Saturday, January 4, 2020

Review: THE TENANT by Katrine Engberg



3.5 Stars

This is the second Scandinavian police procedural which hasn't engrossed me. That's sad, because I adore the subgenre of Foreign Police Procedural and the sub-subgenre of Scandi-Noir. As with a British thriller I reviewed some months ago, this Mystery just doesn't know when to stop. I wish 1/4 to 1/3 had been trimmed. Now the novel has good bones; and the large cast of characters is really  well-developed.  The plotting is truly convoluted; and introducing several characters who could possibly be the evil mastermind kept me in suspense.  Other than that, I  perked up  twice, at about 24% and I think 95%, in both cases at a shocking revelation. Otherwise I just plodded through.  The protagonist is feckless and definitely not much of a hero, and his "Woe is me" melancholy soon grew old, as did his utterly foolish behavior in a certain respect (which I will not spoil).

The best I can offer for this one is 3.5.

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