Book Review:
I'm Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork
Spoilers?
Maybe.
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Title - I'm Traveling Alone (Holger Munch & Mia Kruger #1)By - Samuel Bjørk
Publication - February 23rd, 2016 by Viking
Format - ARC Copy, 388 pages
Genre - Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective
From a bold new voice in international crime fiction, a chilling debut in which two detectives must hunt down a vengeful killer--and uncover the secret that ties each of them to the crime
A six-year-old girl is found in the Norwegian countryside, hanging lifeless from a tree with a jump rope around her neck. She is dressed in strange doll's clothes. Around her neck is an airline tag that says "I'm traveling alone."
A special homicide unit in Oslo re-opens with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. Holger's first step is to persuade the brilliant but haunted investigator Mia Krüger to come back to the squad--she's been living on an isolated island, overcome by memories of her past. When Mia views a photograph of the crime scene and spots the number "1" carved into the dead girl's fingernail, she knows this is only the beginning. She'll soon discover that six years earlier, an infant girl was abducted from a nearby maternity ward. The baby was never found. Could this new killer have something to do with the missing child, or with the reclusive Christian sect hidden in the nearby woods?
Mia returns to duty to track down a revenge-driven and ruthlessly intelligent killer. But when Munch's own six-year-old granddaughter goes missing, Mia realizes that the killer's sinister game is personal, and I'm Traveling Alone races to an explosive--and shocking--conclusion.
The Cover:
So I got this in the mail along two other books that I had won in a giveaway a long time ago as a bonus for them not sending me the books for months since I had won it. And when I saw this book I gravitated to it more than the other books. This book's cover was just so beautiful. And After reading it I can say that the cover does not say much about what the book is about. It actually has nothing in common. I think.
[The haul when I got this book.}
The Story:
A veteran police investigator, Holger Munch, and brilliant but haunted investigator, Mia Kruger team up again as partners to help find who's behind the murder of a few 6-year-old girls.
Relationships:
Their partnership was solid as could be. Apart from Mia not speaking about how she was mentally with her partner. Which I thought was unresponsible seeing as they should know stuff like that about each other if they are going to put their life on the line. But that's my opinion.
The Execution of the Crime:
Since this is a different novel, different genre, I will change things up. By adding this new part, the execution of the crime) and solving the crime as well as the team or group involved in solving the case and the murderer/bad guy.
This is not spoiler-y as the summary says the same thing I will write down.
The crime is 6-year-old girls are found murdered, dressed in dolls clothes with a message saying "I'm Traveling Alone" like the title. Then there's the connection to an old case in which a baby was taken from a maternity ward.
Our investigator, Mia finds that the might be a connection.
But there is also the case of the missing child, the church, and the nursing home.
And along the way, we find out the connections and how every character has been involved in some way.
The Team:
I thought that the people behind the main investigators, Mia and Holger, were so brilliantly different and easy to tell apart. They worked perfectly together even if there were some characters that not everyone got along with. There was the brains, the muscle, the leader, the mother bear. I loved how different they were and how each of them had a role to play solving this crime as well as other thigs.
Overall:
I was in love with this book. So much so that I think that if I would have read this in one go I would have loved it even more.
Durig the entire time I as reading this I kept thinking it would make an awesome BBC series.Like Broadchurch or Vera.
Yes, those two are the only ones I've seen but they were good.
I say BBC instead of an American show because it's more gritty if that makes sense. I think it would be good to divide each section up and divide that in half. One crime/book for one season. Much like how Broadchurch was done. It's perfect.
I also need to say this again because I was so in love and so happy about the characters in this book. Not only did I never get them mixed up or get myself confused but I remembered who each character was and their traits. That never happens. I easily get stuff like too many characters in one book confused.
Like I was even explaining to my mom how I loved it because I didn't get them mixed u and told her about the characters.
I also have to say that I felt the writer should have talked about Mia's mental state more. I know stuff like that doesn't get cured in an instant and that is not what I want or meant. What I mean is that they (Mia and someone else, maybe Holger) should have talked about it. She should have talked about it.
I know its hard and she was probably afraid they would take her off the team but the writer should have taken it more seriously and made it more seen instead of stop talking about it.
Which is what I felt happened.
As for the ending. I was disappointed.
Although they say never judge a book by it's cover I believe the cover should represent what the book is going to be like or at least some aspect of it.
So I got this in the mail along two other books that I had won in a giveaway a long time ago as a bonus for them not sending me the books for months since I had won it. And when I saw this book I gravitated to it more than the other books. This book's cover was just so beautiful. And After reading it I can say that the cover does not say much about what the book is about. It actually has nothing in common. I think.
[The haul when I got this book.}
The Story:
A veteran police investigator, Holger Munch, and brilliant but haunted investigator, Mia Kruger team up again as partners to help find who's behind the murder of a few 6-year-old girls.
Relationships:
No couples in this one.Mia x Holger
Their partnership was solid as could be. Apart from Mia not speaking about how she was mentally with her partner. Which I thought was unresponsible seeing as they should know stuff like that about each other if they are going to put their life on the line. But that's my opinion.
The Execution of the Crime:
Since this is a different novel, different genre, I will change things up. By adding this new part, the execution of the crime) and solving the crime as well as the team or group involved in solving the case and the murderer/bad guy.
This is not spoiler-y as the summary says the same thing I will write down.
The crime is 6-year-old girls are found murdered, dressed in dolls clothes with a message saying "I'm Traveling Alone" like the title. Then there's the connection to an old case in which a baby was taken from a maternity ward.
Our investigator, Mia finds that the might be a connection.
But there is also the case of the missing child, the church, and the nursing home.
And along the way, we find out the connections and how every character has been involved in some way.
The Team:
I thought that the people behind the main investigators, Mia and Holger, were so brilliantly different and easy to tell apart. They worked perfectly together even if there were some characters that not everyone got along with. There was the brains, the muscle, the leader, the mother bear. I loved how different they were and how each of them had a role to play solving this crime as well as other thigs.
Overall:
I was in love with this book. So much so that I think that if I would have read this in one go I would have loved it even more.
Durig the entire time I as reading this I kept thinking it would make an awesome BBC series.Like Broadchurch or Vera.
Yes, those two are the only ones I've seen but they were good.
I say BBC instead of an American show because it's more gritty if that makes sense. I think it would be good to divide each section up and divide that in half. One crime/book for one season. Much like how Broadchurch was done. It's perfect.
I also need to say this again because I was so in love and so happy about the characters in this book. Not only did I never get them mixed up or get myself confused but I remembered who each character was and their traits. That never happens. I easily get stuff like too many characters in one book confused.
Like I was even explaining to my mom how I loved it because I didn't get them mixed u and told her about the characters.
I also have to say that I felt the writer should have talked about Mia's mental state more. I know stuff like that doesn't get cured in an instant and that is not what I want or meant. What I mean is that they (Mia and someone else, maybe Holger) should have talked about it. She should have talked about it.
I know its hard and she was probably afraid they would take her off the team but the writer should have taken it more seriously and made it more seen instead of stop talking about it.
Which is what I felt happened.
As for the ending. I was disappointed.
On Goodreads:On April 3, 2017, around page 160
I said: "picked this book back. Now I've obligated myself to finish it. I want to know what's going on."
On October 9, 2016, around page 139 Which was around the time I stopped reading for a while.
"I'm definitely not going to give up on this book. I really want to know what happens. It's really good but I'm one of those people who gets distracted easily and with my classes and the ton of homework I have to do (despite it being a long weekend) I can't get glued to the book and finish it already because I really do want to."
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