This book was better than I expected. It was fast paced, dark and enthralling. I definitely would love to read more books by this author.

Thanks Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to review this book

“Corpse Flower,”

I chose this book because of the title. The corpse flower has a rotting corpse-like odor.

“The Corpse Flower” is a Danish mystery
set in Denmark, a reporter begins receiving letters from the killer of a high-profile murder victim, which puts her and others in danger.

The character
development fell flat for me. “Corpse Flower” shifts between four points of view: Heloise, Anna, Stefan, and Eric. Stefan's point of view felt unnecessary. We saw Anna's POV several times, which added to the mysterious feeling the reader was supposed to feel in these scenes as it created questions. Heloise and Eric were the most fleshed-out characters. We see the most.

“The Corpse Flower” is a well-paced dark mystery with a great ending. I enjoyed reading about the corpse flower in this one and watching the mystery unfold.

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock is the first in a series and honestly, I cannot wait for the others. A woman, Anna Kiel, is wanted in the fatal stabbing of an attorney and is currently hiding from the police who think she has fled the country. A journalist, Heloise Kaiden, has been getting letters in the mail from the suspected killer, Anna as well as dealing with a source who is lying to her, could possibly lose her job due to this. Although she realizes that the letters from Anna could help with her boss at work. She must tell Anna’s story accurately and realizing that there are coincidences between the two women, Heloise must look at her past as well. But when she looks at the murder she wonders if Anna actually was the one who murdered the lawyer or if someone else set her up. Hancock weaves the story together perfectly and the characters are well developed and flawed with twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.


5 out of 5 stars


Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

📖My Thoughts📖

Crime thrillers are probably my favorite types of thrillers. I love getting myself lost in one of these babies. This one was so easy to get lost in. It was gripping, fast paced and most importantly, it had a fair amount of twists and turns. I loved every second of it! The book was written in multiple points of view which I feel enhanced the story, giving us a better view of some of the characters. Oh and the ending? The ending was just so satisfying, which doesn’t always happen, so that was a nice change. This is a must read for anyone who loves a good international crime thriller. I highly recommend it and will definitely be reading more by this author!
Thank you Netgalley, Anne Mette Hancock and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock was a fast-paced, knock-out piece of Scandi noir. Hancock moves you through the complex story she's woven like a shuttle through a loom.

Heloise is everything a reader could wish for in a narrator for a thriller like this: moody, indefatigable, and woefully unprepared for what's ahead. Paired with a secret to hide and letters from a missing murderer, and you've got a wrecking ball of a story.

Perhaps the most compelling character, though, is Anna. Although we only meet her for the briefest of periods, the blow she deals is immense. As she tells her story to Heloise, it becomes instantly irrelevant whether or not she's likeable, a rare achievement for a perceived villain. Instead, through Anna, Hancock asks questions seemingly too big to answer of the reader, leaving them with a bittersweet climax to Anna's story.

As always when it comes to Scandi noir, I found myself desperately trying to guess how Heloise's and Anna's stories would come together, to puzzle out what connected them. Never in a million years would I have leapt to the conclusion that Hancock ultimately unravels for the reader. It is shocking, to say the least.

I finished The Corpse Flower feeling enraged, but also a little hopeful for Anna, the vigilante no one had asked for but many deserved.

(P.S. Immensely sorry for the very delayed review. Where the time went, I've no idea.)

Warning - this novel deals with paedophilia and child sexual abuse issues.
The idea of this novel is quite fresh and intriguing (speaking from the "technical" point, not that I find these dark topics intriguing, the opposite!). I like the unorthodox approach of the authoress, which could push the game into a very interesting play, especially with the "unreliability" factor in the settings. But also - this is a debut novel. While there are no novice mistakes in general, I feel that that ambitious settings needs more experienced writer, as the novel could even be more nuanced.
But having said all this - I am intrigued enough to have my hand on the next installment in this series!

I have not read a crime thriller in a long time, but this book made me remember how much I love them. The Corpse Flower follows a Danish journalist, Heloise Kaldan, who has begun to receive mysterious letters from alleged killer Anna Kiel. Kaldan becomes determined to find Kiel and find the big break in her story that could change her life and career forever.

The pacing was one of the best parts of this book. It is really easy for a crime thriller to drag on at parts, but I always felt interested in the story. I also thought Heloise's back story was well done. It seemed realistic but also important enough to keep the story going. There were parts of the book where the translation to English was a little iffy, but overall it was an entertaining read!

Scandinavian noir? Don't mind if I do.

The premise of this book draws the reader in a little. A journalist receives messages from a killer getting the whole ball rolling. I honestly wasn't that invested in the first half. But as the story unfolded, I couldn't get enough. There are triggers of child abuse and trafficking so you've been warned. The depravity of humans in this novel was profound and that is what keeps the reader rooting for the killer.

Heloise Kaldan is a journalist in Denmark. One of her recent stories contained some bad information so she could really use a big scoop, but she's not sure she wants the one that has landed in her lap. Several years ago the son of a wealthy industrialist was murdered, the killer a young woman named Anna Kiel. Afterwards Anna escaped the country and has yet to be found. But she has started sending cryptic letters to Heloise and Heloise isn't sure if this is a big story or a chance to be killed herself.

As Heloise works on the story, she finds a partner in the police. Homicide detective Erik Schafer isn't sure if Heloise is working to find the killer or to help her in her plot. More murders occur and suspicion falls even more heavily on the journalist. It doesn't help when it is discovered that her father is in prison in France and she has lied about knowing who he is. Heloise has written her father out of her life after he was found guilty of child pornography but it seems that he is the connection between her and Anna. She is forced to finally break her vow and go visit him and afterwards, she finds out the story of Anna's life and understands what drives her to kill.

This is the first novel in this series. Heloise is an interesting character, driven by her job but willing to work with the police and share information she has gathered with them. Detective Schafer is less finely drawn but further novels can flesh out this character as well. The plot is interesting and the killer Anna is a character the reader would like to see in further novels again. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

A promising premise that only partially lives up to its hype as the Danish version of "insert your favorite American mystery series here." I enjoyed, in no particular order, the anti-reconciling-family subplot, the ambiguous villain, and being able to follow a journalist, a welcome respite from all the police procedurals.

However, I found the plot thin, and ended up power-reading through the second half of the novel to see how the pieces fit.

Heloise is a journalist who receives a letter from fugitive murderer Anna Kiel. This starts her in a journey to discover Anna’s whereabouts and what she could possibly want from Heloise, the conclusion of which brings her face-to-face with her own shameful past.

The first half of this book felt like trudging through. I wasn’t loving it, didn’t love the characters, didn’t feel like finishing it. But then I hit the second half and devoured that in one day. Anna’s story is heartbreaking, and I found myself on her side, even though she is a murderer.

Overall I enjoyed this book and will read the second in the series!

THE CORPSE FLOWER: A Kaldan And Sháfer Danish Crime Novel – Book One – by Anne Mette Hancock

‘Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. Then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman named Anna Kiel.’

I thoroughly enjoyed reading THE CORPSE FLOWER—I Loved The Ending! I can’t wait to read Book Two, THE COLLECTOR, scheduled to release on November 8, 2022, though subject to change.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books (The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC), for providing me with an eBook of THE CORPSE FLOWER at the request of an honest review.

The Corpse Flower is Scandinavian crime noir at its finest. It is dark, it is grisly, it is unsettling, and nobody writes about crime the way the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes do. This is in the same vein as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and yet has a more psychological element underlying it. Something a little more intimate, which makes it all the more disturbing.
Seriously, pick up this book. It is a sinister and sadistic gift that you will devour in a few sittings.

Loved this book! Great build-up, various misleading clues, plot twists and an unexpected ending. 100% would recommend this to anyone.

I understand why this is being compared to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and its sequels given the author's writing style and the setting, but I didn't feel like the plot reached the same level of sustained, multi-book mystery that characterises the Millennium series. I think if people read this expecting it to be like the Millennium series they'll be disappointed, but if they go in expecting it to be what it is - a fast-paced mystery with lots of twists and turns - they'll very much enjoy it, as I did.

Crime thrillers are my favorite so I was very excited to receive this book. It is a very grim and gripping story with some well written characters. I would recommend it to fellow readers. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

You can see my full review here: https://youtu.be/20bh8m_aVkI

Slower that i would like when it starts to get interesting it's almost the end of the book, not totally my cup of tea but some people may enjoy it

I will not write a synopsis of the book just my thoughts on it.
It started off well, very slow to be honest; at times I wanted to give it up. As I reached around 55 percent. the story started to be more engaging. I loved how the plot twist did come out of no where. I had no idea it was going that lane. I did enjoy our main character “Heloise” which I kept saying her name with an H until told otherwise haha!

The last bit of the story where things start to unravel were my favorite parts; anything before; I can’t truly say.
I definitely recommend if you like slow burns with a good solid ending.

Crime thriller with an international flavor.

Set in Copenhagen, this book features two main characters: journalist Heloise Kaldan and a detective, Erik Scháfer. Their liaison starts after Heloise begins receiving cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman, Anna Kiel, who is on the run after having killed a prominent young lawyer three years prior. The letters hint at some sort of connection between Heloise and Anna, but Heloise claims she has never met her and has no clue about why Anna is writing her. Heloise begins to take a closer look at the murder investigation and Scháfer finds himself involved in the cold case as more mysterious deaths occur.

At the heart of this story are the two main themes of secrets and lies. As Kaldan and Scháfer dig deep into the background of Anna Kiel, many disturbing facts are revealed. I found the premise compelling and I enjoyed the author's writing style. I don't actually agree with the comparison between this book and the other two mentioned in the blurb, except for the heart of the subject matter which I can't say more about due to spoilers. The case was complex, dark, and there were a few twists along the way; the conclusion was satisfying. I liked it and definitely plan to read the second book in the series next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

2.5⭐

TW: violence, rape, child abuse, suicide


This one started as an interesting crime mystery that hooked me almost immediately, but things just fell flat in the middle. I think this is mostly because I couldn't get to like the main character Heloise and hence couldn't get myself to care about her side of the story. This was described as "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo meets Sharp Objects"--one similarity I saw is the fact that the main character is also a journalist, and sadly that's it.

Some of the MC's observations can be so out of place, for example "even the most dedicated of atheists had to contemplate hammering some nails into a couple of boards and building an ark--or at least a raft of some sorts." (Just to say it was raining very hard!!) This kind of writing distracts me from the narrative.

Based on a lot of the MC's conversations especially the one with the boy at the site of the titular corpse flower, it feels like she has no sense of wonder, or no special way of seeing the world. She was described as cold and cynical, so maybe that's why she's written this way. But this made the experience of reading her POV really tiring.

The MC's commentaries on disability, women, women's bodies, and bodies and skin conditions in general were bordering on hate and discrimination. One example is the time the MC felt like a "softy" when she was speaking with a man on a wheelchair. She contemplated whether she was being made softer because of it, while also noting that the guy "did not look disabled"(!?) I wonder what she assumes disabled people should look like. It is so easy for her to judge people's looks while she herself and her best friend is always described as "very beautiful" and "drop dead gorgeous" respectively.

The big reveal was anticlimactic. For a supposedly sharp journalist, Heloise was so slow to understand what the person in front of her was telling (spoon-feeding) her. She only has sense of urgency when it comes to getting her scoop ahead of other press people.

There is a scene where she interviews a victim of child abuse and this part finally convinced me that the MC is just heartless and self centered, with no character development whatsoever (at least in this book). She just wants to get her story and is only concerned with victims for her own sake, with no real empathy aside from her own perception of what's right and wrong. I don't think I'll be continuing with the series.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.