This is a real rollercoaster of a book with a protagonist who you want to both applaud and yell at simultaneously. Sarah Lund is a deeply flawed, highly driven woman, investigating a case involving many other deeply flawed people. I have not read a lot of Nordic crime, but the selection of authors I have read to get a feel for the genre all write incredibly unlikeable characters who you eventually warm to in most cases (there were a couple where I just couldn't like the protagonist, no matter how hard I tried to find a redeeming feature).

Reading the book prompted me to watch the TV series. The writing in both is sparse. I'm not a fan of sentence fragments and the book has a LOT. I thought it worked for the speech, which came across as naturalistic (borne out by the TV series), but, for me, it made the narration stilted. As a result, I found that instead of reading great chunks of the book in one go, as I would usually, I was only reading a few pages here and there. However, that said, what the book does overall is put you off balance and instil unease, making you feel much as some of the characters would be feeling. There is very little in the way of flowing text that you can settle comfortably into; instead, you have a barrage of text that, at times, reads almost like bullet points, as if you are seeing into the minds of the characters and their thoughts are being printed directly onto the page. Once I had that image, I understood what the book was trying to do and enjoyed it far more as a result - enough to re-read it a few weeks later. One thing particularly impressed me - David Hewson does a fantastic job of making you feel cold while you are reading. The colour palette of the book echoes that of the TV series - blues, greys, black, white - all cold and stark and reflecting many of the familial and working relationships being depicted. You find yourself clinging to the little warmth there is in the story, but there isn't a great deal and where it does appear, it is impure for a variety of reasons, almost as though no one is allowed to be truly happy. It makes you really consider the concept of true happiness after a while!

In spite of greatly enjoying both the book and, later, the TV series, I did feel that the book was a little over-long. There were too many instances (for me) where the case seemed to have been satisfactorily concluded, only for Lund to subsequently make a connection which led to more investigation. I have no doubt that some cases do pan out that way in real life, but I found myself thinking, "Oh, not again," in the last third of the book. It did help me to sympathise with Brix, Lund's superior officer, though, as I can imagine him thinking something very similar!

The thing which I enjoyed the most about this was the scope it gave me for discussing it with my husband. He hasn't read the book, but was following my foray into Nordic Noir and was keen to watch the TV series with me. It prompted some really good discussions, particularly about characterisation and we both avidly binge-watched the first series. I would definitely recommend this book. It's not an easy read at first, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed the way it challenged me as a reader. I'd also recommend watching the TV series alongside it!