This is a well written piece of crime fiction. The characters are well developed and likeable. The story deals with some hard hitting topics.

The Axe Woman by Hakan Nesser is the 5th and final book in the Scandi Barbarotti Series.
Barbarotti returns after the tragedy of the death of his wife and is given an intriguing ‘soft’ case to ease him back into work.
It’s a clever thriller, knitting together Barbarotti’s personal grief and mind set alongside the actual mystery which is unraveled in the narrative of the Axe Woman, Ellen Bjarnebo and not all it seems to be! As Ellen states, ‘life is not a walk along a straight path’.
Hakan Nesser is a great writer and I’m looking forward to reading more from him.
Big thanks to Hakan Nesser, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for this eARC which I chose to read in return for my honest review.

I am so torn about how to write this review…
It’s a strange one!

I absolutely loved the writing style and how it illustrated the small details, how casually it also included internal questions the characters asked themselves - it was such a beautifully written (and translated!) book, I feel like the author is one I could fall in love with…

But…

There were also some things that sort of derailed my total enjoyment, especially in the first third of the book.

Too many internal thoughts and dialogue about a very personal loss and I felt like it’s just not what I was signing up for. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t what I felt I was there for.
The god stuff that did not really interest me that much and there was quite a bit of it,
Once third in and still waiting for the case to progress or even start really and I felt like the plot of the ‘mystery’ or ‘case’ was very much secondary.

I’m very torn how to rate it, as I loved the mood the author can conjure, but I wanted more of the mystery/thriller to come through!

Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley!

Dazzlingly clever, twisting and constantly surprising. An unputdownable rollercoaster of a read. The opening is atmospheric and completely absorbing.

Like an idiot, I picked this book up not realising it was the last in a series. Entirely my fault, I jus got drawn in by the synopsis and the cover.
Can this be read as a stand-alone? I’ll say yes. The main storyline is easy to follow, well thought through and well executed. A great read,
But what was obvious throughout is the relationship between the main characters clearly have a backstory between them. Again, well written and can still be understood by the reader in the context.
But I feel that once I go back and read the series from beginning to end. I’ll get a lot more from it. I can see there being a few “Oohhh……THAT’S why he’s like this/said that..etc”. A few A-Ha! Moments if you will.
And with that, I think the fact that I said I’ll go and read the series, should tell you how much I enjoyed and recommend it.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my arc.

5 stars but I was unable to read this due to major formatting issues. I reached out to the publisher but did not hear back. Unfortunate because what I could read sounded great.

The Axe Woman by Håkan Nesser.
When Inspector Gunnar Barbarott returns to work after a tragedy his boss gives him a cold case to solve to ease him back into work.
Really good read. Sadly the last in this series. Good story. 4*.

3.5 stars. A recently bereaved detective is thrown a softball cold case by his supervisor to ease him back into work. A missing persons case where the missing man is the husband of a woman who spent over a decade in prison for butchering her previous husband.

I have a terrible habit of picking up books in the middle (or end in this case) of a series, without context, simply because the blurb intrigues me. I saw this on netgalley and had to read it. Unfortunately, I think this is one of those series you really should read from the start. I could follow the murder case just fine - and it was quite interesting! - but there was so much emotional depth in the friendships and family life of the detectives that barely affected me because I hadn't read their full story through the rest of the series.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of The Axe Woman, the fifth and final novel in the DI Gunnar Barbarotti series, set in Stockholm county.

Barbarotti returns to work after a personal loss and is asked to look into a cold case. Five years ago electrician Arnold Morinder disappeared from his cabin and the only trace found of him was his moped. His partner thinks he went to Norway, but his partner is Ellen Bjarnebo and she is one a Sweden’s most notorious killers, having spent eleven years in prison for murdering her abusive first husband and hacking up his body with an axe. Now she isn’t answering Barbarotti’s calls and seems to have disappeared.

I have mixed feelings about The Axe Woman. Yes, it has an interesting story to tell, but, principally, it is a novel about grief. I recently and very unexpectedly lost my brother in his early fifties and found it difficult to wade through Barbarotti’s feelings and coping mechanisms, especially as they bear no relationship to mine. To be fair, everyone grieves differently and the author does a good job in some respects, the malaise, the sense of not being in control, the inability to concentrate and the general loss of previous priorities and self confidence. I’m less sure about the belief in messages, seeing a lost one and turning to the bible, although I must admit that the final words in the novel made me smile.

The novel switches timelines between 1989 and the events leading up to the murder of Bjarnebo’s husband and 2012 and Barbarotti’s re-investigation. Both are quite long and slow as they are more concerned with the protagonist (Bjarnebo and Barbarotti respectively) and their thoughts and feelings than the actual events, which tend to act as a catalyst for said reactions. Still, it manages to keep the reader on tenterhooks as it implies that all is not as it seems and there will be twists to come. I think this comes from Bjarnebo’s deliberate attempts to ghost Barbarotti. It builds the tension and anticipation, makes the reader question her motives and evokes mystery.

The resolution is neat. It turns the reader’s assumptions on their head and made me look at what I knew in a different light. The clues are all there, albeit difficult to discern in a cloud of distraction and emotion, so it’s simply a matter of deduction. Ok, simply might be an exaggeration as I failed miserably.

The Axe Woman is a good read that I can recommend.

He may be uncrowned but Hakan Nesser is undoubtedly the King of Scandinavian Noir. To call his crime novels police procedurals is an insult, ignoring his literary genius and storytelling intellect.
I love the Gunnar Barbarotti novels. They are every bit as good as the Van Veeteren series. I love Gunnar's relationship with his wife, Marianne, now deceased but still a major character, and with Our Lord.
Hakan Nesser writes about dark deeds and the darkness of the human psyche but with the lightest touch - and I don't mean Cozy! - and a great sense of humour.
I thank Our Lord that Barbarotti and Van Veeteren will return in The Left-handed Association.