Brilliant opening. Brilliant. Just what you need for a horror, proper horror. Moments where you feel you have to take a photo and share it immediately with friends.

The story is epic there is no escaping that. Sometimes there is a regret around thriller books being too short and rushed likewise with books of a longer length. The level of detail is great but I was yearning for a swifter pace.

I loved this book, so dark and intense, it kept me wanting to turn the page right until the end. A suspense-filled, thrilling read that you won't want to put down.

Seriously thought I'd already done my review for this one but guess I didn't. Anywho.

Someone is going around chopping the hands off of women, killing them, leaving little men made out of Chestnuts and posting said hands to people, which I guess is one way to spend your days but a little too fiddly for my liking.

Obviously people are not happy with this chain of events and want to know what the actual fuck is going on, Det Naia Thulin of the Major Crimes Division and Mark Hess, a disgraced investigator with Europol, team up to answer that question.

When fingerprints are pulled off the chestnut men and are linked to the missing, presumed dead, daughter of Minister for Social Affairs Rosa Hartung, things start to get weirder.

What will happen? Will they find out who's doing these creepy ass things? Will they discover what happened to Rosa's daughter? Will I stop writing reviews with all these questions in them? Tune in next week to find out.

Picked out 2 people pretty quickly and they both ended up being creepy creepers of Creeperton but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of this book as there were still things that happened that I enjoyed and it went how I hoped it would. Hmmmm cryptic.

I very much want to read more by this author and will be watching The Killing when I get finished writing my backlog of reviews.

*Huge thanks to Soren Sveistrup, Penguin UK, Michael Joseph and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*

Set in Copenhagen a psychopath is on the lose. When several people are killed in a brutal manner the killer leaves a calling card, A Chestnut Doll, What is the connection? What does it mean? And who could be next?

This Thriller is outstanding! It's so well written I really struggle to believe it's a debut!
From page one I was completely hooked on the storyline. It's dark and powerful and actually freaked me out which doesn't happen often!
I could feel my heart literally racing whilst reading and couldn't put it down.
Packed with action and completely unexpected twists, I mean I wasn't expecting that at all! The author's talent for creating suspense is in my opinion second to none.

The Characters were well developed and I was completely invested in their stories. I also just wanna applaud that there wasn't a full blown romance as I feel that it would of lessened the impact of the storyline.

This is one of my favourite thrillers in a long time! Definitely recommend!

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup is a chilling serial killer thriller set in Copenhagen. Thulin and her new partner, Hess, are assigned what is initially believed to be the isolated murder of a single mom. More murders occur, each with a chestnut man left behind. Every time the police think they have answers, another happens. And it's possible these murders are tied to not just the recent kidnapping and suspected death of Rosa Hartung's daughter, but a mass killing decades in the past.

This book is yet another example of why I've fallen in love with Nordic mystery/thrillers. There are so many interlocking stories here, all fascinating, and I couldn't wait to see how they tied together. Masterfully done! Just when I thought I'd figured things out, WHAM! Another curve ball. I'm just sad that one of my favourite characters turned out to be the culprit.

Besides the character in question above, Hess was my favourite. He's so broken, and at first you think he doesn't really care about the case. He's actually a Europol agent, sent back to Copenhagen for some offense. But as the story progresses, you see how smart he is, and learn why he's rather standoffish. I think he's a good man, dealing with a lot. I'd love to see another story featuring Hess and Thulin, or just Hess alone. I'm kinda cranky, too, because now I want to read more of Sveistrup's books and I can't find them in English! I'm quite tempted to learn Danish just to read more.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins/ Penguin UK for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Brilliantly dark, creepy, so tense I kept holding my breath! I was a huge fan of The Killing, which was why I picked up this book, and I'm so glad that I did. Great read.

The Chestnut Man is a compelling, gruesome and thought provoking Scandinavian crime thriller. It hooked me from the first page and hope there are other novels featuring the characters.

An excellent example of Skandi Noir. The characters of Hess and Thulin were very well drawn, I was intrigued by both and so, invested in the outcome. The story twists and turns, loops back on itself, trips you up and then turns around and laughs in your face. It was so cleverly embroidered and when it finally came together it was a truly fabulous ending. A nail biting tale, which will have you on the edge of your seat on more than one occasion. I hope this will be the start of a series with this pair of detectives. Highly recommended.

This book was so far up my street that I thought it had been written specifically for me! Soren Sveistrup wrote The Killing which is by far one of my favourite shows of all time but The Chestnut Man may be a contender for the crown. This was Nordic noir at its finest. The beginning is visceral and hits you right in the face and the tension doesn't let up once. I was glued to every page and I didn't not see the end coming at all. Loved it!!!

A good read essentially.

A few twists and turns throughout the book.

Found it a little hard to get into at first as it felt translated but once the story got going it was a well balanced plot.

Would definitely recommend staying with it.

Great read with lots of twists, it took me a while to get into it but once in I was hooked I liked the characters and how peoples lives can be formed from childhood and how they are treated
There are some gory bits and I'm not sure how it relates to a Chestnut figure but it gave it a good twist

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this book. I didn't like the style. It felt like I was reading a script rather than a book and felt very disjointed with so many of the sentences being very short. I realised after several chapters that this was a book that has been translated and probably directly from its original language, but I did feel that perhaps it should have been read through and edited prior to going to print.. Particularly at the beginning of chapters it seemed that they were setting the scene saying so sand so is doing this or that, but sometimes the character will change from he or she to I, which again made it quite confusing.

Its also a very graphic book, so many details of some pretty unpleasant things and I didn't make it to the end.

It might well make a good TV series as I enjoyed the Killing as seems to be written in a script format, but for me, it wasn't an enjoyable read. I though I might then try an audio version of this book, but unfortunately that made it worse as the reader had a very monotone voice and quite frankly like being read to by a sat nav (although that may be more enjoyable). sorry not one for me

I was a fan of the show 'The Killing' and was looking forward to this novel as it's by the same author. However, I found this novel to be very dry and a little confusing with all the characters involved - good premise let down by a confusing plot.

This is the kind of Scandinavian crime novel that has extremely dark and violent actions and pimps but this is a particularly well done version. The anti-hero is quite an interesting one and the main character is also a quite likeable character so that kind of drives you through the whole plot which is a fairly well done procedural. This is one of few thriller novels the has a satisfying ending which is so rare.

A serial killer targeting Copenhagan leaves little chestnut men behind at each crime scene, marking his work. This book was surprisingly slow to start, especially with this synopsis, but it does start to pick up about a quarter of the way in and can get quite tense at points. It's an enjoyable, if a little longer than it needs to be, read.

Can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to this! Just like The Killing, Sveistrup’s first novel catches your attention from the off, with an opening that sets the tone for the rest of the book. The main characters - Thulin and Hess - are thrown together and seem an unlikely pairing. Thulin is a single mum, fed up with working for Major Crimes Division and wanting to move on to cyber crime. Hess is the taking an enforced timeout from Europol waiting to hear the results of a disciplinary. Together they investigate the brutal murder of a young mother and the grisly discovery of a chestnut man doll near the body. One murder becomes two, and there appears to be a link with the disappearance a year before of the 12 year old daughter of a politician. The pace is perfect, descriptions are grisly and I loved every minute! Can’t wait to read more!

This is a classic Scandinavian noir. It has all the essential ingredients: a series of gruesome murders, a strong female detective, a damaged and complex male detective, and dark, brooding atmosphere. There are painful secrets and the storyline manoeuvres across and through the body of evidence, closer and closer to the perpetrator. The perpetrator is psychopathic and seemingly inhuman, but at the same time highly intelligent. He knows how to play the police and on some level he interacts with the detectives, pokes and probes them, and manipulates their investigation. This draws the reader into the events on a more personal, intimate level.
Perhaps because the Nordic crime fiction is so crowded these days, I found myself craving something more, something different, something to make this book stand out from the rest and render it unique.
As much as it was a compelling piece of fiction, that something special eluded the author. Assuming that this is the first instalment in a series, I am expecting Sveistrup to develop that personal trademark as he builds this brand. I would most certainly read the next book.

Woah there Nelly!

So various women have been murdered by a serial killer; someone who lets you know their coming by leaving you a gift, a little figure made from conkers (UK) and sticks!

He takes bits of you and leaves the rest behind, he’s managing and the murders are gruesome! There’s never a dull moment and you rarely stop for a breath!

Did I love it? Hell yeah!!

Did I figure it out, well I thought I did twice! Such a creepy story and a scary one too that had me reading with the light on!

Can’t wait for more from this author!!

This started well with echoes of Jo Nesbo and other Scandi-noir authors, but it didn't live up to its initial promise. I finished it, but it was all rather unlikely.

I loved this!! It reminded me of my favourite Nordic Noir series by Lars Kepler. I loved the whole plot and the twists that were thrown at me, the only thing I would say is that it was long winded, I think it would have benefited from some of the middle chapters being removed.