The Harbor

When 15-year-old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff goes missing on his way home from school, the Copenhagen police assume he’s yet another teenager who’s run off and is likely at a friend’s house. But his well-connected, affluent family thinks otherwise. They’re art dealers with a somewhat shady past and a history of receiving threats. In fact, they receive an ambiguous message the day after young Dreyer-Hoff disappears. Time to bring in detectives Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner, who pursue Oscar’s disappearance as though it were a kidnapping. Kørner and Werner encounter a wonderful range of characters—from pouty, insolent teens to engineers in a recycling plant and the caretaker of an island in the harbor—and we learn about Copenhagen in the process. Engberg is a genius at balance, going deep into the lives of Kørner and Werner, as well as some of the suspects, while never forgetting that this is a murder mystery, and the clock is ticking. The third in a series that just keeps getting better, this book also succeeds as a standalone. For wherever Nordic noir is appreciated.