The Owl Always Hunts At Night

I read 'I'm Travelling Alone', the first book in this series, back in May after letting it languish on my TBR shelves for way too long. I was pleased to find that the book had engaging characters, avoided glamorising serial killers, had a twisty plot with excellent pacing and that, if it had a core message, it was that bad things shouldn't be allowed to happen to children and when they do, the effects last a lifetime.

I decided to read the rest of the series, partly because I liked Samuel Bjørk's storytelling and partly because I wanted to see what would happen to Holger Munch and Mia Kruger.

There are a lot of good things in 'The Owl Always Hunts At Night'. The premise is original, graphic and mysterious. There are moments of intense show more tension and the ending is both unexpected and truly spectacular. The characters are portrayed in a way that is powered by clinical insight leavened with a little empathy. One of the characters has a form of mental illness that makes him see the world so differently from the rest of us that even something as simple as going grocery shopping is fraught with risk. I loved the way that Samuel Bjørk showed me the world through this confused man's eyes, then showed me how others would see him and then showed me that everything he said made sense but only if you understand how the man's mind worked. I liked that the story was told by following events happening to different groups of people. It kept the narrative fresh, widened the focus beyond the investigative team, and kept me guessing about how the people and events would connect. It was a little like trying to guess the picture a jigsaw will make when you're handed the pieces in a way that keeps the image fragmented.

I enjoyed 'The Owl Always Hunts At Night', but I didn't think it worked as well as the first book Some of that was just Second Book Syndrome (the need to précis the events of the previous book, the loss of novelty, and the urge to go bigger and better on the stress and the complexity), some of it was that it seemed to me that the pacing got a bit soggy in the middle, some of it was that the explanation of the premise was a little over-elaborate. Mostly, I think it was just that the book was darker than I'd expected and that I found that darkness hard to relate to. The premise was more twisted and sadistic than I'd expected and although the worst things all happened off-screen, Samuel Bjørk made sure that my imagination filled in the blanks. I was also thrown out of the story by what seemed to me to be an unrealistically high incidence of mental illness as a mechanism for moving the plot forward. This was often done with empathy and respect but I felt there was too much of it and that. overall it relied on the mentally ill being seen as threatening in a way that they seldom are in real life.

My reaction to Mia Kruger caught me by surprise. I quite liked her in the first book. This time around, I lost all sympathy for her. I don't think this is a weakness of the book. I think it's one of the reactions Samuel Bjørk sets the reader up to have but it surprised me. Mia's sustained fixation on suicidal ideation wearied me. I wanted to shout "Live. Don't Live. It's Your Choice. But don't get paralysed by being unable to take the choice or make it go away." I think wanting to shout at a character is a sign that the author has brought you fully into the world that they've created but it made it harder for me to relax into the book.

The ending of the book is rapid and spectacular. I felt that I'd been brought to a good conclusion and that I was still committed enough to the main characters to want to know what will happen in the next book, 'The Boy In The Headlights'

I recommend listening to the audiobook, which is skilfully narrated by Laura Paton. show less

4.5 stars.

The Owl Always Hunts at Night by Samuel Bjork is a dark yet utterly enthralling police procedural set in Norway. Althought this latest release is the second installment in the Holger Munch & Mia Kruger series, it can easily be read as a standalone.

Investigator Holger Munch and his team are called to the scene of a seemingly ritualistic murder of teenager Camilla Green. Uncertain exactly what they are dealing with, Munch is certain he needs the help of Mia Kruger, a brilliant investigator who is currently on leave for psychological issues. Although Kruger has yet to make peace with the tragic death of her twin sister, Sigrid, she is quick to assure Munch she is ready to return to work. As many of the team members (including show more Munch and Kruger) struggle with turmoil in their personal lives, the investigation slowly progresses as they uncover puzzling information and a viable pool of suspects. With a predator on the hunt for the next victim, will Mia and Holger unmask the killer before he or she strikes again?

In his mid-fifties, overweight and a heavy smoker, Holger’s dedication to his career resulted in the demise of marriage ten years earlier. His relationship with his daughter, Mariam, is a work in progress as he tries to make up for always putting his job ahead of his family. Despite his determination to be there for her and his granddaughter, Marion, Holger is working long hours trying to solve Camilla’s murder.

Mia is going through the motions of therapy in order to return to work but she is not fully invested in actually working through her issues. She relies heavily on alcohol and drugs to cope with day to day life but she is still able to function well enough to contribute to the investigation. While Mia does experience some very keen flashes of insight, she is also somewhat distracted by memories of Sigrid and the loss of the rest of her family. Will this lack of concentration interfere with her ability to zero in on a motive and a suspect for Camilla’s murder?

Several of the other members of the investigative team are also somewhat distracted as they try to catch Camilla’s killer. Kim Kolso is contemplating significant changes in his personal life that will also have impact his career. Jon Larsen aka Curry is undergoing tremendous upheaval in his relationship and he is drinking heavily as he tries to cope with his girlfriend’s reaction to his latest misstep. Cyber expert Gabriel receives a shocking bit of evidence from someone from his distant past, but can his source be trusted?

Living with her doctor boyfriend Johannes and staying home to care for their six year daughter Marion, Miriam’s relationship with her father is much improved. Feeling a little restless and yearning for her old life, she reconnects with her old friend, Julie, who introduces her to animal activist Ziggy. Although Miriam realizes she has a lot to lose, she cannot resist spending time with the charismatic young man.

The investigation into Camille’s bizarre death yields very puzzling and disparate clues. Camille has a troubled past and she disappeared from a children’s home run by Helene Eriksen. Helene is co-operative but both Holger and Kruger feel like she is hiding something from them. After news of Camilla’s death goes public, local man Jim Fuglesang confesses to the murder and while Mia does not think he is the killer, she cannot discount the disquieting pictures in his possession. And what, if anything, does the discovery of a macabre film of the victim have to do with her subsequent murder?

The Owl Always Hunts at Night is an extremely atmospheric police procedural. With a few well-paced red herrings and some pivotal misdirects, Samuel Bjork brilliantly keeps the killer’s identity and motive for the murder carefully obscured. The investigators’ distractions and Miriam’s questionable choices ratchet up the tension and will keep readers guessing whodunit and why right up to the novel’s stunning conclusion. This newest addition to the Holger Munch & Mia Kruger series is absolutely outstanding and I highly recommend this spellbinding mystery to fans of the genre. show less

Early autumn and the Norwegian days are cold and the nights drawing in. In the midst of a wood the body of a young girl is found, she is naked, thin and posed in a pentangle, nestled on a bed of feathers. The circumstances are so bizarre that the crack investigative team led by Holger Munch are called in. Munch's team discover that the girl had been held for three months in an underground prison and forced to perform for a live feed. Investigator Mia Kruger is still battling her own demons but her instinct for a case is as sharp as ever.

I really enjoyed Bjork's first book 'I'm Travelling Alone' and so looked forward to this one and was not disappointed. Bjork writes complex, dark and detailed Scandic-Crime that really packs a punch. I show more find the characters of the team fascinating, no-one is straightforward but no-one is so maverick as to be unbelievable, and translation is crisp and well-written. show less

Bjork is yet another name to add to the pantheon of Nordic Noir authors. In this second solidly written police procedural featuring Oslo detectives Holger Munch and Mia Krüger, their strong working relationship continues, even as they themselves are at risk of breaking apart.
Munch—overweight and troubled by his failed marriage—leads a team of detectives investigating the ritualistic murder of a teenage girl, whose naked body was found posed on a bed of owl feathers in a pentagram formed by the candles that surround her. The pathologist’s report reveals she was strangled and highlights the grazing to her knees and elbows, the blisters on her hands, and her emaciated condition.
This case is just too weird, and Munch reaches out to show more Krüger, on leave from the department for mental health reasons. Short on emotional reserves and long on intuition, Krüger is considered practically a genius at penetrating the murky depths of a case. Though Krüger agrees to help with the investigation, she’s fighting a battle she may not win with alcohol and pills and the overwhelming desire to follow her parents and twin sister to the grave. Mia Moonbeam, as she’s nicknamed, has a dreamy quality to her thinking, that sharpens to a point whenever she focuses on a detail of the case.
Munch’s involvement in the lives of his daughter—a single mom who may have found a new love—and six-year-old granddaughter periodically brings him in painful contact with his ex-wife. One minor confusion in the book (series?), which Bjork could easily have avoided, was naming the ex-wife, daughter, and granddaughter Marianne, Miriam, and Marion.
The dead teenager, Camilla Green, had gone missing from a group home for troubled teens. In this multiple point-of-view novel, you see some of the other girls in action and know they are hiding important information—information that may put one of them at risk too.
At the book’s end, a few threads remain untied, and I don’t understand why the detectives used a character’s cell phone records—not passport control information—to establish whether he was out of the country, when those data indicate only where the phone was. The book’s setting and atmospherics were utterly convincing, though if you’re tired of the torture-of-beautiful-young-women trope, beware.
What you can easily envision is Munch’s daughter’s attraction to Ziggy, the new man in her life. He’s part of an animal rights action group that involves her longtime friend Julia and others, and the fact that he turns out to be super-rich is a pleasant bonus. But, suspicious you, you have your doubts. show less

Review can also be found in Chill and read


What a phenomenal read!!

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. They are the best in the country as they also have reinstated into duty star investigator Mia Kruger. Mia was on leave, struggling with her own demons and looking for peace, but she could not refuse Holger’s call. Her boss needed her, so it’d had to do!

The story develops in a cold Oslo, in October, with the winter coming on rapidly. The country is freezing and so are the hearts of many people, as the young girl is found dead. The Norwegian police must find the killer soon! The show more narration is multidimensional and is one of its pros! There are different story developments, including almost every character mentioned in the book. As the suspects are piling up, so are their stories. This makes the reader part of the investigation, as all the evidences are provided open handed. Could that be the one? Why did he act like this? Is the behavior normal?

Bjørk’s writing is amazing! It is a book that gets the reader’s attention from the first chapter and holds it until after the last fullstop. It is a classic Nordic Noir and yet it is not! It is a dark creepy thriller that will get under the reader’s skin and won’t leave for a long time. Traumatic experiences can cause many different behaviors. It is visible in all the different suspects in Holger’s case. Something is wrong with each and every one of them and that is the beauty of it. Until there are not enough leads and the case cannot be held up in court.

Human relationships are there too. People’s feelings and everyday life. The routine that makes us bored and not grateful for what we already have. Our quiet life. The people we love and love us back. Our harbor.

The peaceful harbor is nowhere to be found in this story as it runs through the events. The really fast pace that follows the murder case investigation leaves no room for rest, no room for sleep as long as a twisted murder is free out there. But who could really believe it was him!?

“The Owl Always Hunts at Night” is second book in the “Holger Munch & Mia Kruger” series. Even though it can be read as stand alone, it would make more sense to read the first book in order to understand more on the characters’ background. show less

Review can also be found in https://chillandreadblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/the-owl-always-hunts-at-night-...

What a phenomenal read!!

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. They are the best in the country as they also have reinstated into duty star investigator Mia Kruger. Mia was on leave, struggling with her own demons and looking for peace, but she could not refuse Holger’s call. Her boss needed her, so it’d had to do!

The story develops in a cold Oslo, in October, with the winter coming on rapidly. The country is freezing and so are the hearts of many people, as the young girl is show more found dead. The Norwegian police must find the killer soon! The narration is multidimensional and is one of its pros! There are different story developments, including almost every character mentioned in the book. As the suspects are piling up, so are their stories. This makes the reader part of the investigation, as all the evidences are provided open handed. Could that be the one? Why did he act like this? Is the behavior normal?

Bjørk’s writing is amazing! It is a book that gets the reader’s attention from the first chapter and holds it until after the last fullstop. It is a classic Nordic Noir and yet it is not! It is a dark creepy thriller that will get under the reader’s skin and won’t leave for a long time. Traumatic experiences can cause many different behaviors. It is visible in all the different suspects in Holger’s case. Something is wrong with each and every one of them and that is the beauty of it. Until there are not enough leads and the case cannot be held up in court.

Human relationships are there too. People’s feelings and everyday life. The routine that makes us bored and not grateful for what we already have. Our quiet life. The people we love and love us back. Our harbor.

The peaceful harbor is nowhere to be found in this story as it runs through the events. The really fast pace that follows the murder case investigation leaves no room for rest, no room for sleep as long as a twisted murder is free out there. But who could really believe it was him!?

“The Owl Always Hunts at Night” is second book in the “Holger Munch & Mia Kruger” series. Even though it can be read as stand alone, it would make more sense to read the first book in order to understand more on the characters’ background. show less

I really liked Bjork's I'm Traveling Alone, and while I like his writing and dark Scandinavian noir plots, this case was less interesting. A team of detectives led by Holger Munch and Mia Kruger investigate the death of a troubled teen girl, whose naked, emaciated body was found posed in a candled pentagram, on a bed of owl feathers, wearing a blonde wig. The girl lived at a home for troubled teenagers, and Bjork keeps us guessing as to the murderer. I think the book suffered somewhat from the skipping story lines and characters, both the investigated and the investigators. We have the continuation of Holger's family strife and Mia's continued inability to accept her twin's heroin overdose, but we also learn of other personal problems show more on the task force. The techie Gabriel continues to be a highlight, joined by a former hacker buddy, nicknamed Skunk. If you like a lot of psychology, this one is for you. Lots of head cases here. show less