The Harbor is the fourth book in the Kørner and Werner Series set in Copenhagen. The English translations are being published out of order, so this is the third book that has been translated at this point. This story find police detective partners Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner called in after fifteen year old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff disappears. Initially, it seems like this might be a typical teen runaway situation, but when Oscar's parents find an odd note left behind, they start to consider the possibility that Oscar has been kidnapped and the note they find is a threat of some kind. As with all missing persons cases, time is of the essence and as the hours tick by, Kørner and Werner do their best to untangle the mess of connections and ties the Dreyer-Hoff family have - including some less than savory rumors.
TW/CW: alcoholism, child abuse, attempted suicide, death of a child
This is my first Kørner and Werner book but the first in the series has been on my radar for a while. I almost didn't request this one, but when I saw that the English translations were being done out of series order (only books #1, 3, and now 4 have been translated), I decided it was probably pretty safe to jump in the middle. And I'm pleased to report that I was correct - this book almost felt like it could have been the first book in a series. We do get some mentions of past cases but really only in passing so it didn't feel like in other police procedural series where the references to previous books are much more heavy handed. The other characters and relationships, as well, were introduced in such a way that it felt like Engberg was introducing them to us for the first time. For example, I'm assuming that Anette's husband shows up at least a little in one of the previous books so I would have expected his character to be introduced in a way that leans toward the reader already knowing him. However, his character reads like he's being introduced to us for the first time and Engberg does a great job of showing us key moments of him as well as how he and Anette act together.
The characters were great and I especially loved Jeppe and Anette's relationship. They had a great back and forth banter going through a lot of the book and seemed like they had a great working partnership. There wasn't a whole lot of time in this book spent developing any of the relationships, so like most other detective series, that is probably more obvious from the series overall. The story takes place over only 6 days so it isn't surprising that there wasn't a ton of character development in that timeframe. I think there was more of Jeppe and Anette going off in their separate directions and I would have loved to have more of them on page, together, for more of that partner banter. There were a ton of side characters and, for some reason, my brain had such a hard time keeping them all straight. It really felt like it took me until the 40%ish mark to be able to remember who everyone was by name. This is a bit unusual for me, especially since all the characters had very distinct names (there was no Mary/Maria situation here). I couldn't really pinpoint an actual issue in the writing that would lead me to have that problem, so it might just be me not being completely engaged while reading because of other distractions in the room. I did enjoy how often the side characters were used and how much we got to see of them on page instead of them just being introduced in the opening and then almost nothing until the big reveal at the end.
This book is multi-POV which I really enjoy. I think this choice is able to give the reader a good insight into this whole cast of characters and it makes for some really fun guessing opportunities. However, Engberg does the one thing that I hate with multi-POV mystery/thrillers - she has these characters, in their internal monologues, be extra vague for no reason other than to keep the info from the reader. I 1000% know this might just be a pet peeve of mine, but there were enough times when we'd be in one POV and they'd leave off with something frustratingly vague that will end up obviously being part of the reveal/tie together by the end. These little bits almost act like cliffhangers to pull the reader along with the hope that, in the next chapter from that character, we'll find out what the secret is. Of course, we don't until the very end. I think, for me, the issue is that this particular choice feels like the author is trying to trick me and insert this artificial tension in a way that feels very obvious. It pulls me out of the story and makes me feel like I can see the seams in the story. It won't completely ruin a book (unless it is used in nearly every chapter) but it will pull me out of the story and lower my overall enjoyment because of that. As an aside, I really enjoy when this mechanic is used in a way where the cliffhanger is resolved in the next chapter, but it ends up being a very innocent reason but that is not what happened in this book.
I liked how this was a pretty straight-up mystery. I think a lot of police procedurals, at least the ones I tend to pick up, have a thriller-lite element that picks up in the third act. In this case, however, the main plot is really putting these puzzle pieces together and seeing how some of these other seemingly unrelated aspects are all tied together. There were a lot of moving parts and a pretty extensive cast of characters that all had to come together so the middle did get a little muddy for me - however, I think Engberg pulled it off in the end. I did find the wrapping up and reveals to be a little underwhelming. In most mysteries, even if they don't have any thriller elements added in, the reveal is usually built up throughout the entire book and the detective has some sort of 'ah-ha' moment where everything clicks. In this case, however, we didn't have any moment where we could feel that big accomplishment when everything falls together. Looking back, I think that has to do more with how the story was structured. The main plot line that we're following - the disappearance of Oscar - is pretty much solved at the 70% mark which is pretty early for the main mystery to be closing in a story. The remaining 30% of the book is really seeing how these other plot threads are coming together and seeing Jeppe/Anette each having that sort of sixth sense that the case isn't quite solved yet. And there are some pretty big reveals in the last third of the book but because they're introduced so late in the story there isn't much time to develop them into more concrete threats/suspects so they end up feeling less like a big deal than is ideal.
We also had some interesting, very short chapters, from these un-named characters that gave us an extra peek at some of these events surrounding our main investigation. I think these interludes are used pretty frequently in mysteries but are normally from the killer's POV. In this case, it seems to be from the vicitim's POV but we don't know who that victim is. I think these small chapters were where Engberg was really able to add in some more atmospheric writing and sort of remind the reader what is at stake in the story. We might not know exactly who this mystery POV is, but we know they must be tied to the investigation in some way so they are important to the story.
Overall, this was a really solid Noric Noir story with some really interesting characters and mystery elements. I do think the structure of the plot wasn't exactly working for me but the story came together well at the end. I loved the relationship between our two main detectives and will be reading more in this series for sure.
Thanks NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC
Expected publication date is February 22, 2022.
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