#BlogTour ‘The Witch Hunter’ by Max Seeck trans Kristian London

About the book…

A shocking murder in an affluent Helsinki suburb has ties to the occult in this thrilling US debut from Finnish author Max Seeck.

A bestselling author’s wife has been found dead in a gorgeous black evening gown, sitting at the head of a formally set dinner table. Her most chilling feature—her face is frozen in a ghastly smile.

At first it seems as though a deranged psychopath is reenacting the gruesome murders from The Witch Hunter, the bestseller written by the victim’s husband. But investigator Jessica Niemi soon realizes she’s not looking for a single killer but rather for dozens of believers in a sinister form of witchcraft.

They know her every move and are always one step ahead. As the bodies start piling up, Jessica knows they won’t stop until they get what they want. And when her dark past comes to light, Jessica finds herself battling her own demons while desperately trying to catch a coven of killers before they claim their next victim.

Huge thanks to the awesome Megan at ED Public Relations for the blog tour invite and my gifted review copy of ‘The Witch Hunter’ by Max Seeck, published by Welbeck 

It’s out now!

And it’s a perfectly timed release, for a chunky, 400 page novel to tuck into as the autumn nights close in…the Finnish setting is suitably dark and cold enough to make your bones ache for a summer breeze.

Starting with a murder, then contextualising it with it’s relationship to the author of dark thrillers is a neat twist-the story hits the ground running with a striking and visual setting, followed by the author ‘meet and greet’ from hell, where your suspicions immediately begin to twitch about who this killer is and what they want. There follows  a paradoxically seemingly logical and illogical series of murders based on bestselling author, Robin Koponen’s, ‘Witch Hunt’ trilogy (trying very,very hard not to give any spoilers away!)

Within 1 day, 4 murders have been committed which bear a stark resemblance to the deaths as they appear in the series. A further 3 are anticipated if the killer is following the books to the letter.But when Detective Jessica Niemi is battling her own dark demons, how can she put them to one side to fight the seemingly impossible? There are so many points of contention, from the most audacious killer I have read about in a long time, that it makes you neck ache from the constant whiplash of investigative developments.

One of the staples of crime fiction and tv shows is that the killer will often lurk around to absorb the atmosphere of the crime scene, but one who actually inserts themselves into one, and then taunts the police with being under their nose? It’s a new one on me!

This is a series opener with lots of promise, it has a very visual, and intense style which has been brilliantly translated from the Finnish by Kristian London,who manages to retain the key features of a Nordic noir novel as well as the stylistic quirks of Max Seeck.

The plot races at speed through short, sharp chapters. It took me a while to realise that the story of the investigation was interspersed with a trip Jessica took to Vienna, where she met a musician with sinister intent. The chapters run into each other without headings, and are all in the present tense, so it took a little bit of time to realise there was a then and a now.

A gripping thriller with undertones of the supernatural to it, I really enjoyed ‘The Witch Hunter’. I found it unpredictable and as engaging as any Nordic noir novel that I have read in the last 10 years. It felt like coming home to delve into a society and culture that at once feels familiar, and yet also exotic, a million miles from Wales, yet with some points of connection . This is particularly noticeable in the way that news travels fast within small communities, and the ties of relationship between the members of Jessica’s team. The characters are well formed but leave room for development in future instalments of the series.

The cover states that this is a book about ‘the most terrifying serial killer you’ll ever meet’, which to be honest, was the hook which grabbed me and made me want to read the book. I wouldn’t say this is 100% accurate* but it’s a debut that hits the ground running and sets the scene perfectly for Book 2. I for one cannot wait!

*In this reader’s humble opinion, that honour will always belong to Hannibal Lecter, I will never forget saving my paper round money to buy a copy of Red Dragon!

About the author…

Max Seeck (b. 1985) has a background in sales and marketing, and has lately been able to dedicate his time to his lifelong love of writing. His interests include well-conducted research, reading Nordic Noir and listening to movie soundtracks as he writes.
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Max writes in Finnish which is his native language. The foreign publishing rights have been sold to 38 countries (as of 06/2020). A TV adaptation of his novel The Witch Hunter is also in the works in Hollywood.
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Max’ fifth novel is released in September 2020. He’s also working on a movie screenplay that is to be produced into a Finnish feature film next year.
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In addition there are a few other projects that remain a mystery until the nearest future.

Links-https://www.maxseeck.com/

Twitter @MaxSeeck @WelbeckPublish @ed_pr