Review When the king dies – Elina Backman

In the story of ‘When the king dies’ we learn about Saana who loses her job as an online editor and decides to spend the summertime with her aunt in Hartola. Soon she is bored stiff in this sleepy little town. When her aunt tells her a story about an unsolved murder mystery that happened years ago, Saana can’t resist to do some research.

Police

At the same time the police works on a new murder case. Has this anything to do with the murder that happened 30 years ago? It seems very unlikely. Still there are some facts that are remarkable like the ones from the earlier murder case.

Love

Another reason Saana moved from Helsinki to Hartola is to get over a broken relationship. While police officer Jan has no time for love. Friends beg to differ, however, and get the two together for a blind date. Will it be love at first sight or are they both too busy? After all, Jan is working on the new murder while Saana works on the unsolved case from many years ago.

Together

On the other hand, the murder cases might just bring them together, both in work and in life. I don’t think I will spoil anything when I tell you: But of course they do! This book is anything but a predictable, sappy story, though. It’s humorous, the storyline is exciting and the writing is excellent.

When the king dies

‘When the king dies’ is the debut of Elina Backman. It’s her first book in a series that’s doing remarkably well in Finland. For now, the first book is the only one translated. Good news: the second one will follow shortly and is almost here. This book is also known as: ‘All the king’s men.’

Elina Backman

Elina Backman is creative director of a big media company. She was born in 1984 in Finland and lives with her family in Helsinki. I hope she will keep on writing to supply us with more wonderful books to read. I can’t wait for the follow up on this first one.