Criminal psychologist Lena Peters is asked to assist in the hunt for a serial killer who collects body parts. New to the city and to the team, Lena tries to find her footing but isn't welcomed by everyone and soon clashes with her boss, Volker Drescher, a seemingly shady detective.
Sacrifice is the first book in this series set in Berlin. It was originally published in German in 2012. The follow-up, Seelenriss, is so far only available in German. As you would expect from a first in a series, Lena's background is introduced, which, unsurprisingly, isn't happy. Lena has a volatile relationship with her twin sister and leads a rather isolated life.
Told from multiple perspectives, including the deranged killer's, there were plenty of red herrings and a couple of developments that didn't make an awful lot of sense to me and when the culprit was finally revealed, it kind of materialized completely out of the blue. Still, this wasn't bad. Lena teams up with a retired detective, Wulf Belling, and gets some help from her neighbor, Lukas, and I quite enjoyed all their interactions. There was no cliffhanger as such, as the case was solved, but the end of the book leads immediately into the next one.
As with most translated work, the prose didn't always flow perfectly, but I've certainly read a lot worse. It was lacking suspense and considering Lena is a criminal psychologist, I would have liked to see more of the psychological aspects. She almost turned more into a private detective during the story. However, I felt invested enough to try the next one.
Sacrifice is the first book in this series set in Berlin. It was originally published in German in 2012. The follow-up, Seelenriss, is so far only available in German. As you would expect from a first in a series, Lena's background is introduced, which, unsurprisingly, isn't happy. Lena has a volatile relationship with her twin sister and leads a rather isolated life.
Told from multiple perspectives, including the deranged killer's, there were plenty of red herrings and a couple of developments that didn't make an awful lot of sense to me and when the culprit was finally revealed, it kind of materialized completely out of the blue. Still, this wasn't bad. Lena teams up with a retired detective, Wulf Belling, and gets some help from her neighbor, Lukas, and I quite enjoyed all their interactions. There was no cliffhanger as such, as the case was solved, but the end of the book leads immediately into the next one.
As with most translated work, the prose didn't always flow perfectly, but I've certainly read a lot worse. It was lacking suspense and considering Lena is a criminal psychologist, I would have liked to see more of the psychological aspects. She almost turned more into a private detective during the story. However, I felt invested enough to try the next one.