#BookReview I'm Traveling Alone & The Owl Always Hunts at Night by Samuel Bjørk

I'm Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjørk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A six-year-old girl is found in the countryside, hanging lifeless from a tree and dressed in strange doll’s clothes. Around her neck is a sign that says “I’m traveling alone.”

A special homicide unit re-opens with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. Holger’s first step is to persuade the brilliant but haunted investigator Mia Kruger, who has been living on an isolated island, overcome by memories of her past. When Mia views a photograph of the crime scene and spots the number “1” carved into the dead girl’s fingernail, she knows this is only the beginning. Could this killer have something to do with a missing child, abducted six years ago and never found, or with the reclusive religious community hidden in the nearby woods?

Mia returns to duty to track down a revenge-driven and ruthlessly intelligent killer. But when Munch’s own six-year-old granddaughter goes missing, Mia realizes that the killer’s sinister game is personal, and I’m Traveling Alone races to an explosive—and shocking—conclusion.

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I honestly think that Norwegian crime novels are the best. I just love reading/listening to crime books set in Norway and now I have one more favorite series. I'm Traveling Alone is the first book in the Holger Much & Mia Kruger series. I listened to the Swedish version of the book and I was hooked. The case with the dead children is both eerie and sad. And both the main characters made a great impression on me, Holger who has not recovered from his divorce 10 years previously and Mia who dreams of reuniting with her dead sister. She actually planned on doing it at the beginning of the book, but Holger came to her in the very last minute. So, this case is a respite for her before she ends it all...

I recommend this book warmly!

The Owl Always Hunts At Night by Samuel Bjørk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a troubled teenager disappears from an orphanage and is found murdered, her body arranged on a bed of feathers and surrounded by candles, veteran detective Holger Munch and his team are called in to the scene. Star investigator Mia Kruger, on temporary leave while she continues to struggle with her own demons, jumps back on the team and dives headfirst into this case: just in time to decode the clues in a disturbing video of the victim before she was killed, being held prisoner like an animal in a cage.

Meanwhile, Munch’s daughter, Miriam, meets an enticing stranger at a party—a passionate animal rights activist who begins to draw her into his world and away from her family.

Munch, Kruger, and the team must hunt down the killer before he can strike again in this sophisticated, intricately plotted psychological thriller by the newest phenomenon in international crime fiction.

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The Owl Always Hunts at Night is the sequel to I'm traveling Alone is just like the first book a great crime novel. Miriam Holger's daughter gets caught up with an animal rights activist group that will draw her away from her family and may put her in danger. Meanwhile, Holger and Mina try to find out who could have starved and killed a young girl and put her on a bed of feathers in the woods.

As with the first book did I listen to this one and I really love the Swedish audiobook version. The next book will I listen to in English and it will be an interesting change. I think if you like Scandinavian crime novels is the Holger Much & Mia Kruger series a must read. I quite like Holger, Mia and the rest of the crime-solving gang and I'm looking forward to listening to The Boy in the Headlights.

I recommend reading this book after you have read I'm Traveling Alone!