Crime Fiction
4*’s
The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die is a fast-moving thriller and grittier than my usual choice of read but if you want excitement by the bucketful this is a book to consider, especially as it is currently available for the kindle at the absolute bargain price of just 99p!
Georgina McKenzie, is an Erasmus student at the University of Amsterdam when a human bomb blows up the library, it has all the hallmarks of a terrorist plot and when George and her friend Ad stumble on the scene she is asked to help the policeman draw the person responsible out by writing a blog post for the student magazine. Detective van den Bergen got more than he bargained for when he asked the student criminologist for help because George wasn’t about to leave it at one post, especially when her fellow students start dying at a rate of knots. No George gets stuck into investigating the crime, working from her already well-honed reading of people she feels she is well-placed to find the person or people responsible. She is also slightly worried that she is being watched, but by whom and why she doesn’t know but she’s determined to find out. To do so she takes part, and encourages Ad in turn to do the same, in some breathtakingly risky escapades to root out the killer.
As well as being quite gruesome in places, there are a lot of characters to keep track of as well as a number of different themes and places; The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die takes in Amsterdam, England and Germany as it hurtles from one scary event to the next. At first I was confused about the part of the story set in London which full of drugs and gangs but I really liked the atmosphere created by the author with young Ella terrified of the local boys Danny and Jez who terrorised her and her mother on a nightly basis while all Ella wanted was a quiet life and to escape.
There are some well-drawn characters to back up a plot that does need the reader to be in the moment and not to ask too many awkward questions about protocol etc. Inspector van den Bergen being one of my favourites. George was a little to full-on at the start but as I got to understand more about her my feelings towards her softened. I liked the interplay between her and her friend Ad and her friendship with her prostitute neighbor and the local coffee-shop owner and landlord. If this book wasn’t so full of action I fear I would have lost track of the numerous characters who populate this novel although the author has done well in giving the majority of them interesting traits so they are easily distinguishable.
I recommend this book to those who enjoy Scandi-crime fiction, and yes I know my geography is poor but I am aware that neither Amsterdam or London are in Scandinavia, but this book has the same feel to it with the big plots, the gruesome retaliations and the complex individuals.
I’d like to thank the author Marnie Riches and the publisher Harper Collins Maze for giving me a copy of this book for review purposes. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die was published on 23 April 2015.
