Review: The Owl Always Hunts at Night by Samuel Bjork

 
Title: The Owl Always Hunts at Night
Author: Samuel Bjork
Series: Holger Munch & Mia Kruger, #2
Published: June 2017, Penguin Group
Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Source: Personal copy


Summary: 

The thrilling follow-up to Samuel Bjork s internationally bestselling I'm Traveling Alone, which The Wall Street Journal calls tense and smartly constructed. 

 

When a troubled teenager disappears from an orphanage and is found murdered, her body arranged on a bed of feathers, veteran investigator Holger Munch and his team are called into the case. Star investigator Mia Kruger, on temporary leave while she continues to struggle with her own demons, jumps back on the team and dives headfirst into this case: just in time to decode the clues in a disturbing video of the victim before she was killed, being held prisoner like an animal in a cage. 

 

Meanwhile, Munch s daughter, Miriam, meets an enticing stranger at a party a passionate animal rights activist who begins to draw her into his world and away from her family. 

 

Munch, Kruger, and the team must hunt down the killer before he can strike again in this sophisticated, intricately plotted psychological thriller by the newest phenomenon in international crime fiction.

My thoughts: This is the second book in Samuel Bjork's Holger Munch and Mia Kruger crime fiction series and it was as thrilling and gripping as the first. I am so glad that the group I did a buddy read for the first book has decided to read all three books. This is a series that has been on the tbr for way too long!

These books are dark and very gripping and this one in particular, though not as fast-paced as the last one, still had me glued to the pages. I love that there is such a sense of dread right from the start and that is carried all the way through the entire book. The case itself really kept me guessing as to where it was heading, and at times it was very disturbing to read. It is very much on the level of the Lars Kepler books in terms of just how dark and graphic it is, but I happen to like that, so it doesn't bother me.

The character development continues in this second installment and that is always something I look forward to when reading a series. We not only learn more about Mia and Holger but we also get better acquainted with the rest of the team. I love digging into each of the characters, especially as they are going to be part of the series moving forward. We do see, though that it's not just Mia and Holger that have their issues...a few others have some struggles they are working out. I love flawed characters and this team is certainly made up of a bunch of them!

This book really kept me on the edge of my seat and had plenty of twists and turns. A few times I thought I had worked things out, only to be misled. I am eager to read the next book in the series, especially after the way this one ends!

 

Books in this series:

1. I'm Traveling Alone
2. The Owl Always Hunts at Night
3. The Boy in the Headlights