Detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner return in this thriller as they race to solve a series of sordid murders linked to some of the most vulnerable patients in a Danish hospital.

Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing. But in the coronary care unit at one of Copenhagen’s leading medical centers, a nurse fills a syringe with an overdose of heart medication and stealthily enters the room of an older male patient.

Six days earlier, a paperboy on his route in central Copenhagen stumbles upon a macabre find: the naked body of a dead woman, lying in a fountain with arms marked with small incisions. Cause of death? Exsanguination—the draining of all the blood in her body.

Clearly, this is no ordinary murder. Lead Investigator Jeppe Korner, recovering from a painful divorce and in the throes of a new relationship, takes on the investigation. His partner, Anette Werner, now on maternity leave after an unexpected pregnancy, is restless at home with a demanding newborn and an equally demanding husband. While Jeppe pounds the streets looking for answers, Anette decides to do a little freelance sleuthing. But operating on her own exposes her to dangers she can’t even begin to fathom.

As the investigation ventures into dark corners, it uncovers the ambition and greed that festers beneath the surface of caregiving institutions—all the more shocking for their depravity—and what Jeppe and Anette discover will turn their blood as cold as ice….

Review:

Chilling, sinister, and sharp!

In this engrossing second instalment in the Korner and Werner series, The Butterfly House, Engberg has written an unpredictable, ominous thriller that takes you on a hunt for a serial killer with a penchant for antique medical devices and a list of victims who all seem to have ties to a defunct psychiatric facility for teens.

The prose is tight and crisp. The characters are multilayered, flawed, and troubled. And the plot is an absorbing tale full of intrigue, surprises, red herrings, deception, revenge, suspicious motivations, abuse, mental illness, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Butterfly House is a sophisticated, fast-paced, tortuous tale by Engberg that keeps you guessing from the very first page and leaves you unsettled, entertained, and highly satisfied.

This book is available now.

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