She Treads Softly: The Sanctuary

Thursday, February 2, 2023

The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary by Katrine Engberg
2/7/23; 336 pages
Gallery/Scout Press
Kørner and Werner #5

The Sanctuary by Katrine Engberg is a very highly recommended procedural. This is Scandinavian noir at it's finest and the fifth novel in the Kørner and Werner series.

In Copenhagen, Anette Werner is leading the investigation into a severed corpse discovered in a suitcase. Jeppe Kørner is on leave from the force and living on the island of Bornholm and cutting limber for the local sawmill for a living. Esther de Laurenti is also on the island, working on her biography of a female anthropologist after a friend's death. As Anette follows the clues into the identity of the body, they lead to Bornholm, so she asks Jeppe to look into some leads.

This is an exceptional police procedural, both in the plot and the writing and an excellent final novel in the series featuring Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner. I was engrossed in the gripping plot throughout and appreciated the careful disclosure of new information as clues are discovered and new information is revealed. Esther is tied into the overall investigation too. Part of the story includes Esther's research and the correspondence she is reading for her research. The letters she reads end up foreshadowing leads in the investigation.

All of the characters are portrayed as fully realized individuals. Those who have been reading the series will appreciated the additional character development in this finally installment. If this is your first introduction to the series, you can read it as there is enough information provided to follow along and not feel lost or that you don't know the characters. It will inspire you to red the whole series, or those books that are translated into English.

The pace is even but picks up at the heart-stopping ending. There are multiple suspects, and several different directions the plot could take as the investigation unfolds in this atmospheric novel and intriguing mystery. The narrative is focused on solving the case, which is appreciated, and the details and complications make the case interesting and keep you glued to the pages.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery/Scout Press via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.