Today I’m joining the blog tour for Victim. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Buried sins

Brutal revenge…

Two years ago, Alexander Blix was the lead investigator in a missing person’s case where a young mother, Elisabeth Eie, was kidnapped. The case was never solved.

Blix’s career in law enforcement is now over, but her kidnapper is back, leaving evidence of Elisabeth’s murder in Blix’s mailbox, as well as hints that there are other victims.

At the same time, Emma Ramm has been contacted by a teenage girl, whose stepfather has been arrested on suspicion of killing a childhood friend. But there is no body. Nor are there any other suspects…

Blix and Ramm can rely only on each other, and when Blix’s fingerprints are found on a child’s drawing at a crime scene, the present comes uncomfortably close to the past.

A past where a victim has found their own, shocking form of therapy.

And someone is watching…

Shocking, relentless and unbearably tense, Victim marks the return of the international bestselling, blockbuster Blix & Ramm series from two of Norway’s finest crime writers.

Review:

This series is another one I love and I always enjoy catching up with these characters. Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm are brilliantly constructed and I love their determination, ability to use their initiative and their compassion for the victims with whom they work. These shared traits mean that they work really well together and their cases are always fascinating. In Victim, we find Blix shortly after his release from prison, and Emma having just left her job as a journalist. Although this might be an ideal time for them to keep their heads down, they once again become involved in fascinating cases. This time, they are working on separate cases, which are developed over alternating chapters. Both cases are incredibly engaging, and I never wanted to be away from one for long, but the gaps in between really build up the tension.

Over the series, we have discovered important aspects of Emma’s childhood; however in Victim, the focus turns to Blix’s past. I thought I knew his character so well, but the sections where Blix relives his childhood are so emotional and I loved that the author has given the reader more depth that perhaps explains some of the decisions we have seen in previous instalments of the series.

As I’ve mentioned, both stories that make up Victim are equally thrilling. Both writers are incredibly talented and I loved how they took me right into the centre of each crime. Although they do drop clues throughout the story, I never guessed the answers and was kept wondering with every new revelation as the cases each became more complex. In particular, towards the end, the action becomes more dangerous and I was frantic to find out what happened next!

Victim isn’t just about the action though – it’s a really rich novel. The authors explore a number of different themes in this novel, which give it a very strong emotional edge. I found myself thinking about the issues, particularly the different forms of family in the novel, in a different way to how I may have thought about them before.

The ending sets up a new instalment in the series perfectly and I hope we don’t have to wait too long for it!

Victim is available from Amazon.

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