I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjørk

I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjørk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When the body of a young girl is found hanging from a tree, the only clue the police have is an airline tag around her neck. It reads ‘I’m travelling alone’.

In response, police investigator Holger Munch is immediately charged with assembling a special homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must track down his former partner, Mia Krüger – a brilliant but troubled detective – who has retreated to a solitary island with plans to kill herself.

Reviewing the file, Mia finds something new – a thin line carved into the dead girl’s fingernail: the number 1. She knows that this is only the beginning. To save other children from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons and stop this murderer from becoming a serial killer.


The story opens up when a 6 year old girl is found hanging from a tree with a label round her neck that says 'I'm travelling alone', she is wearing strange dolls clothes and has a school satchel on her back.


This murder results in a special murder unit in Oslo to reopen with Holger Munch leading the investigation. In charge of putting his team together which had previously been disbanded Holger has to find Mia Kruger and persuade her to come back to the squad.


Mia, has retreated to a remote island with the intention of committing suicide so that she can be reunited with her dead beloved sister. She has been living on a cocktail of prescription pills and alcohol and when Holger tracks her down she just wants to be left alone to die but she agrees to look at what Holger has and discovers the number 1 on the childs' fingernail, she then knows there will be more children killed and decides to come back just for this case.


The chapters are short and easy to read although there is a fair bit of 'fleshing' out characters it was necessary to the storyline. Good secondary characters, the squad are all believable and 'real' which makes this an easy read.


We learn that Holger has his demons as well as Mia which become more evident as the plot unfolds.


There's a lot going on in this novel but it all comes together in quite a clever and acceptable way. I don't give spoilers and there are a lot of twists and turns in this book so when I thought I'd guessed who was the murderer I was left questioning this right up to the end.


A really clever interwoven plot makes sure that although the ending might have been predictable how we get there is not. A good crime thriller and considering it was a translation I felt it did a good job language wise. I hope Mia and Holger get together again with the team, an enjoyable read and worth a 4 star rating.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.