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The Girl without Skin (2017)

by Mads Peder Nordbo

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Matthew Cave (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8416318,069 (3.63)1
Fiction. Thriller. HTML:

They were near the edge of the glacier. The sea beneath the helicopter was dense with pack ice. In front of them, the endless whiteness stretched as far as the light could reach. It hurt his eyes. Millions of white crystals. Except in one place. One spot. Right where the mummified Norseman had been found and Aqqalu had kept watch. There, the ice was glossy red.

When a mummified Viking corpse is discovered in a crevasse out on the edge of an ice sheet, journalist Matthew Cave is sent to cover the story. The next day the mummy is gone, and the body of the policeman who was keeping watch is found naked and flayedâ??exactly like the victims in a gruesome series of murders that terrified the remote town of Nuuk in the 1970s.

As Matt investigates, he is shocked by the deprivation and brutal violence the locals take for granted. Unable to trust the police, he begins to suspect a cover-up. It's only when he meets a young Inuit woman, Tupaarnaq, convicted of killing her parents and two small sisters, that Matt starts to realise how deep this story goesâ??and how much danger he is in.

Mads Peder Nordbo is a Danish-born author who has lived in Nuuk in Greenland for many years. He holds degrees in literature, communications and philosophy from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Stockholm. He works in communications at the town hall in Nuuk, where he writes for the mayor of the municipality. Mads is the author of three novels, and The Girl without Skin is his crime debut. Rights have been sold in seventeen territories.

Charlotte Barslund is a Scandinavian translator. She has translated novels by Peter Adolphsen, Mikkel Birkegaard, Thomas Enger, Karin Fossum, Steffen Jacobsen, Carsten Jensen and Per Petterson, as well as a wide range of classic and contemporary plays. She lives in the UK.

'The Girl Without Skin has everything the heart of a true crime novel could desire. Murder, eeriness, shivers, superstition, terrible secrets â?? but at the same time you can feel the author's affection for Greenland.' Krimifan

'The Girl Without Skin has is large parts a classical crime combined with a thriller's intensityâ??but just as much social criticism.' VG Norway

'This intricate crime novel mixes a grisly plot with interesting insights into Greenland's history and culture.' Canberra Weekly

'This intricate crime novel is incredibly thrilling, and offers some genuine surprises.' Finals Krimiside

'The plot is gruesome, believable and incredibly tense.' Bogfidusen

'Mads Peder Nordbo has written a macabre but engrossing Arctic crime novel about incest and corruption.' Jyllands-Posten

'Lucky Nordbo has given his main character a troubled past, which makes it plausible that he would fling himself fearlessly into investigating the older killings that breath new lifeâ??and deathâ??into a corrupt political present.' Børsen

'Mads Peder Nordbo writes with great insight into the environment of Greenland, in which the nearly unbearable events play out.' Jysk Fy… (more)

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English (13)  Dutch (2)  French (1)  All languages (16)
Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
Readers beware, this is a very graphic crime novel (skinning and disembowelment of both people and animals) that also heavily features disturbing depictions of child abuse. For me the Tupaarnaq storyline felt contrived and did anyone else wonder how she managed to get her body completely (and professionally from the sound of it) tattooed when she had been in prison since a teenager?
This is a novel where the location and climatic conditions play almost a large a part as the main protagonists. Fans of graphic Nordic crime will enjoy this….
( )
  MerrylT | May 18, 2023 |
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

A frozen man is discovered in the ice near Nuuk in Greenland. There is a great stir when scientists opine that it could be a mummified Viking, and local journalist Matthew Cave is despatched by his editor to cover the story. Things change very quickly however when the eviscerated corpse disappears and the cop that was guarding it is found dead, with the same eviscerations. Soon there is a third such killing.

Cave, a newcomer to Nuuk, is asked to look into similar killings that happened in the 1970s, to see if there is a connection. In the process he runs into Tupaarnaq, a recently-released prisoner who was convicted of such a killing and is an immediate suspect.

The plot, which shifts between Matthew's contemporary investigation and the investigation of 70s policeman Jacob, is nicely paced and there are a few surprises. I have to say that I felt that the 1970s setting worked better. I'm afraid that the contemporary plot elements of an investigating Scandinavian journalist assisted by a non-conformist tattooed woman into crimes involving abuse was just a little, dare I say, too familiar. ( )
  gjky | Apr 9, 2023 |
Such a fabulous book. I loved getting a crime story set on Greenland and to top it all, with a dual storyline. Just what I love. So, what happened back in the 70s? Who killed all those men? And, what has it to do with the finding of a dead man in the present time? I listened to the audio version of the book and it was great.

I highly recommend this book! ( )
  MaraBlaise | Jul 23, 2022 |
Opgav en tredjedel inde, tog lige sidste kapitel med for at fornemme slutningen. Jeg kedede mig og sad med fornemmelsen af at have læst tusinde bøger som den - bare bedre. ( )
  troelsk | May 8, 2020 |
Here is your chance to be in at the beginning of a new translated Nordic crime fiction series. Matthew Cave is a Danish journalist who has moved to a new job in Nuuk in Greenland, because there are too many reminders in Denmark of what his life might have been like.

The reporting of a mummified Viking corpse, possibly over 600 years old, promises to be a story which will bring him and his camerman world wide coverage. But when the corpse disappears overnight and the policeman who was guarding it is murdered, the whole story is hushed up. It reminds one of his colleagues of a 40 year old cold case where 4 locals were murdered in the same way. Matt is asked by his editor to do some research on the events of 49 years earlier/

A satisfyingly complex novel, many plot strands, mnay red herrings.
Be warned - some gruesome bits. ( )
  smik | Dec 18, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (8 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Mads Peder Nordboprimary authorall editionscalculated
Barslund, CharlotteTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Fiction. Thriller. HTML:

They were near the edge of the glacier. The sea beneath the helicopter was dense with pack ice. In front of them, the endless whiteness stretched as far as the light could reach. It hurt his eyes. Millions of white crystals. Except in one place. One spot. Right where the mummified Norseman had been found and Aqqalu had kept watch. There, the ice was glossy red.

When a mummified Viking corpse is discovered in a crevasse out on the edge of an ice sheet, journalist Matthew Cave is sent to cover the story. The next day the mummy is gone, and the body of the policeman who was keeping watch is found naked and flayedâ??exactly like the victims in a gruesome series of murders that terrified the remote town of Nuuk in the 1970s.

As Matt investigates, he is shocked by the deprivation and brutal violence the locals take for granted. Unable to trust the police, he begins to suspect a cover-up. It's only when he meets a young Inuit woman, Tupaarnaq, convicted of killing her parents and two small sisters, that Matt starts to realise how deep this story goesâ??and how much danger he is in.

Mads Peder Nordbo is a Danish-born author who has lived in Nuuk in Greenland for many years. He holds degrees in literature, communications and philosophy from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Stockholm. He works in communications at the town hall in Nuuk, where he writes for the mayor of the municipality. Mads is the author of three novels, and The Girl without Skin is his crime debut. Rights have been sold in seventeen territories.

Charlotte Barslund is a Scandinavian translator. She has translated novels by Peter Adolphsen, Mikkel Birkegaard, Thomas Enger, Karin Fossum, Steffen Jacobsen, Carsten Jensen and Per Petterson, as well as a wide range of classic and contemporary plays. She lives in the UK.

'The Girl Without Skin has everything the heart of a true crime novel could desire. Murder, eeriness, shivers, superstition, terrible secrets â?? but at the same time you can feel the author's affection for Greenland.' Krimifan

'The Girl Without Skin has is large parts a classical crime combined with a thriller's intensityâ??but just as much social criticism.' VG Norway

'This intricate crime novel mixes a grisly plot with interesting insights into Greenland's history and culture.' Canberra Weekly

'This intricate crime novel is incredibly thrilling, and offers some genuine surprises.' Finals Krimiside

'The plot is gruesome, believable and incredibly tense.' Bogfidusen

'Mads Peder Nordbo has written a macabre but engrossing Arctic crime novel about incest and corruption.' Jyllands-Posten

'Lucky Nordbo has given his main character a troubled past, which makes it plausible that he would fling himself fearlessly into investigating the older killings that breath new lifeâ??and deathâ??into a corrupt political present.' Børsen

'Mads Peder Nordbo writes with great insight into the environment of Greenland, in which the nearly unbearable events play out.' Jysk Fy

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