Book Review - I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjørk

Title: I’m Travelling Alone
Series: Holger Munch & Mia Krüger # 1
Author: Samuel Bjørk
 
Description: A six-year-old girl is found in the Norwegian countryside, hanging lifeless from a tree with a jump rope around her neck. She is dressed in strange doll’s clothes. Around her neck is an airline tag that says “I’m travelling alone”. A special homicide unit in Oslo re-opens with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. Holger’s first step is to persuade the brilliant but haunted investigator Mia Krüger to come back to the squad. She’s been living on an isolated island, overcome by memories of her past. When Mia views a photograph of the crime scene and spots the number 11 carved into the dead girl’s fingernail, she knows this is only the beginning.
 
Review: Samuel Bjørk is a Norwegian thriller writer and “I’m Travelling Alone” is his debut novel. This book was already a resounding success when it was released in Norway. And this is an excellent debut.
 
We follow police investigator Holger Munch, who is working on the case of a six-year-old girl found dead, hanging on a tree with a note around her neck that says “I’m Travelling Alone”. He calls the help of Mia Krüger, who has been living a life of isolation. She discovers that the girl has the number 1 carved into one of her fingernails, realizing this is just the beginning.
 
“I’m Travelling Alone” is a well written book, has interesting characters and a good story. This book took me forever to finish. I’m a slow reader and the pace of this book is really slow as well. It didn’t feel like a page-turner, even though this book had a lot of elements I look for in a thriller.
 
Holger Munch and Mia Krüger are both flawed characters, very interesting to read about, they felt like real people. The have depth and are really explored. Mia reminded me a bit of Lisbeth Salander from the “Millenium”-series.
 
I really liked “I’m Travelling Alone” and it is almost hard to believe this is a debut novel. This is the first in a series and I might pick up more books in the future. For fans of Scandinavian thrillers, this is a must-read.
 
Rating: 4/ 5