The Witch Hunter is a thrilling read, with strong characters and a captivating storyline.
I loved the story of Jessica and how we delved into her past to find out who was behind the killings she was investigating.
Filled with twists and turns, witches and the occult, what a fascinating debut and first in the series of Jessica Niemi.
A story I was invested in from the get go, but I did feel like the ending lacked what most of the story had - not enough to put me off completely however. Throughout the story it was weaved with the perfect amount of creepiness and thrilling essence, I cannot wait to see what further ventures Jessica will take.
The audio version was brilliant and the narration captured all the different characters perfectly in order to create the right amount of tension needed for the story. Very well read!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in the Jessica Niemi series. I enjoyed it though it was a bit dark in places . It was a bit of a slow starter and didn’t really get going till half way through and then it was gripping. I did find the few chapters that reverted to Jessica’s past rather off putting and didn’t really seem they added much to the storyline

The narrator for this audiobook was American but did a good job of pronouncing the Finnish names and places.

Thank you NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC

I truly enjoyed this audiobook, a great mix of the occult and Scandinavian crime. I wish I had this proof when we went to Lapland as it is based in Finland. This book is a wonderfully gripping atmospheric and the character building is great.

you will not be disappointed

I have to start by apologising for how hideously late this post is. THE WITCH HUNTER was my Halloween read; with its mix of the occult and Scandi crime, it was perfect. However, I missed that deadline entirely: these past weeks has been, well, something, no? Brushing world-changing elections, English lockdowns and my rather mad (but wonderful) workload at the moment aside, it has meant that picking up my 'for pleasure' book of an evening has usually resulted in me only reading a few pages before passing out on my pillow.

So this is an apology to you all for my tardiness, but also @maxseeck; my reading circumstances did not do justice to what a fabulous book this is!

Set in the frozen north of Finland, a serial killer is on the loose and it appears he's choosing supposed 'witches' for his prey. This is a fast-paced and twisting police procedural that not only follows the investigative team, but also the personal life of the lead detective Jessica, until the case gets far too close for comfort. With evocative and atmospheric writing and tension-filled dramatic scenes, I found myself saying, 'Just one more chapter,' as the narrative drove me on. Plus the brevity of the chapters make the novel perfect for pacy reading (the weight of my proof less so – it's not a slim one by any means, and the neglect of lockdown workouts is showing).

However, I'm delighted there is more to come from Jessica and the team – although I may be grabbing it in ebook next time if it's going to be a similar length, haha!

A dark serial-killer novel with buckets of Scandi atmosphere that will give you the heebie-jeebies, but you won't be able to resist.

Okay I not know why, but I am really not having any luck with any of the thrillers I have been choosing to read

Witch Hunter is the latest of the thrillers to be added to the list of “The One That Gives High Expectations But Never Reaches”.

Not going to lie; Witch Hunter had such a wonderfully intriguing plotline - a serial killer using a trilogy of mystery novels’ as a blue print for their killings - especially when the first victim is none other than the author’s own wife.

I really went into the audiobook, expecting to be horrified and creeped out - and while the book kept my attention; it was not as twisted.. as I had expected it to be with the kind of blurb I had been attracted to.

There are multiple POVs - which was another thing I liked, plus a little past reflections that would have been better understood if I had been reading the book rather than listening to the book.

Witch Hunter was a good thriller; though it could have been an amazing one, if I had been able to overlook the less twisted plotline. (I have a very weird taste in books 😂).

My thanks to W.F. Howes for an audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘The Witch Hunter’ by Max Seeck in exchange for an honest review. It was originally published in 2019 in Finland and was translated from the Finnish by Kristian London.

The audiobook is narrated by Stephanie Racine with a running time of 13 hours, 55 minutes at 1x.

This is the first in Seeck’s series featuring Detective Sergeant Jessica Niemi. She has a mysterious past that we get tantalising glimpses of throughout the novel.

When the wife of famous author, Roger Koponen, is found dead in what appears to be a bizarre ritual, Jessica is among the Helsinki-based team drawn into this high-profile investigation

When more bodies are found in quick succession, it becomes obvious that they are hunting a serial killer taking inspiration from Koponen’s bestselling trilogy about a witch hunter. Could it be an obsessive fan or is this a smokescreen?

This was quite a ride with an undercurrent of the occult informing aspects of the murders. I did feel that Seeck had done his research on this aspect of the storyline, making it more compelling for this attention to detail.

Jessica is a fascinating character, who very much keeps herself to herself. At one point a coworker addresses her as ‘Saga Norén’, referencing the lead protagonist of ‘The Bridge’. It was a throwaway line likely only to have meaning to dedicated fans of Nordic Noir. It made me smile as it clearly suits the enigmatic, brilliant Jessica.

One slight issue were the flashbacks to events in Venice that took place earlier in Jessica’s life. These sometimes seemed a little abrupt as there was no obvious demarcation between the present day and past. While after a sentence or two it was clear that we had again shifted in time and place, it did effect the pacing of the narrative for me a little.

I felt it worked well in an audiobook format though I did have its ebook edition to hand for reference. I have enjoyed Stephanie Racine’s narration previously on a number of audiobooks, mainly psychological thrillers. I felt that she handled the pacing of the shifts noted above well. Her voice is assured and smooth, carrying the narrative with confidence.

Overall, this was an excellent work of Nordic Noir with an imaginative plot and compelling characters that kept me glued to my headphones.

I was pleased to read that the second in the series has recently been published in Finland and will look forward to reading it when its English edition is published.

Roger Koponen is an international sensation with his series of books about a psychopath, hunting down and gruesomely murdering the “witches” he hunts. Police Inspector Jessica Niemi is called to the murder scene of Koponen’s wife, who appears to have been killed in a manner similar to the way the characters in his books have been murdered. And the killer is just getting started, he’s using Koponen’s books as a killing guide and he won’t stop until he’s proven himself superior when it comes to murder. The narrator is superb, even down to portraying a character who has an illness with spot on accuracy and sensitivity

This is a terrifying listen. The imagination of Max Seeck knows no bounds and his creativity with this book is to be commended. The crimes are unique in their horror, and the police force, and all their human frailties, are so endearing. Jessica's back story is played out in between the chapters of the current murders and my heart broke for her. To lose so much, so young. All in all a fast and inventive thriller, which will keep the listener entranced for many hours. I must give credit to the vocal talents of Stephanie Racine. She's one of my favourite narrators, but I almost feel that calling her a narrator doesn't do justice to the fabulous performance she gives in every book she undertakes. A real star amongst many great voice performers, her voice has a slight 'Emilia Fox' hint to it. She articulates and elucidates most brilliantly. All these Finnish terms must have been tricky, but Ms Racine took them in her stride. Well done all for a fantastic listen.

With Seeck’s background in screenwriting it is little wonder that he has produced one of the most visual thrillers that I have read for some time. From the opening scene with a woman pacing the housing equivalent of a goldfish bowl with the dark night surrounding her, you know from the outset that something evil is set to do some serious mischief, and this motif of darkness and the supernatural carries through the book with a creeping sense of unease on the part of the reader. As the book also carries the theme of life mirroring art, as the crimes perpetrated seem to be replicating the fictional crimes of a renowned crime author’s work, the murders are particularly gruesome, and have their base in historical methods of punishments. With Seeck’s finesse in depicting these murders in technicolour detail with the pace and visuality of cinema, I felt for most of the book that I was immersed in a cracking good horror film, and was flinching on more than one occasion. I really enjoyed the to and fro of the detectives trying to link the crimes with their fictional counterparts, identifying potential victims, and the little diversions throughout of the interactions between the suspects. There are a whole host of bizarre ritualistic killings linked to the folkloric methods of despatching witches which are both fascinating and terrifying. A clever and slick premise that works superbly throughout, with more than one murderous surprise in store along the way…

The central police protagonist detective Jessica Niemi charts an interesting course during the book, being both investigator and suspect at various points in the story. She is cleverly used as a filter for the more malevolent aspects of the murders, and under increasing pressure to disassociate herself from the otherworldly forces at work, that increasingly use her as a conduit. At times she seems to channel both open eyed belief and then a scorching cynicism as these strange events unfold. leading to some deep self-questioning on her behalf. I really liked her professional relationship with her superior officer Chief Inspector Erne Mickson, himself a stand-out character with an interesting part to play in the book. There is an almost paternal concern that he shows for her, tempered by his respect for her as a superb, if slightly renegade, investigator, and their working relationship goes through a good amount of doubt and recrimination.

Slightly disconcertingly there is a parallel storyline in the book, which alternates in and out of the main investigation, recounting an ill-fated sojourn by Jessica in Venice some time previously. This sees her get involved with a troubled and increasingly coercive man, and although for fear of spoilers I cannot reveal how this plays out, Venice proves to be a time of intense emotional experience for Jessica. Admittedly, this particular arc of the story does go some way to defining Jessica, giving us an insight to how she has evolved into the woman and detective she is, but I did find it a bit distracting, and found myself at times, itching to get back to the main plot of murder and mayhem.

Overall I enjoyed The Witch Hunter, particularly the most supernatural and ritualistic elements of the book and the blending of fiction with reality as the killer’s motivation for some particularly grisly and heinous murders. The core investigation of the book and those that undertake unfolds at a steady and satisfying pace with all the panache and recognisable elements of the Nordic noir genre. I will be interested to see where Seeck takes Jessica Niemi next, in what is a solid start for a potential series too. Recommended.