This was Scandinavian mystery that kept me entertained, and I just had to keep on reading! I loved the book, and will read more by the author in future.

I was such a huge fan of The Tenant, the first book featuring Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner, that I had really high expectations for The Butterfly House. Despite The Tenant setting such a high bar, I ended up actually preferring this book - mainly because I like Nordic Noir to be dark and this murder investigation certainly goes to some dark and shocking places!

Detectives Kørner and Werner are such a fantastic pairing, and in my opinion, these two characters are what makes the book such a standout success. I love the fact that they are slightly quirky and humorous, and with Anette Werner on maternity leave I found her even more relatable this time around. Based on my own experiences, it's rare to find a novel that gives such an honest account of trying to juggle motherhood and a career.

I found The Butterfly House full of personality, full of intrigue and full of suspense. It had everything I love about Nordic Noir, but most importantly had a clever plot and felt incredibly contemporary and believable.

In the cardiology department of a hospital in Copenhagen there is a nurse who takes the lives of the patients. Meanwhile, a killer murders three victims in three days with a scarificator and leaves them lying in fountains and lakes. For detective Jeppe Kørner this is not an easy case, and his partner Anette Werner is in maternity leave and can’t help him either. All he knows is that all the murders seem to be connected to The Butterfly House, a clinic for children and teenager with mental illnesses which closed down two years before with no apparent reason.

I loved this book because it’s an incredibly well-written crime novel with an original plot and lots to reflect on. There is a lot going on in this book about mental health and the state of healthcare in Denmark (and not only there), and this is probably the main aim of the novel. The pleasurable reading that comes with it is a plus. I also enjoyed the setting (I was in Copenhagen and I could actually follow the story all around the town with my mind) and all the references to the history of medicine. I’m obsessed with ancient medical tools and history and with every museum of medicine (especially the one in Copenhagen!), so I particularly loved finding all this in the book. It’s quite a creepy read, so don’t read it at night if you are alone in the house (like I did!). Absolutely recommended.

•thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review•

I enjoyed this, if you like a good detective story then you'll love this. The Angel of death story is what hooked me in, as this is not my usual type of book to go for. But I'm glad I did. Finished it quickly and will look out for more from this author.

Dark Suspense...
A dark suspense, a disturbing and complex investigation and the second outing for the two Danish detectives . Well formed, considered characters and empathetic, but to the point, storytelling with plenty of twists.

I do enjoy enjoy a bit of Nordic Noir escapism, and this book ticks all the boxes. It is the second (but readers hope not the last) in the series which began with The Tenant - if you haven’t read that, don’t let the thought that you may have missed something vital put you off - this book stands very well on its own and is engrossing from first page to last. In the book we are reacquainted with detectives Jeppe Korner and Annette Werner, although this time Werner is on maternity leave. This doesn’t stop her becoming involved in a gruesome case of several murders, and a perpetrator with a fondness for gruesome antique surgical instruments. The plot is a little far fetched at times, but with Engberg’s writing skill and ability to draw totally plausible characters, the reader can believe anything, and this book will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final unexpected denouement.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the chance to ‘The Butterfly House’ by Katrine Engberg in exchange for an honest review.

I had not read the first book but I had no problem following the story. Suspenseful thriller. I plan to read the first one because I enjoyed this so much!

Highly recommend!

Pub date: 1/21

I’d not read the first novel in the series, but was intrigued by this pair of detectives who brought something different to the role and life of a detective. The murders in the novel are particularly disturbing given that they take place within a hospital - usually a place of healing. An elderly patient in the coronary unit is killed by a syringe drawn up with an overdose of his heart medication. Six days earlier, a boy on his paper round found a dead woman in a fountain in the town centre. She’s has died due to exsanguination, blood letting from thousands of tiny cuts, and her final moments must have been excruciating. Are the two cases linked and will Detectives Korner and Werner be able to find the killer?

I loved that Werner was home on maternity leave, bored and itching to join in on the investigation. I think, very realistically, she’s struggling with feeling powerless and dealing with the fact her pregnancy was unplanned. She didn’t plan for it and can’t stop herself doing some detective work from home. However the problem with snooping alone is that she’s exposed to dangers she wouldn’t normally have to consider. Will she put herself in danger? Her partner, Korner, is coping with the aftermath of a painful divorce and now a new relationship. Will his mind be on the job? Together, this investigation will lead them into a dark corner of public institutions - their equivalent in this country would be social services and the NHS. Corruption and exploitation within these institutions seems likely.

The characterisation is brilliant. I really connected with Werner. Her husband has adapted well to unexpected fatherhood and can’t really relate to her struggle. Werner is 44 and feels the body she’s been connected to all her life, doesn’t belong to her anymore. The baby cries endlessly and she feels a complete indifference to the baby. Her head’s still at work and she feels exhausted. Intrigued by what’s happening in her absence, she has a police scanner and makes fake runs for nappies in order to keep up with the case. The strength of her partnership with Jeppe shows in how much he’s missing her presence in the investigation. Even for the qualities that really irritated him usually. I really warmed to him as he struggles on with a partner he can’t connect with and who can’t keep up with him. These people felt so real to me and the authors description of their worlds is just as immersive. I could imagine myself in this city, in the autumn air that the author describes. I found the medical histories of the victims fascinating and became really involved with the mental health angle, particularly the psychiatric aspect. The pace of the narrative was just right, fast enough to keep me reading while providing enough detail to pull me into the case. Often with thrillers I can feel short changed or rushed into a conclusion, but here the twists felt real and the conclusion was satisfying. This novel had everything I enjoy about the Nordic Noir genre and I will be following this series with great interest.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder&Stoughton on the arc of The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg,

This is a second installment in the Kørner/Werner series, there is an angel of death stalking the halls of Copanhagen Hospital, a paperboy then suddenly discovers a murdered woman who is middle aged and whom was found dumped in a fountain.. this was a gripping, thrilling thriller with a lot of twists and turns and everything in between this was a 5 star read for me how amazing totally recommend.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If the other day I wrote about how I loved locked room murder mysteries today I'm writing about the other subgenre I'm completely obsessed with, Nordic Noir. It can be books, tv shows, music...if it comes from Scandinavia I'll probably like it!

The butterfly house is book 2 in the Korner and Werner series, follow up to The tenant, and a huge improvement in my opinion. I liked The tenant, but I LOVED The butterfly house. Maybe it was a translation issue (I read the first one in Spanish and this one in English), but I found that the author's writing style just went up several notches.

The series is set in Copenhagen, my lat trip before the pandemic started, so reading this made me also a bit nostalgic. I just love reading about places I've been and I can totally visualize in my head.

Both Jeppe and Anette are back, but she's on maternity leave and adjusting to her new situation, so they don't share much time together during the investigation, but the little time they had together was so nice to see them go back and forth. I like how there's no romantic interest between them, letting them deal with their own issues without that added tension that would only ballast the whole story. They're both really well developed characters and the writing shows that the author really knows them well already. It was also a nice surprise to meet back with Esther de Laurenti, one of the main characters from the previous book.

The murders revolve around the Butterfly House, a psychiatric care facility for teens. I found really interesting the depiction of both mental health workers and the patients in there, how suffering from mental health issues is still today an stigma and how sometimes those supposed to care and protect vulnerable people end up harming them more because of their own interests.

The M.O. was so original I had to immediately google the murder weapon. The lesson in History of the medicine and medical devices was truly fascinating.

The story moved at quite a fast pace with no shortage of leads and suspects that kept me guessing till the very end. Those last 50 pages were heart attack inducing and I just kept yelling at the book "who are you? WHO ARE YOU?" until the killer was revealed.

Fantastic addition to the series and a must read for all those Nordic crime fans like me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read the other books in this series, however, I still enjoyed the book. It was difficult to follow everything that was going on, but I’m not sure that had anything to do with not having read previous books; it was just packed full with characters and things going on. 

Saying that it was gripping, written well and kept me turning the pages. I would love to go back and read the first book in the series as the characters were addictive and wonderful. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a chance to review this book.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the invitation via NetGalley to read ‘The Butterfly House’ by Katrine Engberg in exchange for an honest review. I complemented my reading with its audiobook edition, narrated by Graeme Malcolm.

It was originally published in Denmark in 2018 as ‘Glasvinge’ and was translated from the Danish by Tara Chace. It is the third in Engberg’s Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner series of police procedurals set in Copenhagen, though is the second to be translated into English.

We have moved ahead in time from ‘The Tenant’ and Anette is currently on maternity leave. I expect that she became pregnant either in Book Two, ‘Blood Moon’, or in between books.

The novel opens as a nurse in a coronary unit approaches an elderly patient with a syringe, intent upon ending their life with an overdose. Before we learn what happens next with this Angel of Death, we move back five days and the discovery by a paper boy on his early morning rounds of the naked body of a woman in a public fountain. Her body is marked by small cuts and the cause of death is exsanguination. Yet this is only the first murder.

So begins a disturbing investigation that centres on The Butterfly House, a former private institution that had treated children and teenagers with severe psychiatric illnesses. With Anette Werner on maternity leave after an unexpected pregnancy, Jeppe Kørner is partnered with old-timer Detective Falck, who has recently returned from disability leave due to stress.

Yet while Jeppe leads the official search, Anette is bored and restless and can't stop herself from doing a little detective work on her own. Oh that’s bound to work out well ....

While I was a little disappointed that Jeppe and Anette were working independently, this was still a highly engaging Scandinavian crime thriller that had some brilliant twists and plenty of nail-biting moments.

To date Katrine Engberg has written five books in the Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner series and hopefully these will be published in English in due course.

The Butterfly House is the first book I’ve read by this author and it wasn’t until I finished it that I realised it’s the second book in a series. That said, it works well as a standalone as there’s sufficient backstory for the reader to understand the character relationships. I possibly missed out on a little character development. None of that mattered because at the heart of this is a belting murder mystery. There’s a real sense of menace and race against time and the second part of the book, the pace really gathers and it’s an edge of seat thriller.

I liked the two central investigating officers and the other characters are plausible and well drawn. The plotting is skilful with so many plot twists that it’s impossible to know where it’s all leading. Bit by bit the threads are drawn together and I loved it.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Another outing with Detective Jeppe Kørner who still reeling from his recent divorce and living back with his mother he is put in charge and under pressure of a curious murder case where a body is found in a fountain with strange cut marks on their body. Jeppe is this time without his partner Anette Werner who some how had a surprise baby since the first book, something she is struggling with and all she wants to do is go back to work. But between the two of them they have to race to find the killer before he strikes again. Fast paced and great characters I can’t wait for book 3

I’m so glad that Korner and Werner are back for adventure number 2. It was a shame that Werner was on maternity leave so didn’t have such a large role, but hopefully she’ll be back at work by book 3! Great story, great characters and an interesting peek into the world of mental health care, something which most of us do not get to view firsthand. Copenhagen is now firmly on my list of places I’d like to visit, although preferably without stumbling across bodies left in fountains by a serial killer.

Katrine Engberg is a Danish dancer and choreographer who made her debut as a crime writer with the much-acclaimed novel The Tenant, the first installment in her new Copenhagen series featuring detectives Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner. The book was an instant success and became an international bestseller, while the readers as well as the critics thought that it breathed new life into the Nordic crime genre due to its wonderful characterization and dense plot. Even though I have to admit that I was not fascinated by The Tenant, I was tempted to read the second chapter in the series as I firmly believe that every author deserves a second chance. In fact, I think that The Butterfly House is a much better book than the first one and it bears some of the most intriguing trademark characteristics of the Scandinavian crime genre such as a grisly serial-killer plot, a gloomy atmosphere, an accurate depiction of the novel's setting, and brilliantly outlined protagonists having to deal with professional as well as personal challenges. It is a fast-paced thriller that the reader cannot put down because of the frenetic rhythm by which the plot unfolds and the use of the multiple perspective narrative which means that we watch the story unravel through the eyes of several different characters. The result is one of the most enticing Danish crime novels of the last few years and fans of Jussi-Adler Olsen, Sara Blædel, and Søren Sveistrup will definitely appreciate Engberg's work. Keep in mind that there are already 5 novels of the series published in Denmark, though this is just the second one that has been translated into English.

The story begins when a biker distributing the morning newspapers in central Copenhagen makes a horrific discovery in one of the city's fountains. The body of a middle-aged woman is found lying in the water, naked and bearing some small incision marks in her arms. The cause of death is determined by the forensic specialists as exsanguination, the draining of all the blood in her body. The next morning, the body of a young man is found in a fountain near a psychiatric facility and the police are convinced that they are dealing with some kind of serial-killer with unknown identity and motivation. The only obvious link between the two victims is that they have worked together in the past in a residential home for mentally ill children, a place called "The Butterfly House", a small facility that hosted children suffering from schizophrenia and serious personality disorders. The authorities will have to interrogate the people who used to run the Butterfly House and unearth the deeply hidden secrets that lie beneath the surface and lead to the perpetrator's arrest.

Jeppe Kørner leads the investigation into the fountain murders while at the same time going through a difficult face in his personal life. Recently divorced and currently living with his mother in her house, he struggles to balance his professional life with his romantic entanglement with a colleague, something that he wishes to hide from his superiors and working companions. Anette Werner, on the other hand, is on maternity leave as she has recently given birth to a baby girl and she finds himself in a role that she detests. She is constantly breastfeeding her baby and her body as well as her mind seems to be in a perpetually fatigued state. Anette craves for a case to dig her heels in and when she learns about the two bodies in the fountains, she begins a personal investigation that will put her in harm's way in many occasions.

Kørner and Werner are a great duo and their relationship is highly complimentary as each one possesses qualities that the other lacks. Their collaboration is exemplary and effective, while there are several secondary characters who add their personal touch and help in solving the case. Engberg is an author who knows how to draw convincing, plausible descriptions of real people and that is evident in this multi-faceted crime thriller. The adoption of several distinct points of view is not an easy task and it can easily lead to a jumbled writing style if the writer is not experienced or skillful enough. That is not the case here and Engberg proves that she can be added to the pantheon of the most significant contemporary Nordic crime writers. There are many effective plot twists and turns in this wonderful book that will keep the reader on the edge of his seat, especially throughout its high-octane second part. I would definitely recommend The Butterfly House to all Nordic crime fanatics and those who enjoy high-quality thrillers with great characters and terrifying storylines. I hope that we will soon have the chance to read the English translations of the next three novels in the series by the publisher.

Another excellent thriller from Katrine Engberg. I enjoyed her previous book, ‘The Tenant’ and ‘The Butterfly House’ is equally good.

When a naked dead body is found floating in a fountain, Detective Jeppe Korner is called in to investigate – and the plot thickens when another body is found the following day, also floating in a fountain. In the meantime, Detective Werner is on maternity leave and not enjoying the early days of motherhood. As a distraction she finds herself investigating the case from home.

The murders lead the investigators to look into the past of the Butterfly House, a now closed care centre, and find a tangled web of ambition, greed and, possibly, revenge.

An excellent plot – and a diverting sub-plot too. I would definitely recommend this and would be keen to read more from this author.

Great new voices, at least she was new to me, but now I will go back and read her previous book, in the thriller genre. Addictive and fast pace. Just as I like them. Highly recommend!

A great addition to the Scandi thriller section but it made my stomach churn! a bit too gory for me if Im honest.
Butterflies will never seem the same again and that was just the name of the house in the story!
I need a lie down

Having previously read and enjoyed The Tenant, I looked forward to this book very much and I found it to be as good as the previous book, if not better. It kept me engrossed and I didn't work out who the baddie was until the end, and there were further twists that I hadn't managed to work out either. This can be read as a standalone novel and I recommend it.