This story was a shitshow; every single person is running their own investigation, and none of them can ever stop for 2 seconds and process what is going on around them. Therefore, the bad guys, MULTIPLE Serial Killers have carte blanche access to victims. I know most cops and detectives and security personnel always appear to be highly incompetent, but the Danes and Swedes must take the cake.

The Helsingborg investigation squad is the working definition of a clusterfuck: dysfunctional personal and professional lives, everyone pursuing their own agendas whereby fighting and solving crimes is somewhere at the bottom of their list of priorities... on the assumption that fighting and solving crimes even make the list. The bottom line is that it is a miracle Fabian Risk doesn't get a whole lot more people killed; a few dozen innocent dead, pshaw, come on Fabian, you can do better than that!!!

The bad guys have no fear of being caught. I mean, they don't even want to kill Fabian since he is no threat to them, and he is even more of an aid when all is said and done. In the event of an exceptionally unlikely string of supremely bad luck, and an improbably series of events that allows Risk to stumble and bumble his way to an apprehension and arrest, there is just the slimmest chance the criminals will pay. In the small, small improbable event that they do, we will call it a WIN (and the long and ugly trail of dead and dismembered bodies we'll conveniently ignore). Maybe the reason they cannot solve any of these crimes in Helsingborg is because they are too busy taking bets: will Risk solve the crime or be killed first, the latter being the heavy favorite.

I wasn't all that impressed with the motive. Sure, it was very unique and all of that, but the implausibility factor was off the charts. I guess half my problem is that I did not like a single character in the entire book. Are all Danes that downright loathsome, and no one there is the least bit likeable? Or is it that Stefan Ahnhem cannot create an even remotely likeable character? Whatever the factors are, it just made for a long slog.

Dunja Hougaard seems interesting, but she is a ghost in this novel. ( )

Detective Fabian Risk actually could do with some free time to get his family together after the awful events that nearly killed his wife and daughter. Yet, he and his colleagues still have a serial killer on the loose and the killing of people does not stop. Even though the cases could hardly be more different, he senses that there must be some connection. They are finally getting closer to him, but while the Swedish seaside town of Helsingborg is gripped in fear, Fabian also has to complete his very own mission: His former colleague Elvin did not die from suicide, it was forensic scientist Ingvar Molander and obviously, Elvin had put the clues together correctly. Yet, there are still some missing pieces that Fabian needs to uncover before he can finally arrest him, knowing that he has not only a very clever nemesis who knows the rules of the game, but also one who is totally reckless and ready to do everything to get away with much more than one murder.

Stefan Ahnhem continues the story exactly where it ended in “Motive X” and does not waste any time but plunges directly into the plot. Just as in the novel before, “X Ways to Dies” moves at an extremely high pace and cleverly combines the different plot lines that finally tie the knot together. For me, Ahnhem is a worthy successor and heir of Stieg Larsson who set new milestones with his Millennium series; Ahnhem follows his footsteps in many respects by delivering a demanding plot full of suspense.

The latest instalment answers many questions which remained open in the one before thus completing the story and bringing it to a convincing end. What I totally adored was the fight between Risk and Molander, both very clever and certainly belonging to the best in their jobs thus fighting at eye level and giving a lot of insight into police work. Several setbacks make Risk an authentic and credible protagonist who also shows his weak and vulnerable sides.

The only question left to be answered: does and if so how can the story go on? ( )