The Find: A gripping nordic noir mystery

Fast moving storylineThe characters are interestingLeaves you enough questions to eat to read the next bookReally enjoyable

I know my title for this review is probably mundane which is something this book isnt. I discovered Scandi noir before it had become popular outside of the Scandinavian countries when it was hard to find many books that had been translated into English so its great to now have discovered an author I havent read before and she didnt disappoint. I like flawed characters as they are so much more sympathic than those who arent and here we have a very flawed pair of police officers which makes them more interesting. And the handsome troubled young man and the side story that goes with adds another dimension. Even better the sex in this story doesnt make one cringe - the Scandinavians dont throw gratuitous sex at you like confetti, thankfully. All in all a book deserving of a review - the only reviews I give are when the books deserves a four or five star rating, or when they are so bad I have to give one star. So if you are a fan of Scadi noir I suggest you read this book as it wont disappoint

I just love books based on Scandinavia and the Nordic outerlands. The sense of mystery seeps out of the text. Looking forward to reading more of Venezia's work. Exciting times.I feel this first book sets a great background with character s identified, love interests etc.I'm not a spoiler so I'm leaving the rest up to you. Great start, off to buy the next one.

This is not a novel. It reads like the garbled printout of a computer that has been programmed to deliver a “scandi noir”. The English language is terribly mishandled, some sentences appearing to be a clumsy translation from another language, others liberally strewn with colloquial expressions and inappropriate cliches. To describe the characterisation as wooden is almost a compliment, while what passes for a storyline draws indiscriminately from TV shows (The Killing, The Bridge) and the novels of better representatives of the genre such as Nesbo and Larsson but fails to hang together with any kind of logic. Although the protagonists are police officers, there is absolutely no attempt to make their “investigation” credible. The narrative perspective veers inconsistently and randomly between third person and first person, and sequences meant to show inner anguish are laugh- out - loud ridiculous. The only reason to persevere with this utter trash was to see how much worse it could get. By the end, I was wondering whether it was a joke on the reader - perhaps Venetia Williams (and I do hope this is a pen name, to spare any former English teachers of this author embarrassment) is a consummate prose writer who is seeking to prove that some people can be persuaded to read anything with the “scandi noir” label. Don’t be fooled.

This was available on Kindle Unlimited so I decided to give it ago. Didn't read any reviews beforehand. Perhaps I should have done.This book took me ages to read. I quite often read a book within a day, sometimes more than one book, but this was very easy to put down and it just didn't beg to be picked up again. I did finish the book. At the end, I mostly felt relief but annoyance too. There was a big twist at the end but it just seemed too improbable, like the author thought it up at the last minute as a way to end the story. Not very satisfying at all.All the characters were hard to like. The main female character put me in mind of Elise, the French policewoman in the Tunnel but I soon realised Elise had so much more depth and was a lot more likeable. The policing aspect of the story was very poor and I kept thinking, they can't be that bad in Sweden.Another problem for me, was the writing. Either the original writing was very stilted or the translation was poor. So many times I had to re-read a sentence to make sure I'd understood it correctly. Who was doing or saying something was often ambiguous. Very choppy too.I can't say I'd read another book by this author. Just glad I hadn't actually paid money for it.

Oh my word, I couldn't put this down, but forced myself at times so I could go over what was actually happening. It's a tangled web of a tale so pay attention. There are lots of interconnected characters which complicates the story. I'm not sure I really liked any of them. Nevertheless I would recommend this as a long read, it should be retitled "how to get away with murder".

An eerie story. The characters each have their own flaws and failings . Descriptions left you feeling hot or cold , especially in the snow scenes. I did guess midway who the murderer was but the twist at the end was excellent

I did enjoy this book, the plot was interesting and kept me entertained. I could not cope with the main character Isa though, totally unprofessional and the love story really irritated me. If the character can be developed and the romantic interest kept to a minimum there is potential for a good series.