Jeppe Korner was on his own. His investigative partner, Anette Werner is on maternity leave, so when the body showed up in the fountain in front of the Copenhagen hospital, he was the detective in charge of the case. The woman was found naked. She was a local nurse, whose body had been drained of blood and left in the fountain early in the morning. Local surveillance footage showed a hooded figure and a cargo bike. There were no other witnesses, no other surveillance cameras located in a place where they could show anything.
The next morning, there is another body in another fountain. The day after that, another one in a local lake. They were all naked. They were all exsanguinated, with small equal cut marks on their wrists and by their femoral arteries. And eventually the police discover that they all worked for The Butterfly House.
The Butterfly House was a small, privately owned medical facility for teenagers with psychological issues. The owners and a small group of nurses and a social worker were paid to treat schizophrenia, eating disorders, and anxiety disorders. Now, Korner and his team need to find the owners, the psychiatrist, the patients, and the cook who worked there. If one of them isn’t the killer, then it’s possible that they are the next victims.
Meanwhile, home on maternity leave, Anette Werner is climbing the walls. She hates that there is a big case to investigate and she can do nothing to help. She loves her daughter, but changing diapers and breastfeeding isn’t fulfilling her. When she’d been in the hospital giving birth, she met the woman who was the first victim. The nurse had been there for Anette, and now Anette wants to do something for her, so she starts investigating. Just a little, in a few stolen moments here and there.
As the investigators close in on answers and get closer to their killer, they put everything on the line to find justice. Will Jeppe sacrifice his new relationship as well as his relationship with his mother to bring the killer in? Will Anette sacrifice her marriage and her new daughter? Or will it take even more than that—will they have to lose their lives to get to the truth?
The Butterfly House is the follow-up to The Tenant, Katrine Engberg’s first Korner and Werner novel. Set in Copenhagen, and translated from Danish, these novels follow the police investigators tasked with solving violent crimes. Told through the wider perspective of the many people touched by the crimes, these police procedurals offer up a look into the policework and the personal lives of the detectives and their families. Filled with fascinating characters and laced with humor and pathos, The Butterfly House offers a look at the system of crime and punishment in Denmark.
I am a big fan of these books. While these murders were particularly violent, and that was challenging to read about, the setting and the characters were so intriguing that I had to keep reading regardless. I thought that the treatment of mental illness was honest and sympathetic, and I couldn’t help but be moved by the stories of the characters who got caught up in the killer’s net. There is a lot happening in this book, but the ending brings it all together beautifully. The Butterfly House is a disturbing novel of how those with mental illness are treated in our society, but it’s also a beautiful story of redemption, justice, and the will of the human spirit to survive despite all odds. I strongly recommend it for those who can handle the story line.
Egalleys for The Butterfly House were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
