cover image Die for Me

Die for Me

Jesper Stein, trans. from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund. Mirror (IPG, dist.), $15.95 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-912624-19-5

Set in 2008, Stein’s searing second outing for Det. Chief Insp. Axel Steen (after 2018’s Unrest) finds the workaholic Danish homicide cop still obsessed with the unsolved rape and murder case of 18-year-old Marie Schmidt, whose naked body was fished out of a lake in a Copenhagen park in 2004. The strain of the investigation wrecked his marriage. Four years later, Steen, who battles a near-addiction to hash and a hopeless yearning for his ex-wife, Cecilie, has a series of rapes in Copenhagen’s seedy Nørrebro district on his hands. Steen likes to work alone, but he has to keep his not always supportive team happy and endure the company of his ex-wife’s lover, Deputy Commissioner Jens Jessen, who suspects him of trying to win Cecilie back. DNA evidence Steen uncovers eventually leads to answers about Marie’s fate. Brilliantly plotted and filled with convincing police procedure carried out by realistically fragile characters, this psychological thriller profoundly explores the price that those who pursue truth too often pay. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole will want to check this one out. (June)