Fast paced narrative holds your attention and keep you on the edge of your seat! Some too familiar tropes but well done and strong characters and a terrific setting!

Very good first novel. The plotting was excellent with lots of changing suspects and motivations. The characters were, frankly, irritating with little chance of redemption as they were never explored with much depth. I'm hopeful that might change with a second book using the same detectives.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for ARC to read and review.

A horrifying murder and a race to find the killer engross the reader in a thrilling story that is sure to keep you guessing. For me, I really enjoyed this book, and while the basic story of murder and solving the mystery is tried and true this one didn't wow me in any of the reveals. But I really wanted to find out what happened. The story was compelling. I enjoyed every minute of it. I would recommend picking this one up for your next whodunnit.

Gregers Harmansen, an elderly tenant in a building owned by Esther DeLaurentis, is taking his trash out one night when he notices the door of the apartment rented by two college girls ajar. Calling out and getting no response, he attempts to shut their door, and falls onto a body.

Detectives Jeppe Korner & Annette Werner are assigned to the case, and soon find the suspect list to be a large one. Then another murder occurs. Most of their leads and suspects seem to have connections back to Esther. Why would that be? Is she responsible for the crimes, or a victim in a different way as well?

The Tenant is an entertaining read - it has good pacing, a well-developed cast of characters, and twists and turns galore which should satisfy those who enjoy the mystery and/or police procedural genres. 3.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for allowing me to read a copy of The Tenant in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Pretty sure this was my first Nordic Noir. ⁣⁣
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And although I didn’t love it, I also didn’t hate it! ⁣⁣
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I felt some parts were just really slow or unnecessary. And then other parts just went so fast! ⁣⁣
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It definitely focused on the police side of things which I actually found really interesting! ⁣⁣
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This one also made you think. At the end it was obvious who the killer was, but the journey there was what mattered to me. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣
I’m on the fence to recommend this, but only because this is my first one and I’m not totally sure if this is how all Nordic Noirs are....sooo read at your own risk? 🤣

This turned out to be an interesting book for several reasons - not the least of which that it's set in Denmark, written by a popular Danish author and is the first of her work, I believe, to be translated for the U.S. market. It's also the first in a detective series, so I'll assume that if it does well here in the states, we'll have the opportunity to read more.

And that's fine by me. Up front, though, I'll say I never totally warmed up to either of the main characters - police investigator Jeppe Korner and his partner, Anette Werner - but then the two of them never quite seem to warm up to each other, either, so I don't feel too bad. They're very different personalities with very different backgrounds (Jeppe is recently and unhappily divorced while Anette's marriage seems on solid footing, for instance). But they at least tolerate one another professionally, and that's what's most important as the case takes center stage.

In an apartment building owned by a retired university professor turned fiction writer, an elderly tenant stumbles (literally) into the apartment occupied by two relatively young girls. One is gone and the other is home - but quite dead. She's been brutally murdered, and there's blood everywhere but no other clues. Jeppe and Anette must start from scratch, first interviewing the dead girl's roommate and her boyfriend, the building owner and her special, much younger male friend who is, shall I say, a bit of a weirdo.

The case grows even more complex as connections to other mostly nasty friends and relatives emerge and some of the dead girl's secrets are revealed. Learning that the novel the building owner is writing is more than loosely based on the life of the dead girl leads to the strong suspicion that life is imitating art (or that the elderly writer may even be the killer). Throw in a couple of other murders, and the plot, as they say, begins to thicken. In the midst of all this, love-starved Jeppe meets a tantalizing woman who rocks his world (an affair that, to my mind, seemed totally out of place and added nothing to the plot, though perhaps it's a scene that will be revisited in a future installment).

The pace picks up complete with a twist or two as the ending nears, the killer is identified and all becomes as right with the world as is possible under the circumstances. In all, it's a solid start to a new series I think will get even better - so yes, I'm looking forward to proving myself right. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for offering me an advance copy of this one.

First, I'd like to thank Katrine Engberg, NetGalley, and Scout Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book should be perfect for anyone who is a fan of Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key or J. K. Rowling (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith)'s Cormoran Strike series.

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous.

I want to thank the author once more for giving me another crime series that I can't wait to dig more into. Thank you for being brave enough to have your stories translated into so many different languages. And, thank you for already having three books in the series! I CANNOT WAIT TO READ MORE OF THIS SERIES!

I liked this book.

I thought the author did a good job telling the story. I liked the main character but found him a typical male who finds females as pointless. That took me out of the story every time he spoke ill of his partner.

I thought this was an interesting start to a detective series. The crime itself is unique, and I never had a chance to figure out who the killer was as new clues continued to pop up. Engberg's sense of pace is great, and nothing was too predictable.

While the crime aspect was quite good, I found the main character, Jeppe (the lead detective on the case), to be quite full of himself and annoying. He finds his partner, Annette, quite annoying and points that out many times, when it seems like he is just jealous of her happy life. He just seemed like another white male who can't be bothered to get his life together. There was also more than one mention of his penis, which I really don't care about or need to read about.. I hope that the next books in this series will focus more on Annette, so we can get a glimpse into her life and broaden her character outside of Jeppe's simple analysis of her.

Regardless, if you're into crime/detective novels, I'd give this one a read! It is quite gripping in the end, and I did enjoy reading it. I hope that in future novels in the series, Engberg will create female characters who do not only serve as sex interests or 'annoying' colleagues. Fingers crossed!

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.I thought this was an interesting start to a detective series. The crime itself is unique, and I never had a chance to figure out who the killer was as new clues continued to pop up. Engberg's sense of pace is great, and nothing was too predictable.

While the crime aspect was quite good, I found the main character, Jeppe (the lead detective on the case), to be quite full of himself and annoying. He finds his partner, Annette, quite annoying and points that out many times, when it seems like he is just jealous of her happy life. He just seemed like another white male who can't be bothered to get his life together. There was also more than one mention of his penis, which I really don't care about or need to read about.. I hope that the next books in this series will focus more on Annette, so we can get a glimpse into her life and broaden her character outside of Jeppe's simple analysis of her.

Regardless, if you're into crime/detective novels, I'd give this one a read! It is quite gripping in the end, and I did enjoy reading it. I hope that in future novels in the series, Engberg will create female characters who do not only serve as sex interests or 'annoying' colleagues. Fingers crossed!

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Obsessed! This is an excellent detective story set in Copenhagen starring a fabulously broken lead detective. I enjoyed the plot, the pace, and the characters. I’m especially in love with the lead detective! I can easily see this becoming a wonderful TV show as well. I hope this is the first in a long series and look forward to the next installment.

Danish bestselling author
This is her U.S. Debut

Her writing is elegant and enjoyable!

Travel to Copenhagen
work with two Police Investigators to solve the case

This gave me whip lash but not in a good way. I didn’t like the red herrings and thought it took away from the character development. However, I appreciated how the storyline was so unique.

I typically devour books in this genre, but for some reason I really couldn't get into this one. I don't know if it was the writing or how the first quarter of the book just seemed to drag on or they time of year I am trying to read it in or something else. I will consider reading another title by the author at a future date. Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Pocket Books for the digital arc of this title.

The Tenant is the first in this series, having been recently translated to English in order to debut in the United States. The plot was well-developed, sinister, and highly addictive. A young woman, Julie Stender, is discovered dead in her apartment. She was brutally murdered, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face. The detective team assigned to the case, led by Jeppe and Anette, were entertaining and had me rooting for their success in solving the case. Secrets were unearthed and multiple suspects were presented along the way and kept me guessing who the killer was until the end. This novel was compelling, twisty, and coercive, forcing me to stay up well past my bedtime just to finish it.

I eagerly anticipate the next in this series!

The vicious murder of a young woman leads detectives to suspect the woman’s landlord. As secrets are revealed and new information comes to light, the detectives discover the woman and the landlord are tied to one another—and the landlord might be the next victim. Author Katrine Engberg gives readers plucky detectives stuck in a convoluted plot in her new novel The Tenant.

In Copenhagen, detective partners Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned a grisly case. A young woman named Julie Stender was murdered in her own apartment, and the murderer left a calling card: he carved an intricate pattern on her face. As the lead detective, Korner assembles a team to start analyzing the information at Julie’s apartment as well as to track down the people in Julie’s life.

He and Werner interview Julie’s landlady, Esther, and make a horrific discovery: Esther, a retired professor and budding author, has been working on a murder mystery manuscript. The murder she describes in her book bears a strong resemblance to the way Julie was killed. It doesn’t help either that Esther is a borderline alcoholic.

At first glance, Korner and Werner think they’ll wrap up the case fast. Then the detectives start digging into Julie’s past and find that she came to Copenhagen to get a fresh start; at least, that’s what it seems on the surface. Korner can’t help feeling that maybe she was running from something, though. The more he and Werner discover about Julie, the more they realize she wasn’t just a young woman looking for kicks in the big city.

As they pursue the case, Esther struggles with her guilt. Did her book contribute to Julie’s death? Could she, in a drunken stupor, possibly have hurt Julie? Never mind that Julie was young and Esther, at her age, most likely couldn’t have even pushed her over, forget about holding her down long enough to kill her. Has her drinking led her to a dark place she didn’t even know existed inside her?

More victims begin to appear as do more questions, and Korner tries to keep his wits intact. Dealing with his marriage falling apart isn’t helping anything, but his work is the one thing that’s keeping him sane. This despite the fact that he’s spending all his time combing through the fine details of Julie’s life that lead him and Werner to believe she was, in fact, living a lie.

Author Katrine Engberg gives readers a likable, complicated protagonist in Jeppe Korner. As Korner makes tiny steps of progress in his case, his personal life continues to erode. Engberg uses the juxtaposition to humanize detectives and to remind readers that law enforcement officials deal with the same challenges the general public does. They just have to work harder at hiding their weaknesses to make sure their cases get solved.

The rest of Korner’s team also come across as well-developed characters. The problem comes in the form of the plot itself. While it starts out with intriguing twists and turns, at some point the plot elements get tangled. In the climax, a key character goes missing and important information comes to light. That information ends up only tangentially related to the main story arc, yet the characters and the narrative try hard to convince readers that it’s a key piece of information.

Engberg further complicates the story by trying to draw parallels between the lives of two characters, when the book would have progressed just fine without the comparison. In fact, the plot would have been much tighter, offering mystery/thriller fans the satisfying unraveling of secrets in a much sleeker fashion. As it stands, readers will have to follow the tangled threads to come to the end.

Readers of thrillers who’d like to experience a glimpse into life in Copenhagen might want to check this one out. Otherwise, I recommend readers Borrow The Tenant.

I loved this book, the style of writing, the interesting characters, the dark underlying current that stayed steady throughout the story. I enjoyed the act of reading each word just as much as the mystery itself. Right from the start, I was reeled in - curious about the people living in these apartments. And the investigation team... I'm rooting for all of them. I can hardly wait for the next book in this series. Thank you Netgalley and Katrine Engberg for the advanced copy in return for this honest review!

I received a complimentary copy of THE TENANT by Katrine Engberg through Netgalley. Thank you to Gallery Books for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review review!

THE TENANT begins with a man stumbling rather literally on the body of one of his young neighbors. The body has been mutilated with a pattern carved into her face. Detectives Jeppe and Anette are assigned to investigate to identify the victim and question those surrounding her. There are no shortage of suspects ask the detectives discover links to others in the building and shadows in her past. The elderly landlord seems above reproach in some ways, but the novel she is writing bears some uncanny resemblances to the case at hand.

I really enjoyed THE TENANT overall. I find that the idea of a book within a book and the interplay of life and art work well for me in stories. Looking at the similarities and differences between life and art proved an interesting twist to the murder investigation. There are no shortage of quirky characters in this one, from the detectives themselves to the people they are investigating.

I didn’t find myself immediately connecting with the detectives as much as I did to the case and the cast of characters involved in it. Purely as a matter of personal taste I struggled a bit with Jeppe a bit. We get quite a bit of his perspective on life, his struggles with his past relationships and quite a bit of discussion of his anatomy that I felt could have been left out, but again that is more a matter of taste I think.

In all, I really did enjoy this book. THE TENANT is the first in a series of novels written by Katrine Engberg featuring these two detectives and this is the first to be translated into English. If you are looking for a good mystery, this definitely is a book you’ll want to check out when it is released on January 14, 2020!

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I had a hard time getting into The Tenant. There was something missing for me. Overall, I enjoyed it and am glad that I stuck with it.

I was sent an ARC by Scout Press as I had reviewed and enjoyed Ruth Ware's "Turn of the Key."

I enjoy reading mysteries and thrillers so this seemed right up my alley. It is placed in Copenhagen and features two detectives, Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner who are baffled by a young woman's brutal murder. The case quickly evolves into multiple murders that they are no closer to solving.

Character development was mediocre. Jeppe is a bizarre man any way you slice it. You learn that he recently went through a divorce and had taken time off work to recover. Upon returning to work, this case lands in his lap and he is put as Lead Detective. This adds extra stress and pressure for Jeppe. As for Anette, you learn about her a bit more. She has a husband and LOVES dogs but that is really about it. The main victim, had probably the most background development, this was crucial to build the plot. You were able to learn about her past and who might be included in the suspect list. Esther, the owner of the building, has a bit more life to her. You know about her profession, her passions, her dogs, her relationships with the tenants, and the book she is writing. This is crucial.

Without giving too much away, the actual investigation is very enthralling. I was constantly trying to figure out who it could be. Is it the writing group? Is it Esther? The roommate? A stalker? Karen Engberg takes you down so many avenues that kept me guessing, "Whodunnit" until the very end. The only real negative to this book was the overuse of Jeppe's sexual thoughts or desires. I felt there was no need for some excepts to be in the book at all. The served no purpose except for me to skim more quickly. Having said that, I would still rate this quite high and I would recommend it to those who love mystery/thrillers.

I'll be honest and say that this novel did not grab me from the beginning. It was off to a very slow start and I alternated between finishing it and not finishing it through the first half of the novel. Then it picked up a little bit and then I had to find out what happened. I didn't particularly care for Kerner at all. He is a drug addict and super whiny, alternately grieving about his soon to be ex-wife and then a mess over a fling with a witness. I liked Werner, his partner, a lit more, but she wasn't a major part of the story. I did like that I was kept guessing a lot. I will definitely give this author another try. Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.