North Sea Cottage

by Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen

Tora Skammelsen, a young writer, retreats to her aunt's cottage to get away from it all. Here, on the Danish North Sea coast, she tries to make sense of her life and rid herself of the ghosts of her past. When the old stable catches fire leading to the discovery of a skeleton, Tora is faced with ghosts that go even further back, to the time of World War Two. Now she must uncover her own family secrets, but will she learn the truth in time to save herself?


North Sea Cottage is a novella by award-winning Danish author Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen.

90 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2014

About the author

Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen is a teacher from Denmark, teaching English at upper secondary level. In her spare time she reads and writes crime fiction in English and Danish, and in 2010 she sold her first flash stories to American magazines or publishers.


One story appeared in Discount Noir (edited by Ste Weddle & Patricia Abbott)

Since then she has published two collections of flash fiction, "Candied Crime" (humour) and "Liquorice Twists" (a bit darker).

Her bestsellers are the romantic ghost story "Heather Farm" (suspense plus romance in the Dunes near the Danish west coast) and the cosy novel "The Cosy Knave" (European title: "Murder deLight")

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the cottage in the title is owned by Tora’s aunt, Bergatora. As soon as I began reading I was immediately transported in place away to the other side of the North Sea to Denmark with Tora, and in time back to the Second World War, with her aunt, Bergatora. In just a few words Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen draws a vivid picture of the old fisherman’s cottage surrounded by dense sea fog.

Tora is struggling to overcome her own problems when she is faced with a new problem. The old stable next to the cottage catches fire during a thunder storm and in the aftermath of the fire Tora finds a skeleton in the potato cellar under the ruined stable. Who is it who had died in the cellar? Bergatora is reluctant to talk about the war years and her brother, Tora’s father, was too young at the time to help. It was a time when Denmark was under German occupation and a resistance movement was under way. Inspector Thomas Bilgren suspects the victim may have been related to the German occupation.

Tora, helped by Bilgren attempts to discover the truth, but is hampered by the strong character of her aunt and the silence surrounding what happened during the war. I loved this aspect of the book – the delving back into history, the way the narrative switches backwards and forwards, gradually revealing what had happened. North Sea Cottage is only about 90 pages but it has depth both in mystery and in characterisation and the setting is so atmospheric. I was fearful for Tora’s safety as she dug deeper into the mysteries from the past.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining quick read. The characters are well developed, even if the novel is very short, and the ending is very surprising. It really blindsided me.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Loved the little glossary up front, it was very helpful. Sorry it was so brief, of course, it is a Novella...I wanted to know more about Tora's dog of a soon to be ex. Would have enjoyed a bit more of the nice policeman, guess I will have to read some more of Dorte's Tora Stories and perhaps find out.
Loved the family DNA thread.
Strong recommendation though, do not try to use this as a bedtime story, you will be up all night telling yourself, just one more chapter....

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tora Skammelsen is given the use of her aunt’s cottage on the north coast of Denmark on the condition that she leave the stable undisturbed. The condition becomes impossible to fulfill when the stable catches fire. It is not long before Tora discovers a trap door and a skeleton. A short but diverting read.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this back in fall and forgot to review. It’s really quite a sort story, Would have liked it to be a bit more. That being said what there was is nicely done and a fast read.

[Brenda Dickenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some family relationships can be deadly.

It's WW2 and the resistance is strong on the Danish coast. But the women must stay home and be stronger still. Now jump ahead to today and find Tora Skammelson, a lady separated from her husband moving into an aunt's cottage. Tora's dad was born here during the war, but she wants solitude for her writing. Then there is a fire in the stable...the one place she promised not to bother...and in sifting through the rubble a skeleton is found in the cellar. Police forensics say it is from the war and Tora tries to help by looking into her family and those that lived their at the time. Deeply buried secrets are sometimes meant to stay buried, and if they don't you may not wish it told to anyone, let alone the police.

[Joo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had looked at this author's "Cosy Knave" series but couldn't get into them as they were a bit too whimsical for my tastes, however this one sounded intriguing and I wasn't disappointed.
This is a dual time story where you get the now and the previously and as the story progresses you get more clues as to what happened and whodunnit.

This is a novella, but I didn't feel like it was too short. In fact I thought it was a well rounded tale and will certainly read more of this genre by this author

[Kathryn P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good mixture of past and present

A really enjoyable read, taking place between war time and then present day Denmark. A family mystery that Tora tries to unravel with the help of a local detective. It ended a bit suddenly though. Tora found out what had happened, and that was it. End of! I wanted to know a bit more.

[Tom Jenckes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific Writing

This is one of those books you have trouble putting Down. When you do, you long for the time when you can re-engage with Tora.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting story as told by the niece and her aunt. Finding out that she was not related except through her grandmother. Would have liked to read some finishing touches.