Opening with a gory murder scene in rural Denmark nearly 30 years ago, we’re left to wonder at its significance as the story fast-forwards to the present day. It’s Copenhagen 2018, a year after the Social Affairs Minister’s daughter, Kristine Hartung has gone missing. We meet Thulin, single mum and unsatisfied Detective in the Major Crime Division who is striving for a promotion to the Cyber Crime Centre. She is teamed with Hess, a commitment phobic and professionally lax Europol agent who has been returned to Copenhagen Police while an unspecified disciplinary matter is investigated about him back in The Hague.

Kristine’s body is never found; someone has confessed to her murder so the case is closed. Rosa Hartung, the Social Affairs Minister decides it is time to return to her professional life and look to the future. Her husband Steen is getting more desperate every day and turning to drink to numb the pain. They have a young son, Gustav who is trying to cope.

When a gory murder happens to a young woman, the killer leaves a mysterious ‘Chestnut Man’ – a traditional doll figure made by Danish schoolchildren each Autumn; a link back to Kristine Hartung is made and our 2 detectives doubt that justice has been done for Kristine as they investigate the new case. Her parents are terrified to hope that Kristine could be alive.

After more murders, twists and turns and chilling side and overlapping stories that made me gasp out loud I was very glad I chose to read this in the privacy of my own home, and not in public. This book put my life on hold for a few days; absolutely engrossing and I feel like I’m emerging from an alternative life, having just finished it! A really intelligent, gripping jigsaw of thrills and emotions – and highly recommended to fans of intricate and well-researched tense thrillers

I am a real avid reader of Scandi crime books. This one,The Chestnut Man ,is up there with the best

Hess a disgraced Europol officer is sent home to Copenhagen where he meets Thulin a young female detective out to solve a gruesome murder case . Hess supports her investigation when a missing girl presumed to have been killed over a year previously has a connection to the murder case.

The story moves with pace .The characters are drawn well and you can empathise with them .

The end is a breathless chase with twists and surprises and finishes too soon for the reader.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC.
This is a totally absorbing and can't-put=down thriller. Absolutely brilliant. The clever, intricate plot weaves through the pages as well as the reader's mind - no idea at all where the story was leading, but you have no choice but to stay with it, and ride-out the investigation as it happens.
Thirty years ago there is an horrific family slaying at a remote farmhouse in Denmark; forward to present day and Detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess are dispatched to investigate the murder of a women whose body is discovered in a play area just beyond her house. Meanwhile, Rosa Hartung, Minister for Social Affairs, is returning to work following the disappearance of her teenaged daughter one year before - her body was never found but the case was closed following a confession to the crime of a man incarcerated in a secure psychiatric unit.
A second murder victim is discovered. How do you connect the gruesome murders of 2 mothers, the closed case of a politician's missing daughter and the appearance of childish 'chestnut-men' left at the crime scenes?
Detective Mark Hess can. Although presently an outcast from his Europol posting, and displaying more than a passing disinterest in actually working on the cases with Naia, he has flashes of almost maniacal brilliance which gradually move the investigations along through many twists and turns, despite simultaneously fighting to get back to his old job and get our of Denmark.
The dialogue is first-rate, I felt like I was watching a film unfold. Having not seen this author's previous work, the first thoughts that came to mind as I read on was that it reminded me to some extent of The Bridge being the only Scandinavian drama I have seen.

Absolutely loved this book. At first I wasn't sure about the relationship between Thulin and Hess but I like how they rubbed along despite each others quirks and foibles. Initially they seemed reluctant to investigate the creepy murders but both eventually became absorbed in their task. I love Scandi-noir so could see this making a good film or even a TV series with this police duo. The plot grabs your attention and I like how the present crimes become embroiled in an older case. Overall, a really good and absorbing police/psychological thriller.

Very tough read - gruesome murders being investigated by a policewoman with a young, inquisitive daughter, and a seemingly lax partner, who seems to have skills beyond normal' police activity, Hess, imposed on her who begins to tip the balance in the investigations as the numbers pile up. A high level politician is involved, whose daughter had been kidnapped and presumed killed before we begin the novel. A deep crime in past is driving the serial murderer, and Hess seems to be the touchstone to feeling in this one. In Scandi noir novels it is often quick instinctive men who are the lynchpins - they are vulnerable and quirky while the women become more shrill as this woman does here! But it is a highly intriguing and entertaining read despite the atrocities of the killings. Really good!

My initial feeling, about 20-30 pages into the Chestnut Man, was that whilst Soren Sveistrup had proven TV experience in the wonderful The KIllng, this was not necessarily translating into book form - the descriptions of people and place felt cliched and i was rapidly losing patience..
But...
I quickly didn’t care, and was gripped by the twisty-turny plot, the unanswered questions from an old solved case and the familial relationships. Being critical, the characters are often more sketches than fully realised individuals, and there is a somewhat predictable reliance on violence against women to drive the plot.
Despite this criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s well structured and pacy, and, perhaps unsurpsingly, feels very visual - there’s a film here at some point.

I haven’t read a scandi noir thriller for a while as they are usually quite gory and at one point the ones I’d read all seemed fairly similar.
However, I gave this one a go as I’d enjoyed The Killing on Tv a few years back and this had been written by the same author.
I found The Chestnut Man a slow burner of a novel and it took me several chapters to really get into the story and feel empathy for the characters.
I did like Hess the cop with a sad and difficult past which is gradually revealed as the novel progresses.
His partner Thulin is also an interesting character and despite neither of them wanting to work together to solve The Chestnut Man murders and the child abduction of the Minister’s daughter, gradually they seem to develop an affinity and the investigation takes off.
There are a lot of unpleasant scenes in the book including torture and mutilation so I would warn potential readers that it is not for the faint hearted.
The Chestnut Man is obviously translated and to be fair there are no obvious problems with this apart from the fact that some of the sections of the novel are quite slow and the language rather longwinded, perhaps due to the fact it was originally written in Danish.
I think that this novel might be the first in a series featuring Hess and Thulin and I’d be happy to read the next book. I could also see it being televised as it did indeed remind me of The Killing, particularly as one of the main protagonists was a Government Minister so there were political implications.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Worthy of more than five stars! Soren is added to a growing list of Scandinavian authors of crime thrillers. The Chestnut Man, an absolute must to read. Probably one of the most enjoyable and fascinating thrillers I have read in a long time. Well recommended, look forward to more from this author!

This was excellent. I didn't see 'The Killing' but my parents were glued to it and so I tried this. Only 4/5 * as it did, in parts, read as quite 'translationese' but the plot was skilfully woven and although the main protagonists were a little inaccessible, they were likeable and I was invested in them. Great reveal and this would be super if developed into TV.

Starts a few decades ago with a gory murder and discovery of two children in the cellar at the scene of the crime. Move to the present day with two more gory and gruesome murders. These may or may not be related to an old case of a kidnapped daughter of a Social Affairs minister. Said daughter was thought to have been murdered, limited evidence for this, but there was an admission of guilt by a suspect, now in prison. All they seem to have in common are the Chestnut Men left at the scenes. The lead Police Inspector on the case is an ambitious young woman and, this time, is partnered with a real 'oddball' He has been suspended from his Europol job on seemingly mental grounds following various cases plus, as we find right at the end, the tragic death of his pregnant wife. Together, or not, they follow leads, red herrings and immensely varied forensic trails. It is very detailed with horrific gruesome descriptions of the crimes - not for the faint hearted. .The various strands all come together well and, although I guessed who the perpetrator had to be in general terms, I had no idea who it was as a person until about the time that the police did. The story took a while to get going but once it had, it bowled along briskly with lots of twists and turns. I would hope that Mr Sveistrup gets a good editor to sort out the annoying inconsistencies such as Sejer-Lassen's name - with or without the hyphen.? I drop a star for the overly gory details. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy in return for a personal review.

Wow ! what a brilliant read .This is a very long book but the fast pace just keeps going all the way to the ending .Hess and Thurin are great characters being thrown together not willingly .to find what seems like a serial killer who leaves little chestnut men as his calling card This is a Scandi crime thriller ,beautifully written which will keep you guessing all the way through .It is very gory and dark but you just get drawn into the story which is very hard to put down .I can see this book being dramatised for TV .This is one of those books that keeps you guessing and guessing with a real good twist at the end ! Just Fabulous ! Many thanks to the Publishers ,the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review

Don't miss reading this book - it is so clever and makes superb reading. I started to read with the expectation it would be yet another Scandinavian type novel - dark, cold, snowy and oh so slow. Forget that - this one moves at a good pace and the character descriptions are excellent. I did not work out who was the villain but no doubt other readers will be more successful sooner. I won't spoil the story in case anyone decides to read this review but make sure you read it as soon as you can in 2019.

It took me a few chapters to get into this book, but it was worth persevering with.
The story follows a spate of killings, where the killer leaves behind a Chestnut man. All the victim's appear to have one thing in common ( I won't say what) The case seems to be in someway connected to the disappearance of a government minister's daughter a year earlier.
I would highly recommend this book.

Ambitious young detective Naia Thulin and her partner Mark Hess (a burned out investigator who's just been sent back from Europol for disciplinary reasons) are called to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman.  They quickly discover a strange piece of evidence, connecting this case to a case from a year ago.  A case involving the missing daughter of a politician, which has already been closed.  Soon afterwards another woman is found murdered in a similar style, with another piece of evidence linking to the closed case.  Thulin and Hess realise they are in a race against the clock before the killer strikes again, but what is his true motive?

I'm a huge fan of Nordic Noir, so I was looking forward to this, hoping for a new author to follow.

I found the story easy to get into, and I really liked the writing style. The vocabulary is wide and varied, without sounding pretentious.  From early on the book was ticking a lot of boxes for me.

Character wise I didn't really like any of them in the early stages of the book.  I found all three of Thulin, Hess and Nylander to be far too self serving, and not the sort of hero I want to keep reading about if I'm looking for a series.  Thulin and Hess did slowly start to grow on me, and I'd follow them for another book now, but they still have some work to do to become likeable characters in my eye.

For the plot itself, I thought the story was very clever.  I didn't see the ending coming until it was spelled out for me, and even then I still didn't want to believe.  The story moved at a fast pace right through and didn't have any slow moments.  It was brutal in places, but it didn't feel like it was unnecessary or just to shock, it worked with the story.  I thought Sveistrup did a great job of tying up the loose ends and bringing everything together.  He also leaves a potential opening for a sequel or later instalment, without it feeling like this book was unfinished.

Overall I thought this was a great read.  It definitely lived up to my hopes, and I'll be following this author in future, whether he makes this into a series or leaves it as a stand alone and moves on to something new.  The only thing I would've liked is for me to have felt more of a connection with one of the main detectives.  A solid 4*, highly recommended if you like crime dramas or Nordic Noir.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for an arc in exchange for an honest review

A Scandi murder mystery to rival Jo Nesbo. Kidnap, gory murders and hero cops who unravel the truth. What's not to like? Enjoyable twists and turns and a satisfying conclusion.

This is well-written with a complex plot and some interesting characters,it’s a real page turner too. However I’ve given 4 stars instead of 5 as it is really too gruesome for me, and of course the victims are women. I read it when alone late at night and really wish I hadn’t.

I loved this book it was an amazing read !!!
Dark, atmospheric and absorbing this is a wonderful Scandi crime thriller that is certainly going to be a sure fire hit. So right from the start you know this is a thriller that’s going to keep you guessing, nothing is straightforward and the two main characters of Thulin and the infuriatingly laid back Hess who at first comes over as totally disinterested in the case are brilliantly written. The pace of this book really picks up speed driving you breathless to an exciting and thrilling conclusion and to make it even better I really hadn’t a clue just who the perpetrator or perpetrators could be making it one of the best thrillers I have ever read ..I can’t praise the book enough so I would just urge you to read it and find out for yourselves..you won’t be disappointed.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for giving me a chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

So-so, not terrible but I didn't feel invested in the story. More gruesome than I expected and i worked out who the killer was far too early for the reveal to be a surprise. I didn't hate it but wouldn't seek it out to read again.

The Chestnut Man is a graphic crime thriller from the writer of the brilliant Killing. Set in Denmark this book has a great cast of characters and an evil serial killer,there were a lot of sharp intakes of breaths whilst reading this!

The two main characters are detectives Naia Thurlin a single mother of one, who reminded me of Saga from The Bridge, and Mark Hess who has been working for Europol for the last 5 years but sent back to Denmark seemingly whilst his conduct is being looked into. They are brought together to investigate the case of a young woman found murdered and whose hand had been sawn off prior to her death. By the body a chestnut man is found, these appear to be popular in Denmark made out of chestnuts with matchsticks for arms and legs.

The plot line is multi stranded, all coming together gradually and satisfactorily, although at times horrific this books ends well.

I have read many thrillers this year, many of them excellent, this is up there with the best if not at the top of my list.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly

This was a wonderfully atmospheric, autumnal and chilling read, which I found hard to put down.

It did take me a few chapters to settle into the writing - the scene changes feel very visual - I could see them playing out on screen, but initially the changing points of view were difficult to follow in print. But I'm very glad I stuck with it. It built to become a dark and twisty novel, and I definitely didn't work out who the killer was. I should probably flag that there was disturbing content, with themes of child abuse.

I enjoyed getting to know the two main detectives - Hess is a fantastically unlikeable but intriguing character, while Thulin is smart and determined. I feel there's a lot of backstory to both of them which we haven't yet learned, and this could easily become part of a series, which I'd be very happy to read..