The Girl Without Skin
Matthew Cave has sought solitude in the Arctic after losing his wife and unborn daughter in a road accident. His mother is Danish, while his father was an American soldier at Thule Air Base. His father disappeared without a trace when Matthew was four years old; wanted for murder.
A mummified Viking corpse is discovered in a crevasse out on the edge of an ice sheet and young journalist Matthew Cave is sent to cover the story. The following day the mummy has disappeared, and the body of the policeman who was keeping watch is found naked and flayed—exactly like the victims in a gruesome series of murders that terrified the remote town of Nuuk back in the 1970s.
As Matt begins to investigate, he is shocked by the deprivation and brutal violence the locals take for granted. The only person he trusts is a young Inuit woman, Tupaarnaq Siegstad, a young Greenlander who has been in prison for the murder of her father and is haunted by a tough childhood.
The bestselling Greenland series by Mads Peder Nordbo consists of The Girl Without Skin, Cold Fear and The Woman With the Death Mask. The trilogy plays out in the remote and arctic environment of Greenland, where Nordbo lived and worked between 2014-2019, employed at the town hall in Nuuk, where he worked closely with the mayor of the capital municipality.
The Greenland series garnered Nordbo critical acclaim from readers and critics alike for his authentic and respectful rendering of Greenlandic society and its conditions, and the beautiful but unforgiving Arctic environment - a counterpoint to the brutal elements of the crimes in the storylines.
The series has been translated into 20 languages, including English, and has been optioned for a TV series.
Reading material:
Danish PDF
English translation
Synopsis
Reviews
Publishing information
Reviews
“The Girl Without Skin consists of large parts of classic crime and investigation interspersed with the intense excitement of the thriller - but just as much social criticism.”
“The Girl Without Skin is large parts a classical crime combined with a thriller’s intensity—but just as much social criticism.”
"This intricate crime novel is incredibly thrilling, and offers some genuine surprises."
"The Girl Without Skin has everything the heart of a true crime fan could desire. Murder, eeriness, shivers, superstition, terrible secrets – but at the same time you can feel the author’s affection for Greenland, despite the taboo-laden subject matter of the book."
"The plot is gruesome, believable and incredibly tense. I’ve only got five stars to give, and I’m using the lot."
"Mads Peder Nordbo has written a macabre but engrossing Arctic crime novel about incest and corruption."
"Luckily Nordbo has given his main character a troubled past, which makes it plausible that he would fling himself fearlessly into investigating the older killings that breathe new life – and death – into a corrupt political present."
"Mads Peder Nordbo writes with great insight into the environment of Greenland, in which the nearly unbearable events play out."
”More, please! I’ll pay with these very large hearts.”
“This intricate crime novel mixes a grisly plot with interesting insights into Greenland’s history and culture."
“While there are similarities to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, Nordbo’s writing is far more poetic. Though dazzled by the icecap’s beauty, he’s not blinded to the darkness of man.”
“A very satisfying thriller. Packed to the brim with grisly murders, corrupt officials, and sinister secrets, all set against the bleak, yet oddly beautiful, Greenlandic landscape, the bar has certainly been set quite high for the series to come.”
“A grippingly atmospheric yarn… As danger mounts, the landscape, weather and people of the former Danish colony are piercingly observed. Chilling.”
“A complex atmospheric and menacing read…the story is enmeshed in the culture and politics of Greenland and the relationship with Denmark…it’s a nail biting murder mystery, the action takes over and the story hurtles to a riveting denouement, but it’s also an insight into a part of the world that we don’t normally get to see.”
“Fans of Scandinavian crime fiction will find this a thoroughly atmospheric, melancholy and ultra-graphic thriller that casts a socially critical eye – attributes that are all the calling cards of Nordic noir.…Greenland provides a new and interesting setting, with some of the native culture woven into the story.”
"Offer[s] intriguing glimpses of Greenland, its relentless summer light and oppressive winter darkness. While the mystery is dramatically resolved, readers will want to learn what’s next… Fans of Nordic crime fiction have a new author to follow.”
