Hidden symbols and a sinister ancient secret buried in downtown Helsinki. An ever-growing string of deaths. When a 10-year-old girl and her mother move in next door to professional killer Daniel, the man begins to have tormenting memories of his stolen childhood. When Daniel's faceless employers order yet another murder, he is faced with a choice for the first time - whether to carry out the assignment or face his painful past. Who - or what - wants Daniel to keep killing?
Three because it was an interesting concept, but I can't say I enjoyed it. The pace was glacial, the plot was weirdly low-stakes, and the ending was a groaner. It almost felt a bit sci-fi rather than thriller, and while I appreciated that, and how the structure was quite different from my usual reads, I had a hard time getting invested. It was just so slow. Spoilers, it's a cult. There's a big showdown at the end, lots of deaths, and the child protagonist goes off to live with who we are lead to believe is a good guy who was anti-cult, but the very last scene has the girl seeing him outside, singing a culture song to a bear skull. Dun dun dun... Yeah, it just felt half-written to me, like the author tried to get away with as little world building as possible and thought he could get away with it if he made it seem intentionally vague. It didn't work for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I have to disagree with the other ratings! I thought this was a very good book. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! It was just predictable enough that you felt like you could put the pieces together just a bit before the main characters do, which I enjoyed. There were definitely distressing themes, but the author did a great job alluding without giving all the gory details. Yes, it left you with questions, but I don't feel like it took anything away from the ending.
An interesting story with lots of intrigue and mystery. The narration was excellent and kept me engaged. Great characters and plot however I was left with a few unanswered questions