The Considerate Killer

January 18, 2016
At the start of Danish authors Kaaberbøl and Friis’s uneven fourth and final thriller featuring Red Cross nurse Nina Borg (after 2013’s Death of a Nightingale), an assailant apologizes after hitting Nina with a tire iron in a shopping mall parking garage, leaving her with a fractured skull. When the would-be killer sends flowers and Bible verses to her hospital room in Viborg, Nina and her new paramour, police officer Søren Kirkegard (no relation to philosopher Søren Kierkegaard), link him to a medical student she met in the Philippines, where she went on vacation five months earlier in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage. The plot drags at times, and the broadly drawn Filipino characters fail to transcend cardboard heroes and villains. The authors are at their best when they explore Nina’s confrontations with mortality—her own, her mother’s, her children’s, and Søren’s—and the effects of her often-dangerous choices on those she loves. Series fans will enjoy watching her relationship with Søren develop and deepen.

February 15, 2016

The "Nina Borg" series finale (after the stunning and twisty Death of a Nightingale) goes out with more of a whimper than a bang, but that is appropriate, since the title character has been laid low by many injuries, both physical and psychological, in previous outings. Danish Red Cross nurse and zealous do-gooder Nina is now divorced from her husband and tentatively entering a relationship with Soren, the detective whom she saved in Nightingale. She's also trying to repair her relationships with her mother, who's been diagnosed with cancer, and her teenage son and daughter, who resent her risk-taking behavior. When she's clubbed in a Viborg parking lot and the attacker asks her forgiveness, Nina must figure out who is after her--and why. Meanwhile, in the Philippines three young man who bonded in medical school become involved in shady dealings. VERDICT This book is not as layered and complex as previous Nina stories, the intercutting between Denmark and the Philippines is often choppy, and there are a few too many coincidences. The glimpses of Filipino culture and society are captivating, though, and Nina's attempts at romance and reconciliation are gently satisfying. It will be interesting to see what solo projects Kaaberbol and Friis come up with next. Fans and series completists will definitely want to read this title. [See "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 32.]--Liz French, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016
The fourth in the Nina Borg series (Death of a Nightingale, 2013) finds the Danish Red Cross nurse once again in peril. Trouble follows Borg, and this time it has followed her into a parking garage and tried to crush her skull with a metal pipe. Her policeman boyfriend rushes to her side and runs interference with the mother she's been nursing through cancer treatment and the children who are tired of worrying about their mother's safety. Alternating chapters tell the story of Vincent, a Filipino med-school dropout who has become indebted to a corrupt school friend. The reader is led to assume that Vincent is the one behind Borg's assault, but what happened to turn a scholarship student in the Philippines into a would-be killer half a world away? Borg's backstory is skimmed over in this entry, making readers new to the series feel like they're missing a vital piece of information about why the nurse seems to attract crime. Still, for fans, this is a solid entry in an intriguing series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)