3.5/5

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC!

Eliel Zetterborg, powerful executive, is found murdered in his upscale home. With Detective Jessica Niemi on leave, her partner, Yusuf, is taking the lead on his first investigation. The only problem? The police have only one clue: a photograph of Zetterborg and two unidentifiable men. When this straightforward case becomes anything but, can Yusuf track down the killer and keep Jessica safe?

This was a pretty solid thriller. There were a lot of characters and storylines to keep track of, and it definitely would have been helpful to have read the others in this series before reading this one. However, I appreciated the mystery at hand and the way it unfolded. This was a complex and interesting story with a few unexpected twists along the way! It took me a little while to get into it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the way things turned out.

The Last Grudge by Max Seeck is a thrilling crime novel and police procedural set in and around Helsinki, Finland. This is the third book in the Detective Sergeant Jessica Niemi series. However, in this novel, Jessica is on a leave of absence from the Helsinki police department following an attack. She wants to track down the coven that was featured in prior books, and is still experiencing nightmares and is haunted by sightings of her dead mother. Meanwhile, her partner Detective Sergeant Yusuf Pepple is assigned as lead investigator on a high profile murder. Wealthy and powerful executive Eliel Zetterborg has been found murdered in his home. What seems straightforward quickly becomes complex.

Both Jessica and Yusuf are likeable characters, but Jessica takes a back seat in this novel. Readers get glimpses of her personality, her nightmares, and her interactions with her colleagues. Meanwhile Seeck has created a wonderful personality in Yusuf. He’s slightly unsure of himself in a leadership role, but steps up to the challenge. Along the way, he learns things about himself as well as his co-workers.

This is a crime thriller with a layered plot about betrayal, murder, bullying, family, job losses, revenge, greed, and much more. The prologue is intriguing, but readers don’t get a feeling for how it fits into the story until the end of the book. Chapter one introduces readers to Eliel, and this is quickly followed by the introduction of the various police officers including Yusuf. The story mainly takes place in 2022. However, there are flashbacks to an incident in 1990.

Meanwhile, Jessica’s subplot is interspersed throughout the story line. Readers who have read the first two books in the series will engage with this thread more easily than those who are starting with this third novel. Jessica is haunted by her past, but readers only gradually learn what has happened to her. However, she does occasionally confer with Yusuf on his case.

This is largely a complex and polished police procedural. The scenes from 1990 and inside Eliel’s apartment were vivid. Despite this, I didn’t get a deep sense of the story being set in Finland. However, I loved the intensity and suspense, including a few tense action scenes. The author kept me guessing until nearly the end of the book.

Max Seeck’s characters were realistic and made the story dynamic. Overall, this twisty mystery kept me engaged. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Berkley Publishing Group and Max Seeck provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for February 07, 2023. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

Read if you like:
🔪 Thrillers
🇫🇮 Books set in Finland
📚 Books in a Series
⏳Slow Burn Thrillers
🪄 Dark Magic

First and foremost, I highly recommend reading reading the other books in this series first and making sure you know all the players in the story because the background knowledge from the other stories is important for this one.

This one has a little bit of everything if you are a thriller lover and love to be along for the journey to figure out the mystery.

Thank you Berkley for my ARC copy of this one in exchange for my review!

This was a 4-star book for me until the last third when I could not put it down, everything started falling in and out of place, twists were twisting, and we get set up for book #4. Now it gets a solid 5 stars.

The absolutely only downside for me was not having read the previous books. You can definitely read this as a standalone, but author Max Seeck seems to weave and blend these characters and stories throughout the series, so there were times I did not know what was going on. I am still unclear about Jessica Niemi, the main character of this series. She is only a side character here, pursuing her own mystery left over from previous books, but since I knew nothing about her or her situation, she was mostly a distraction from the main story here.

BUT! The main story is compelling and complicated. There were times when I complained that things were too ridiculous, the crime would never happen like this... Well, well, well... You just have to keep reading! Then the culprits start getting revealed and things make more sense, BUT! What about this or that and the other? Don't worry, we have a twist and an answer for that too! And THEN! One more twist! (And ANOTHER!)

And then I finished and went to bed thinking about all the pieces, making sure everything fit together and there were no holes and I started remembering, Wait, what happened to that guy? And what about that girl? I was disappointed for a moment, thinking a couple balls had been dropped, but I remembered this is a series, and if I had read from Book #1 I would have known things are just getting set up for Book #4. And guess what? I will be here waiting to get my hands on that book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I honestly think this was one whopper of a mystery, well thought out through a lot of craziness and twists, and I can't wait for the next one

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing, and Max Seeck for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.



This is my second book to read in the Jessica Niemi series, which started with The Witch Hunter, then The Ice Coven and now The Last Grudge, though I hope Mr. Seeck continues with this fabulous series. IN most series, you can read even one book and know what's going on, though I do think it is imperative that you read the first book to understand what is happening in The Last Grudge. As with the second book in this series, Seeck's writing is seamless, and nothing is lost with translation. In this title,

In The Last Grudge, Sergeant Jessica Niemi has taken leave from her position to work out some demons from her past, though she doesn't stay on leave for long, as an unpopular but very well known business figure has been murdered in his own apartment. While Jessica personally investigates the fiery death of a man on Christmas eve, her team is called to the high profile murder scene of Eliel Zetterborg, a much hated and wealthy business man who has had to make some tough decisions regarding layoffs of 3000 workers. Since Jessica is off-duty her partner, Yusuf Pepple of the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit, is named lead investigator but he quickly finds himself not up to the task, due to some surprising news from his ex-girlfriend. When the pressure becomes too much, he begs Jessica to help him. Unofficially, they form a team to help solve this crime, This is where the first book becomes important, as the demons she faces have to do with the witch they discovered in the first book in the series. Also, Jessica's dead mother keeps visiting her messages and Jessica becomes concerned with bouts of time she cannot remember anything. When the investigative team discovers another body connected to Zetterborg's, time is of the essence.

I loved this book. It starts off a little slow but there are several things I recognized from the second book in the series. Jessica is a formidable character. I have nothing to compare her to in regards to heroines in other books. I adored Jessica's relationship with Yusuf and how they had each other's backs. I think I see a relationship between them in the future books. Another character I enjoyed was Rasmus Susikoski, an employee in the Helsinksi violent crimes unit, who is on the spectrum with a genius IQ. Seeck creates some great characters and I can't wait to see them in the fourth book!

I've read and enjoyed two other books in this series featuring Helsinki, Finland, police detective Jessica Niemi. This one begins as Jessica is on leave after being seriously injured in an attack; one hand still isn't functioning very well, and she's still plagued with mysterious and disturbing "sightings" of her late mother and haunted by a few other occult-type demons triggered by events in her past. In fact, for the first half or so of the book, she doesn't play a prominent role.

In her absence, the role of good cop pretty much falls to her friend and colleague Jusef Pepple, a competent and very likable character in his own right. He's called in when a very rich man is murdered in his very well secured home right under the ever-watchful eye of his longtime bodyguard Joonas Lamberg. Apparently a tyrant in the world of business, he'd just made a deal that would close a local factory and put some 3,000 employees out of work - so the lineup of possible suspects could stretch for miles. When Jusef and his team find a years-earlier photo of the victim and two other men, both of whose faces are scratched out, the motive becomes a little more clear.

But motive alone won't do it; given the security, means and opportunity to commit the murder appear to be nonexistent. So while Jessica continues to battle her demons on her own - occasionally conferring with Yusef when he begs her to help - the police scramble to figure out how anyone could have pulled off the murder in what was a scant window of time without being seen or heard.

Those details are the most I can provide without giving too much away, so I'll just say this is another entertaining entry into what I've come to know as a really good series. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy. Well done once again!

I had read the first one of this series, and then somehow missed the second one. I went ahead and requested this anyway to see if this series is still as intriguing as the first book. I think I did miss some stuff but jumping in the third book isn’t bad as it could be, but I think I’d recommend reading the other two first. Jessica isn’t the main character in this one, which threw me a little, but it didn’t take long to get into the thick of things. This was an enthralling mystery, and of course, written well, filled with excellent descriptions including a dark atmosphere and spine-chilling moments. There are many layers to this, and I enjoyed the journey to the conclusion. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

United States Publication Date: February 7, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Following closely on the heels of the last book, Sergeant Jessica Niemi has taken some time off work to settle some demons from her past and present so that her future can be unfettered. While she's personally reexamining a crime that happened Christmas Eve, her team is called to a high-profile murder scene. Since Jessica is off-duty her partner, Yusuf, is named lead investigator but he quickly finds himself not up to the task. The pressure as the lead investigator is immense and he isn't sure how Jessica does it. So he calls her, and officially and unofficially, they begin to chip away at the clues left behind and the clues that haven't been left behind. Meanwhile, Jessica's dead mother keeps visiting her with visions and messages and Jessica becomes very concerned that she is not herself all of the time. The high-profile murder leads to another and the investigative team becomes concerned that the bodies are going to start stacking up, time is of the essence. But true to form, the clues aren't answering questions so much as adding questions to the investigation. Will the answers finally reveal themselves in time to stop the murders? As for Jessica's personal investigation, someone from the not-too-distant past has a score to settle with Jessica and she isn't going to stop until payment is extracted.

In this title, Seeck seems to end one storyline and starts to bring another to its inevitable end but I could be very wrong about the ending of the witch storyline and Seeck could revive it somehow. If he does I have no doubt it will be seamless and organic. I seem to use the word "seamless" a lot when talking about Seeck's abilities but it's so accurate of his writing and how he blends storylines and characters together to create what he has in this series. I feel like Seeck is just getting warmed up with this series so I hope it's not a trilogy. I think a 4th book has been published in Finland and it takes a little over a year for the translated version to be published in English so I am eagerly awaiting word of a translated book 4 sometime in 2024 AND hope I can get an ARC of it as I did with his first and third books of this series. *fingers crossed*

The story of an evil coven continues in this second in the series featuring two detectives who lead intertwined lives. Dark and twisty. Great for fans of Nordic noir and psychological fiction.

Part of the popular Nordic Noir series!
Jessica Niemi is an investigator in Helsinki. Jessica is still reeling from her experience with the coven so she is more of a background character as Yusef and others take charge of a murder of a businessman Eliel Zetterborg. What seems like a very straightforward case leads to layers of complications and evil beyond imagination. I would suggest reading The Witch Hunter before this book personally.
If you like Nordic Noir, evil and dark magic cast as villains, or are just ready for a new heroine, The Last Grudge is for you! #Berkely

So this wasn’t my favorite of the series, but it’s still a good read.

What I did like was how much of a role Yusef plays in this one. He’s fast becoming my favorite character – I’m not really sure we need Jessica anymore which may be bad for the main series character lol.

The book, of course, has its gruesome bits and I swear if I ever vacation in Finland and there’s NOT a grim, gruesome murder, I’ll be terribly disappointed. I mean…they should be in the travel brochures even.

A little slower paced than usual (oddly, the Jessica bits), but still a solid read.

Looking forward to the next installment.

• ARC via Publisher

I am quite fond of this series and always look forward to another installment.

Jessica Niemi is back but as her coworkers investigate the death of a prominent industrialist Jessie spirals down into the ghastly results of a previous case which has left her confronting her ever present demons.

The majority of the book centered on the search of a devious killer while Jessie tends to hover in the background, assisting when she is needed. As the story proceeds the reader discovers the hidden layers of a successful family and once the layers are pealed back everything becomes clearer.

The ending? Well let’s just say all is not as it seems and revenge can linger for years.

Highly recommended!

This was another good entry from Max Seeck. The tone and atmosphere were great and the mystery was interesting and compelling, if maybe less so than the previous two books. I strongly recommend only reading this book after reading the earlier ones in the series, and preferably soon after. There was very little explanation of who anybody involved in the Jessica side of the book was, and as a result the stakes didn't feel very high for me (I had read the books, but not recently enough to remember a ton). The Jessica sections, before they dovetailed with Yusuf's, didn't work for me quite as well had a pretty different tone from what I remember of the earlier two in the series.

Max Seeck is one of the writers who make up the terrifying genre "Nordic Noir." Last Grudge is set in Helsinki.
It is a sequel to the novel The Ice Coven, in which the hero of the book, Jessica Niemi, was almost murdered by a coven of witches.
She has taken time from her job as investigator to hunt down the would-be murderers. A businessman, Eliel Zetterborg has been murdered and Yusef, Niemi's partner, is assigned to the case. It is one not easily solved and he cannot solve the murder without her help.

The tone is somber and cool. The dialogue is true and each character is brought to life. Thrilling and scary, the atmosphere is which this book occurs is as important as the crimes.

I highly recommend this book.