‘The Killing 11’ by David Hewson

Published by Macmillan
17 January 2013.
ISBN: 978-1447208426

Sarah Lund of the Danish police is recalled to Copenhagen from her exile in Gedser.  A new and nasty serial killer is loose, and his motivation seems linked to an alleged atrocity committed by a Danish officer in Helmand province.  It’s a scandal that Thomas Buch, newly-appointed Minister of Justice, isn’t going to ignore ...

This was an excellent read.  I really enjoyed the mixture of detection and current affaird.  Lund is a feisty heroine whose guilt over the shooting of her former partner was convincingly handled, and her sidekick Strange is an interesting character.  I never saw the TV series, but had no difficulty in visualising and remembering the many characters in the police, in politics or in the army world.  The dialogue, as you’d expect, was tautly written, and the book flipped quickly between scenes, so that all the strands of a complex story were kept in play.

A fast-moving thriller which will recreate the world of the TV show for those who want to return to it, and give those who missed it a new detective to follow.

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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

David Hewson was born in Yorkshire in 1953 and left school at the age of seventeen to work as a cub reporter on one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country in Scarborough. Eight years later he was a staff reporter on The Times in London, covering news, business and latterly working as arts correspondent. He worked on the launch of the Independent and was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times for a decade before giving up journalism entirely in 2005 to focus on writing fiction. His novels have been translated into a wide range of languages, from Italian to Japanese, and his debut work, Semana Santa, set in Holy Week Spain, was filmed with Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez. Semana Santa won the WH Smith Fresh Talent award for one of the best debut novels of the year in 1996.and was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino. Four standalone works followed before A Season for the Dead, the first in a series set in Italy. He has featured regularly on the speaker lists of leading international book events, including the Melbourne and Ottawa writers' festivals, the Harrogate Crime Festival, Thrillerfest, Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime. He has taught at writing schools around the world and is a regular faculty member for the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference in Corte Madera, California, where he has worked alongside writers such as Martin Cruz Smith and Michael Connelly.

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh, and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  Marsali also does a regular monthly column for the Mystery People e-zine.