Review: I WILL FIND THE KEY, Alex Ahndoril

• 
  This title read as an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DXY1FG5D
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zaffre, November 7, 2024
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1804187302 

Synopsis (Amazon)

A man walks into a private investigator's office, holds up a photograph and says: 'I want you to find out if I killed this man.'

Private investigator Julia Stark receives an unannounced visit at the office. The man at the door is one of the owners of a successful family business. The day before, he was present at a board meeting and dinner at his estate in the northwestern part of Sweden. The following morning, he finds a photograph in his phone of a bloody man, tied up with a bag over his head.

Due to alcohol-related amnesia, the man has no idea where the picture comes from and wants to hire Stark Detective Agency to clear his name before the police get involved. Julia asks her ex-husband Sidney Mendelson to take time off from the City Police and assist her in the investigation. There is still a glimmer of hope left in Julia that this might be her chance to win him back.

Welcomed as guests at the opulent estate, Julia and Sidney begin to search for the truth while dining and socializing with each of the family members that could theoretically be involved in the murder.

She's solved every mystery.
But none like this . . .

My Take

Julia Stark, Swedish private investigator, apparently has a history of investigative success, but also has a case of PTSD resulting from a nasty accident.  

Per Gunter (PG) Mott comes to see her with a photo on his phone which be believes might indicate he has murdered someone during an alcoholic fugue, and that the photo is proof. He is the head of a very successful Swedish timber family. Julia and her ex-husband begin investigating Per Gunter and his very dysfunctional family.   

It is hard to see what some areas of Julia's investigation of the family has to do with the problem she is trying to solve, but we get used to the fact that in this story not everything is shared with the reader.

Eventually the mystery is resolved but it is an odd story. 

My rating: 4.4

About the author

the new pseudonym for the No.1 international bestselling author, Lars Kepler.  The novel seems to me to have been originally written in German and translated into English.