Burned: A Novel (Henning Juul Book 1)

I found this book confusing because I did not buy the murderer reasoning for the murder. The religious aspect bogus.

Too confusing 6o stay engaged. I just l9st interest after awhile. Sort of weird in the way it uses sharia law and what it calls hubud, if I remembered that right.

This is the first novel in Thomas Enger's series about Norwegian crime reporter Henning Juul, and it's much stronger overall that the slow beginning would suggest. We spend the first few chapters in the head of Juul, and it's not a pleasant place to be -- he has clearly suffered some terrible trauma, and is very, very unhappy. But he's heading back to work after a long absence, which puts the novel in gear and sets Henning into action. The story is a complex one involving the murder of a young woman by stoning, beating and the removal of her hand. At first blush the police think "sharia", but (with help from Henning) they soon determine that much more is in play. The police characters are interesting, as is Henning's development of relationships with them. By the end of the book Henning is in deadly peril, and the suspense is powerful. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, as dark as they seem likely to be.

Henning Juul was scarred emotionally and physically when a fire in his apartment two years ago left him hospitalized, his young son dead, and his marriage destroyed. Now Henning has decided he needs to get back to work, so he returns to 123news, an online newspaper where his old intern is now his boss. Immediately he's assigned to look into the recent murder of a popular university student. She's been stoned to death, and her Muslim boyfriend is arrested. Henning thinks something isn't quite right, and as he delves into the story, he begins to feel more alive than he has in a while.In this series debut, the author adeptly shows us Henning's pain and his reemergence as a functioning human being. The mystery is interesting and the conclusion plausible.I would say it's not the best of the Scandinavian thrillers I've read, but it is very good and I'll look for more in the series, which includes: Burned, Pierced, and Scarred.

It started out unusual - and I had a difficult time getting started. But once I "understood" the writing style, I really enjoyed the storyHenning Juul is a journalist. He was burned severely in an apartment fire a couple of years before the start of the book. His son, Jason, died in the fire. In this novel, Henning is returning to work for the first time after the fire. He doesn't know if he is going to be able to get back into the world of crime reporting.On his first day back at the office, a college student is murdered in an unusual way - buried in a hole and stoned to death - with her hand cut offHenning begins following the story, interviewing the people connected with the college student, and uncovers information even the police don;t haveIt is a very moving and compassionate story - as well as being suspenseful

I wanted gunshots. Poisonings. For Annette to catch her due. Hennaing should have killed her. Tazered and buried and STONED HER TO DEATH. IN MY MIND HE DID.TOO,convoluted. Too much jurisprudence. Not enough ACTION. A BURST of REVENGE. Needed a shock.,a shock of Justice, Hemming and Jonas should have burned Annette alive,In MY book, he DID.

I thought I had read most Nordic authors, but was very surprised to discover another enormously talented writer with his first superb novel Burned. His very gifted way of story telling is quite unique and quite original, a must read!

Egner’s talent shows in his first novel, but the plot darts around too much and the book loses focus for too long and some readers will jump ship before the get to the good closing chapter

Broken, both physically and mentally, Henning Juul is just one of those characters who I became invested in from the very first time I ‘met’ him, while reading Cursed. Now this was a long way into Henning’s journey to find out the truth about what happened to his son, so it was really intriguing to take a step back in time to join Henning just as he is about to try and restart his life after the tragic fire which cost him almost everything.What he finds as he re-enters his workplace for the first time in two years, is just how much everything has changed. It is all shiny and new, from the fixtures and fittings of the offices right down to the relationship his ex wife Nora has engaged in with the station’s new super star journalist. It is hard for Henning who still bears the scars of the fire and who still suffers emotionally, to find his feet in this new world. He lost so much of himself in the fire, but he didn’t his journalistic instinct or his nose for a story and it is this which drives him to look deeper into a particularly harrowing story; that of a young woman who appears to have been stoned to death.The case is complex, touching upon the Muslim faith, the idea of sharia law and of revenge killing. It brings Henning face to face with a merciless group of men who would kill to protect each other, their business and their faith and on more than one occasion Henning finds himself once again dicing with death. But there is much more to the story than meets the eye and Thomas Enger has very skilfully woven together so many seemingly unconnected threads that you will not fully understand where the story is heading, or the truth of what has happened until the very end.The characterisations in this book were excellent, very diverse and carefully delivered to the reader. Generating fiction based around any faith is a very difficult thing to do, the author having to walk a fine line between stereotype and reality, but Thomas Enger manages this well, capturing the sense of the prejudice and mistrust that surrounds the Muslim faith in many a community. And yet the story goes beyond being a criticism of the faith; in itself religion becomes more of a back drop to the rest of the story.Full of moments of introspection, where Henning struggles with what has happened in his past, and also of moments of real tension where he is placed in great jeopardy, the story kept me engaged and determined to find out who the killer was and what their motives were. And you get a real sense of place from Enger’s writing. I don’t know Norway at all, but I had a crystal clear image in my mind as I progressed through the book, of the landscape within which the story was being told. Atmospherically, it added to the ominous feeling of the investigation.Bizarrely, the book also enhanced my thus far none existent knowledge of children’s television programme, In The Night Garden. Not something I’d ever thought would happen reading this series and you’ll need to read to understand why it amused me and my sister.I listened to Burned, rather than read it, enjoying the audiobook while on my recent holiday to Scotland. I can highly recommend it. The translation was brilliant so hat’s off to Charlotte Barslund for that, and to Gareth Armstong for the narration of the audio book. I’m off now to dig out book two. Pierced, here I come.

’m reading the fantastic Henning Juul books in order and I just love them!Set in Oslo, Norway ( my favourite Country on Earth hence my reading of these!) and written by the stellar Thomas Enger, they have a wonderfully sad back story to Hennings life, but each book has its own story with Hennings life intertwined. Fantastic character writing, I love Henning and the supporting cast are all wonderful ( I am purposely NOT giving any spoilers away).If you like Nordic Noir and gripping crime fiction then these books are for you. You will be like me and read them long into the night when you should be sleeping!Compulsive reading and an excellent well written gripping series! Buy them now!

I love Scandi noir but had never heard of this series of novels until now. I'm so glad I did. I raced through this book in a couple of days. Usually I'll read for an hour in bed but last night I couldn't put it down. I read until nearly midnight & woke at 6 so I could finish it.The plot reads like a tv drama & just races along. I particularly like the fact that Henning is a journalist rather than a police officer. He has his own baggage to carry (naturally) and is well written. Looking forward to the 2nd in the series.

Henning Juul is returning to work as a journalist after a fire in his flat which killed his son. Mentally and physically scarred Juul has to cope with changes at his online newspaper, his boss is a former mentee of his and he is working in partnership with the man his ex-wife is seeing. Quickly Juul becomes involved in a murder story, a young woman is found in a tent, stoned to death, flogged and with her hand chopped off. The police immediately think that this is a ritual crime linked to Sharia law and committed by her Pakistani boyfriend. Juul is not so sure...I am embarrassed to say that this book had been sitting unread for several years which is a real pity. The translation is excellent in the fact that it keeps a real lyricism to the writing but seems to flow incredibly smoothly. The plot is very tight, there are numerous twists and turns and a nicely unresolved resolution. By looking at what seems a ritualistic crime Enger highlights the tensions between immigrants and the local populace in Norway, the crude approach of the police exemplifies this. Juul is sympathetic character with an excellent backstory and this has the makings of a really gripping series of novels

This was a great story but I found it a little complicated keeping track of the characters possibly due to some having names I didn't know how to pronounce, always the way with scandi noir :-) . I still enjoyed the story and the way it unfolded, with plenty of twists and turns, it certainly made me want to read the next book and learn more about Henning. It will be interesting when I read his next book in the Blix and Ramm series to see if I recognise his style now I've read a book solely by Enger.