Unrest – Jesper Stein
When the bound, hooded corpse of an unidentified man is found propped up against a gravestone in the central cemetery, Axel Steen is assigned the case.
Rogue camera footage soon suggests police involvement and links to the demolition of the nearby Youth House, teeming with militant far-left radicals. But Axel soon discovers that many people, both inside and out of the force, have an unusual interest in the case and in preventing its resolution.
With a rapidly worsening heart condition, an estranged ex-wife and beloved five-year-old daughter to contend with, Axel will not stop until the killer is caught, whatever the consequences. But the consequences turn out to be greater than expected – especially for Axel himself.
My thanks to Mel at Mirror books for my review copy and the opportunity to join the Unrest blog tour.
Although I have been reading crime fiction for more years than I care to count I will confess to being a newcomer to what has become dubbed “Scandi Crime”. I am something of a convert to these Northern crime stories though and I enjoy that the have a very different feel to the UK or American crime fiction tales I have been reading for years.
I cannot recall reading any Danish police procedurals prior to picking up Unrest so this was virgin territory – by the time I reached the climax (as it were) I was more than satisfied and would certainly like to repeat the experience.
Our main focus is Detective Superintendent Axel Steen. He is in the majority of scenes throughout the book so we get a good look at the lead character and the author spends time building up his background to good effect. He has a troubling medical condition, an ex-wife he misses terribly and a young daughter who he sees quite frequently but takes into crime scenes and the mortuary so perhaps fathering is not a strength. I liked Steen and his rogue/unorthodox investigative approach so spending much of the book in his company was no chore.
Steen is investigating a murder. The body of a man, bound and hooded, has been found in a public location – left virtually under the noses of the police. There is a suggestion there has been police involvement as the murder appears to have been secretly caught on film, though the evidence has vanished so cannot be easily validated. Tensions in Copenhagen are running high as militant factions are protesting and attacking police near where the body was found – was this a police retaliation?
The investigation the reader follows is methodical and, as the author is developing a life for Steen away from his job, this means the pacing of the story is not relentless and action packed. This is not to be taken as a criticism, I thoroughly enjoyed the detail and the thoroughness which the author brought to Unrest. For readers hoping for fist fights or car chases every second chapter, there are other books out there for you. Unrest is for the reader looking for a good story, well told, and with a nasty murder waiting to be solved.
I enjoyed Unrest and I hope Axel Steen returns soon.
Unrest is published by Mirror Books and is available in digital and paperback format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unrest-Action-packed-Nordic-hooked-Detective-ebook/dp/B07FDK1PXJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532556709&sr=8-1&keywords=unrest+jesper+stein
