I had a hard time getting into the book. The flow between characters was hard to keep track of then past or present time, I wasn’t for sure. I gave the book 100 pages before calling it and quit.

A darkly disturbing psychological thriller.
This book was well written with a weighty plot. I was hooked from beginning to end. There was plenty going on to keep me guessing throughout and the ending was a definite surprise.
The main character was easy to relate to, while not being particularly likeable. The relationships between the various characters added to the plot with ease.
A chilling tale of depravity which is not for the faint hearted, if you're looking for a dark and gritty read, this is certainly it. I will be adding it to my bookshelf

Fantastic. A first rate Scandi thriller. The plot and characters were very good, and it was fast paced. I liked the main character Axel, his relationships with everyone else were believable. I would highly recommend this novel.

In “Die for Me” there is a serial rapist on the loose in Copenhagen and DNA links him to a cold case belonging to DI Axel Steen. This case cost Steen a lot at the time, including his marriage, and he’s about to become embroiled again. Can he catch the killer this time around and what will it cost him?

This is a Danish book that has been translated into English and I must admit I’ve not been a big reader of translated fiction in the past but, as regular readers of my blog will know I’ve been trying to expand my library so this is a new area for me.

I really enjoyed this one. I do like crime fiction in general, although I prefer true crime, so this was a good one for me to start with on my venture into translated fiction. The characters were well written and the story was topical and gripping.

The attitude of some of the Police towards rape victims was infuriating but, sadly, very realistic. Women are often disbelieved or blamed when they have been the victim of sexual offences. Too often the victim blaming attitude leads women to not report the crimes at all. In this books it’s shown that the attitude of the Officer who took the original report from one of the victims was so bad that she didn’t get as much detail as she should have, she was going through the motions of investigating but didn’t really believe the victim at all.

It’s difficult to say much without spoiling it for anyone but I enjoyed the twists along the way. There were some slight oddities to the writing style, I don’t know if it’s a problem with the translation or the writing but Steen had a friend who was pretty much only ever referred to as the Swede, which seemed a bit odd to me.

Axel Steen was an interesting character with a lot of baggage, my only complaint would be that he is maybe a character that is a little overused in crime fiction. The complicated detective who takes the cases too seriously is definitely the one I’ve seen in books like this before.

This was a proof copy for review purposes so some of the formatting was a bit off, some words ran into each other and the chapters weren’t separated very well but I’m sure that will all be fixed for the released version.

Overall it was an enjoyable book and made a lot of important points about the way victims are treated in cases of sexual offences.

When I learned that this was the 7th in a series I had to wonder if I would have enjoyed it more, had I read the previous stories. I found it to be oft slow and confusing and would back-track to see if there were something I missed. Instead of leaping at the chance to read again, I usually picked another book first (I'm, ordinarily, reading three different ones at a time). I love a good mystery or suspense novel, and at times this was both but I don't believe I'll look for this author again.

Die for Me has an excellent premise and has the potential to be a gripping thriller. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. It did have its moments where I was able to get into the story, but most of it is very dry, almost documentary-ish. A large part of that may be due to the translation, but knowing that didn't make it any more enjoyable for me. I also had a problem with the characters. As in I didn't much like any of them. I usually like flawed characters, but they really need to have some redeemable qualities, and I didn't find that with Axel. The only positive was his determination to solve the case, but even that wasn't enough to make him likable. On the plus side, I was a little worried when I saw that this book is well into a series (something that should have and could have been mentioned somewhere in the blutb) but I had no problem following the story and would consider this a standalone. If I did miss something that was part of an earlier book, it was lost on me, possibly due to the stilted narrative. In the end, I don't know whether it was just me, or something got lost in the translation, but this one clearly missed its mark with me, and I don't feel any desire to check out earlier books in the series.

i enjoyed the book trying to unravel the clues along the way with Axel. Nothing was ever as it seemed apart from the dislike between Axel and his boss Jens, one a cop with a reputation and one a lawyer out to prove himself as the boss. The fact that Axel's wife divorced him and took up with Jens doesn't help. Not only are they trying to catch a serial rapist who is causing terror in Copenhagen but Axel is determined to solve a death that is four years old but has similarities. The book highlights the police prejudices when it comes to rape and the sheer incompetence that happens in forensic tests that make it all very worrying.
Can you guess the killer before Axel and why? again an all too familiar story that shouldn't happen.

Though set in Sweden,with sometimes hard to pronounce names,this is still a compelling crime story. A detective,who has a stellar record solving crimes,becomes obsessed with one he couldn’t. It affects his life to the point where he looses his family, cannot sleep,takes drugs,and his work suffers. To make matters worse,his ex is dating his boss. Despite his problems,he is still somehow able to function. The story is well-written and fairly exciting. It is not the best story I have read, but it kept my interest and I liked the ending!

There is nothing particularly original about the story line of this book but it goes at a fast pace and has enough twists in the plot to keep the reader anxious to find out how it ended. Alex Steen,the lead character,has a dysfunctional personality and personal life and is totally unsuited to be in law enforcement. Nevertheless he delivers results and gets away with aggressive behaviour to colleagues and suspects because if that. The final wind up of a case proves that. The story is well written and translated. It is a good read.

Well written crime mystery novel. Interesting characters. A first read for this author, but will seek out others.
Thanks Mirror Books and NetGalley for the ARC of Die For Me.

I like "Nordic Noir" a lot, and I'm pretty forgiving where the translation isn't quite 'right' - it's only really noticeable if you're looking for it in this book, IMO.
DI Axel Steen’s path in this book is a compelling one, chasing a serial rapist around Copenhagen, dealing with the fact that it's a case similar to (possibly?) that went cold, and destroyed his marriage several years previously.
The characters are strong, believable and the voice pretty pure. I devoured this book, all in one sitting in one afternoon. It didn't jar in many places, though there are a few tiny places you have to be a bit open-minded about it.
Obviously, it deals with adult themes, as most of these books do, but it did it in an acceptable way.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, on Netgalley.

Axel Steen has always had his problems and it follows him everywhere. His divorce with Cecilie and his daughter Emma, and her marriage too Jens Jessen was hitting him very hard. His hash habit, and becoming involved with women such as Dorte Neergaard and Ea Holdt. But when he became involved with the murder of a girl who was found in a pond with his old partner John Darling, he couldn't leave it alone. It became excessive and actually put him in the hospital. I liked the way Stein always had Axel answer questions by asking another question. He never seem to give up on his belief that he was right. It leaves us with an opening by making it very noir in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who is involved with rapes and murder. I see that this is the 7th book in the series and that means now that I found Jesper I need to so some catch up.

A serial rapist is terrorising women in Copenhagen. He might have killed a young girl. Axel Steen is the DI who is investigating. There is no evidence or clues to who the rapist might be. Steen had been obsessed by a rape case four years ago and that had been blamed for his wife leaving him. Now they seem to have DNA evidence that will link back to that case.

As the book is translated into English, it took me a little while to get into. This is also the seventh book in this series and I have not read any of the previous ones. It's fast paced, action packed and gripping. There's a mixed bunch of characters, some you will like some you will loathe. Axel Steen Is a damaged but fully capable policeman. This book can be read as a standalone. A great police procedural.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Mirror Books and the author Jesper Stein for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A welcome new addition to Scandinavian crime noir. Jesper Stein and his main character DCI Axel Steen a formidable pairing. A hard hitting crime story based around Copenhagen, a fantastic read, a compulsive page turner. But the reader does need to be a little broad minded!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really couldn’t get on with this one. The cover and plot both interested me greatly, and while I don’t usually start midway through a series, I will say that Die For Me works well as a stand-alone. It addresses rape as a crime very well which is harder to come by in a thriller than you’d think, but for me that’s where the positives end.

I found none of the characters likeable, and while I can appreciate that Axel in particular is supposed to be flawed, there just aren’t enough redeeming qualities to make me partial to him. I’ve also addressed my distaste towards using sexuality as a plot device in other reviews: it happens again in this one. Finally I found the narrative wooden and the language analytic: I can chalk some of this down to translation, but even the plot felt stunted and the final twist predictable.

Well written mystery with a thoughtful detective who has good intuition and dedication to solve criminal cases but also reveals his challenging issues involved with dealing with nasty criminals. The detective is realized as a whole individual with a nice balance of his personal life and the development of the case he needs to solve. I cringe when sexual swear words are used but since swear words are now ubiquitous, and the case involves sexual crimes, probably most readers would not be bothered.

Absolutely brilliant!!! Grips you in a vice of horror at the theme but tosses you about like a rotweiller with something in its jaws and then spits you out a lot warier and suspicious of your surroundings. I love scandi novels and this has just become my new favourite.

I received a digital copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this dark and gritty book, it was fast-paced and had me hooked. It has been translated to English so took me a little while to get into. I haven't ready any of the other books in this series, so it's quite nice that this book allows the reader to jump into a series without having to read all of the previous books. I read a lot of crime thrillers but most of them have been British based, this was quite different that it was set in Denmark. It was an unexpected highlight.

This book was very well written. Nice and easy to read and flowed well. Had me on the edge of my seat. Wondering which way it was going to go. Great mystery can’t beat it.

I thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. This author was new to me and I was not let down. It was a great story and very well written. The characters were easy to relate to and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this to everyone!!