi. Kaikella on hintansa.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Nordic Noir, Denmark, Scandinavian Literature

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Lotte Hammer (born 1955) finished her training as a nurse in 1977. She has since worked and lived many places, such as Greece, Germany, the North Sea’s oil rigs and the American air force bases in Greenland. From 1995 to 2010 she was head of the Public Eldercare in Halsnaes, Denmark. From 2006 to 2010 she was actively involved in local politics and has been writing full time since 2010.

The crime writing siblings, Lotte Hammer and Søren Hammer published their first novel Svinehunde (The Beast Within) in March 2010.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was hard work. At first, I couldn't decide whether it was the authors or the translator who made the writing so stilted and erratic. Then I realised it doesn't matter because the end result was that it was ridiculously difficult to read. The whole thing was like cardboard. If it was actually a movie script, I wouldn't be surprised. It read like something that needed to be made human by some very good actors.

I finished it. I wish I hadn't. It wasn't worth it. I feel like i've wasted hours of my life.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely one of the better Scandinavian suspense novels I've read. The killer is just a wee bit psycho not over the top, the cops have realistic profiles, the crimes are not blown out of proportion-not too gruesome yet not too mundane. Very quick read didn't put it down to break to one of my other books once

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siblings Lotte and Søren Hammer return with a second police thriller translated from the original Danish. When Konrad Simonsen is called to investigate a body found amidst the ice in Greenland, he is unsure why he has been summoned or how to solve a mystery with a crime scene so vast and frozen. Returning to Copenhagen, Simonsen calls on the Homicide Unit to begin piecing together the life of the victim, Maryann Nygaard, who perished while working as a nurse in Greenland back in 1983. Simonsen begins to develop a better understand of Nygaard's life when he learns that she served at a base alongside an early missile detection outpost (DYE-5) run by the Americans. Suspects begin to emerge, though one in particular rises to the top of the list when the victim's appearance matches a number of other murders over a long period of time. With Andreas Falkenborg in the crosshairs, Simonsen must build a case to substantiate his claims. After an interview at headquarters shows Falkenborg to be more infantile than sinister, Simonsen cannot fathom how this man could have pulled off so intricate a plan. However, the evidence continues to mount and soon all eyes focus on him. After two women go missing, one of them a member of Simonsen's team, the race is on to stop Falkenborg before he can add to his body count. In a wonderful follow-up novel, the Hammer siblings offer a thrilling story that readers will enjoy through to the final sentence.

While I expressed some concerns with their first novel, the Hammer siblings created something much more palatable in their second piece. The story is full of twists and the characters much more involved. Even using a larger collection of central characters has not caused too many issues as the reader navigates through the story. While there are certain aspects to the story that flow as nicely as mid-winter molasses, most of the plot finds its way firmly associated with the murders and backstory of those under investigation. While I have read a nice cross-section of Scandinavian police procedurals (Kepler, Larsson, Horst, and Nesbø), Hammer does not disappoint, even if the writing is not as crisp. The translation from Danish does provide a superior product, leaving me to wonder how novels penned in English seem to pale in comparison. With original ideas and an interesting dark flavour to the narrative, the Hammer siblings keep the reader curious throughout and promise to continue offering insight into the man that is Konrad Simonsen.

Kudos, Mr. and Madam Hammer for such a great novel. I can only hope the next novel is as exciting and offers as many comments on society as a whole.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

[K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: murder, kidnapping, torture, rape, blackmail.

The premise of this - glacial ice melt in Greenland reveals the victim of a 30 year old murder - sounded SO GREAT, so obviously I picked this up. And the very early chapters of the book were intriguing.

Aaaand then the story moved from Greenland back to Copenhagen and I fairly rapidly lost interest. The writing was choppy, and often confusing. Characters were repeatedly referred to by their full names, which meant that there were so many names flying around that I had no idea who anyone was most of the time. Things jumped back and forth between discussing the past and the present. Between Denmark and Greenland. And there were so many perspective narratives that I never entirely felt like I had a handle on who was telling the story.

I'm not sure if my issues with the writing were a problem with the translation or with the writing itself, but it just didn't work for me. There were jokes that weren't funny (maybe they're funny in Danish?) and lines that just made no sense. A character is named Ernesto Madsen, and everyone falls about laughing because that is LITERALLY THE WORST NAME EVER OMG SO FUNNYYYYYYYYYYY and I was sitting here like "......whut". Like...is this a Danish thing? Does it mean something funny in Danish? I JUST DON'T GET IT.

So yeah. This was at least a hundred pages longer than was necessary. There were a bunch of subplots I gave zero shits about. And the writing was...pretty terrible, tbh. But that premise, yo. That premise was great. SIGH.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit disappointing, though I blame some of that on the translation. There are a lot of parts here where the language is uneven and choppy. However, the writing also seems a little uneven - I wondered if the sibling authors rotated chapters at one point, because one chapter would be action-packed, concise and really propel the story forward, then the next chapter would be about two officers going shopping. I kept waiting for the shopping trip to play into the story or show something significant about the characters, but at least as far as I could tell it was just a shopping trip.

The book could also be trimmed - there are too many characters and about 100 too many pages.

Aspects are good - the beginning is strong, and watching them link the victims and the location descriptions really held my attention. I would consider reading their next book, but hopefully it will be a stronger, better edited translation.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Girl in the Ice by Lotte Hammer.

This book was a total disappointment for me. I have so enjoyed the Inspector Erlendur and the Inspector Van Veeteren series that perhaps I expected too much. Perhaps also this author thought they could come up with an imitation or something close to those stories. WRONG. These characters never held my attention in the least and the story itself went nowhere.

Definitely a waste of my time.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some errors in the translation, but for the most part the story was a good one.

[Alma (retirement at last) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it particularly difficult to identify with any of the characters or their relationship to each other. The names of each character/place were not easy to get my tongue round and this took away some of the enjoyment of the story. I also don't like knowing who the murderer is from the beginning and then following how the police eventually capture/kill them.
I found it tedious in parts and had to force myself to finish it but I persevered.
I must admit I expected more from it, especially after reading some of the reviews and also from my experience of reading other 'Scandi-noir' novels.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a grim tale. A body is found frozen into the Greenland ice cap, in a lonely spot that was occupied 25 years previously by a military establishment whose task it was to track Russian missiles during the cold war.As such the plot involves,the shady past doings of the now powerful people in charge,the politics of several countries ,including America and centrally, the hunt for the murderer.
The beautiful and vivacious victim Maryann Nygaard is subsequently found to be the first victim of a serial killer,due to the peculiar and particular way in which the girls are killed, and DC Konrad Simonsen is flown in from Copenhagen to investigate. Long buried evidence of political and personal misdeeds comes to light and the revolting killer is identified but lost again, endangering a look- a- like police officer.
The local police force includes one Arne Pedersen, a quiet but brilliant officer and his erstwhile secret love the Countess, who are germane to say the least to the investigation.
This is the usual spectacularly gory Scandi Noir as only they can produce them! It has taken the genre to a new level. A complex and well researched tale, it involves all the usual crime horror props, masks, suffocation, gory lipstick, killing pets and the police being six steps behind while the perpetrator continues on his merry way and the victim suffers unremitting degradation. There are no joyous reunions,explanations or closure to redress the balance.
It is filled with factual detail,however it lacked a certain spark. It was of course well translated but I am sure in its original language it would have been much more engaging.

[PacaLipstick Gramma · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only thing that comes to mind is "lost in translation".

I gave this 100 pages, and I knew it was time to call it quits. The dialog was fragmented at times, as was the story. It would go from point A to B, then, D. Huh? Did I miss something? Go back. Nope. It was just not cohesive. And trivial, along with waaaayyy too much nonpurtinent information. This needs serious editing. Maybe...written in the native language, this book made more sense?

Thus...lost in translation? Maybe there were too many people translating? Everyone working on a couple pages, then when everyone was done, they just slapped the pages together and called it done? Not even bothering to proofread to see if it made sense?

Another example: A seasoned detective, while conducting an interview, upon hearing a name mentioned, dropped her glass of wine, breaking the glass, but it was "nothing" when asked if everything was alright?

Seriously? How unprofessional. How professional is it to drink on the job, and wear your emotions on your sleeve?

I would recommend to skip this book. So many better written books to read...

[Belinda]

Frankly, struggling. I want to love it but the language is extremely odd. I'm not sure if it's the translation or the actual story. I've read lots of European and Scandi-crime and never had this sense of unbalance before.

[Afnan · Rating 2 out of 5]

[⭐️ 2.5 ]
At first the premise really got my attention; I liked how the story was going and I didn’t put the book down despite the language which was stilted and little awkward which I overlooked given the fact the book is translated.
I also found many details and characters rather unnecessary to the plot and I failed to recognize any significance they could contribute to the story.

Then as I was halfway through, I started to hope for a twist or a revelation to come,that might have saved the storyline or at least how I was feeling, but it never came only to leave me unsatisfied and disappointed.

[Jasmine Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The storyline itself was good - but something about the writing or translation made it seem disjointed, especially conversations. I actually started reading it 2 years ago & stopped due to this, but I wanted to finish it. I have the next book in the series & I hope it’s not as stilted as this one (not that I’m in a rush to start reading it).

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book about a serial killer. Normally something that I would quite enjoy, but I just couldn’t get into this book. The style of writing just didn’t get me in,

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is about a serial killer the police investigate after a woman's body is found on the ice in Greenland.

I thought this was ok but it didn't wow me.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the other readers, I found the text to be stilted, making it hard to read. It would definitely have benefited from another round of editing.

[Andrew Mcdonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I dislike police procedurals where a psychic gives real assistance.

I'm going to burn this one.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise for this sounded exciting and mysterious. In general, I found some of the dialogue odd and just not something I would think someone would say. However since this book has been translated that is to be expected as I have seen odd dialogue and sentences in another translated novel.

I was abit worried that there would be too much politics involved in the story but surprising it was not a focus. The connection to the murder case however was well done. There will be some spoilers ahead.

The characters are not very memorable except for Konrad "Simon" who is struggling with health issues and a disturbing case, as well as Pederson and Pauline. I could not figure them out and I got the cheating vibes from Pauline as she wanted to seduce Pederson. I am pretty sure you won't just let any of your male colleagues walk in on you in a bath tub. However, both acknowledge that they don't exactly desire the relationship even though they like each other. Which was confusing. But I was relieved that it did not focus on the physical aspects as some crime stories tend to do.

I thought Pauline was the naive and spunky young urn on the team but she turned out to be very calm and collected when in a bad situation such as the house break-in and facing the high chance she will die. She was so brave and stoic in the face of madness.

I am pretty sure everyone wanted to know why the murderer was going around killing all these women in such a cruel way, the outcome was not unexpected. But the villain of this book presents an interesting picture because he is so child-like and it is not ever fully confirmed if he has dissociative personality disorder or is just traumatized. But on the opposite end he is very knowledgeable in spy equipment and manages to dupe the entire team.

Why I would guess about split personalities because he refers to his victims as "she" and not "you" and himself as "he". When the team brought him in during the half way point in the book, I knew he would not to imprisoned, oh he would get out for sure.

What was interesting was to see the portrayal of a homicide team that felt different from the American and British crime thrillers I have read. Things seem more open among the team and the leader seems closer to them rather than high up. Another perspective was the meetings the team would hold with other government ministries to update them on the case and discuss issues. I found the honesty in the characters and the easy acceptance from higher ups quite refreshing. No one wants to come out and give bad news but for the homicide team it is a norm.

I found some areas dragged and others were well written however the ending felt rushed and confusing. As if the authors wanted to end the story quickly when they realized they were running out of pages. But the story does ask some moral questions that the reader will surely think about for a long time. Is there right or wrong?

[Peta · Rating 3 out of 5]

In theory this is a great concept. Initially it is about the resolution of an old murder - a young woman found buried in ice, in Greenland, in the middle of nowhere. The body discovered from the air by a chopper. What unfolds is the story of a sick psychopath; a man who had a disturbed childhood and grew up to take out his vengeance on women that looked a certain way.
The story turned into the resolution of several crimes - further old crimes of other women whose deaths were unresolved, but also the final crime of kidnapping two women (one a police officer) and managing to torture and murder one of the two; the other is found alive.

The language used is often stilted, with odd translations. There are cultural issues remaining from the translation to English. The dialogues go "off-piste" into strange segues and unresolved conversations that have no bearing on the story itself. There are also sentences that simply don't make sense in the context of the story at the time. One Example: Page 90, paragraph 3: where the Countess is walking to a building to see someone. "The City smiled at her, and she smiled back. Until a woman walking towards her with a pushchair made her turn her back to the street and inspect a random shop window until the danger had passed." So......what the.. does that mean??? How is a woman with a pram a danger. It is not a spy story and this segment of the story went absolutely ...... nowhere.

All in all, this book is about 80 pages too long - too much unnecessary verbage. It needed better translation and the editing is average at best. One Translation example : "in writing he was either a genius or an idiot". The Engllish translation of this saying would be: " On paper, he is either a genius or...". This example is on page 360 (para 3).

In other words, poor translation and edition interferes with an author's ability to gain an audience in English speaking countries.

As for the authors - I'd like to know their background because this story is dark.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cold case in Greenland…25 years old and buried in ice…

The Girl in the Ice by Lotte Hammer and Søren Hammer is the second in a series of serial killer thrillers featuring Inspector Konrad Simonsen of Denmark.

I am not familiar with the first book in the series, but it didn’t take a lot of familiarize myself with Simonsen and his team. It’s odd though as they are called in the Greenland to investigate a murder without true justification for while any law enforcement in Greenland can’t. I know Denmark controls Greenland but it seemed like a plot element that was left out.

Anyway, as the case starts, there is reporting of possible other similar murders (well a murder) where a body was left in the same condition albeit nearly a decade later, and other highly circumstantial evidence leads to the suspicion of a serial killer that goes years between murders.

There were a number of subplots in this that didn’t really seem to go anywhere. In addition, the suspect they identified and arrested about half way through never had a valid explanation for why he wasn’t a suspect 25 years ago.

It’s all kind of odd and convoluted…

I was hoping for a fake Nordic noir thriller but there wasn’t a ton of excitement to be had…or even a ton of info about the killer.

[Nancy Motto · Rating 2 out of 5]

The very first thing I noticed as I started reading this book, as other reviewers did, was the awkward, stilted language. It just did not flow and the story was confusing rather than compelling. The author creates two major plot lines once the murders are discovered. In one plot line the police focus on one man who they feel must be the murderer and the investigation, of course, focuses on him and proceeds fairly well. The other plot line was confusing and made very little sense and I never did understand what the point was there. Also a subplot involving a psychic made no sense. I love police procedurals because they usually have a lot of good action as the police try to stop the murderer but this one just got terribly bogged down.

[TK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading such novels will present you with the knowledge of a rather unknown part of the world. Greenland is such a vast country that no one particularly know what happens there. This is my second novel based in a Scandinavian country - Denmark. Be from anywhere in the world, humans are same in their thoughts.
The novel starts off well, easy to read through, the author does not keep anything with himself. Very soon we are shown who the perpetrator was. The rest of the story indulge in the discussion of state's pledge in preserving human rights. There is no 'who is the killer?' moment in the story, we know all through. There is no twists & turns, but good to read all through. Looking forward to read their first novel.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise but a poorly written book. Whoever did the translation was not familiar with idiomatic English so the dialogue was really wooden and clumsy. This was my second attempt to read the book - I gave up the first time. Second time was not the charm. The characters were not developed well to empathize or get a sense of who they were. And to be ridiculous, as the hunt for the killer becomes more intense the lead detective pees himself in all the excitement. Really??. As a police procedural it left a lot to be desired too, unless Danish police operated differently from US or English police.

If you are thinking about reading it - don't bother

[David Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spontaneous, random purchase by me at The Copenhagen House (Danish products store) in Solvang, CA, in 2023 - not a book store at all! This novel has proved to be a really great crime thriller from sibling Authors, Lotte and Soren Hammer, from Denmark. First published in 2010 in Denmark. As I now understand it they have so far penned 6 books in all and I will surely be scouting out their other 5! The plot in this volume is exceptionally well thought-out, well scripted, with interesting characters. A thoroughly good read!

[Robert Rohrer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line was good as mysteries go, but must admit something seems to have been lost in the translation. It very obvious that it was not written in English, many phrases and grammar were either wrong or "not right".
I'm going to rate it a 3 since I think the story and characters were worth the read.
I would suggest to the authors though that they find someone else to do their translations as it really degraded what could have been a great book...

[Joy Corkery · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn’t the worst book, but it just wasn’t for me. I don’t seem to get along with Scandinavian crime books at all. Not sure if it is the general style or the translation doing it dirty. I just found the characters in this book a bit 2D. The story was also longer than it needed to be and rather stilted in places. There were some aspects of the book that grabbed me, but many others could have been removed to provide a better flow. I also found the ending disappointed.

[Laura del Toboso · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me termina mucho de convencer. La trama empieza en Groenlandia con un cuerpo que ha aparecido y se sospecha que tiene que ver con otro de hace 25 años. Al final la trama se desarrolla en Dinamarca. Demasiados nombres y algunos pasajes tan largos e insulsos que no sirven para conducir a ningún sitio y otros que deberían ser la clave se resuelven en pocos párrafos. No creo que siga con la serie porque pierde el interés.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mystery. The dialogue felt a bit stilted from time to time, but this may be a translation, so no big deal. There were a few instances of my feeling that it was assumed I had some information, but I didn't. Of course, it could have been my lack of attention rather than a problem with the writing. All in all, a satisfying read.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

A moderately decent read. I enjoyed the location and some of the characters. Parts of the book were hard to follow. I wondered about the translation. Very poor? This was mostly police procedural with no real heroes. No great mystery or big twists in the story. A somewhat good climatic ending that wasn't too far out.

[Fran Tocock · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s taken me almost a month to read this book. It’s a very difficult book to read, maybe due to the translation? The story seems to flow ok, but to me there’s scenes in this book that are totally irrelevant to the dialogue. I’ve finally finished the book but I’m still confused as to what really happened.