Why you should read The Chestnut Man in 2025

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY

Søren Sveistrup
2018
№ 1

CRIME

⭐️ 4 🌶️ 0 🐉 0 ❤️‍🔥 0

The Chestnut Man isn’t really a new release, but if you haven’t read it already, you are really missing out on something. And I’m going to tell you why.

An inteste thriller with a lot of unexpected twists

The Chestnut Man is a really intense novel, written by Søren Sveistrup, a Danish screen writer and author. The story is set Denmark, and begins with a brutal murder of a woman. On her body, a chestnut man is found, bearing fingerprints belonging to a young woman who is missing and presumed dead. As the story develops, we get to follow the criminal officers who tries to catch the murderer who seems to always be a few steps ahead, and as soon as you think you know something about the book, a new twist comes along.

What was great about IT

At first, I was a bit hesitant to read it, since I sometimes can think thrillers are too gruesome, but when I started reading there was no going back. I just couldn’t put it down. Sørens writing feels like a really advance puzzle and you just want to get the next pice in place. Even though the book have a lot of usual crime tropes, it felt like something new to me and I really enjoyed it.

What I really liked about the book except it was unpredictable, is that the main characthers are really smart people. We get to follow Naia Thulin who works at the Danish police department and Mark Hess, who is on temporarly leave from Europol. Even though their work relationshop starts off a bit strained, we get to see them cooperate and develop a really great partnership.

One thing, that I think is a bit unusal for a crime novel, is that they seem like quite normal people, with not that many issues. There is no drug abuse, no brain tumors, and no one is having a mental illness and I thought that was quite refreshing.

The Netflix series

The Netflix Series is also really good, so you watch it after you have read it. I think it follows the plot really well, and I really enjoyed it too. The biggest change was that they made Naias problems with her daughter a lot worse in the series, but I think it was kind of fitting for the theme of the book.

Why you should read it now

If you haven’t already, I think it’s really worth your time if you like crime novels. The sequel Hide and seek is already out in Swedish and in Danish, so if you want to be prepared for the english version that comes out in March 2026, you should really get going.

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