I started X Ways to Die by Stefan Ahnhem feeling completely disoriented. Characters already knew each other, relationships had history, and everyone seemed to be carrying emotional baggage I clearly should have recognized. About fifty pages in, I looked it up, and discovered this is not the first book in the series. Mystery solved.
Turns out this is part of the Fabian Risk series, and once I adjusted, it didn’t take long to settle in. The story does a surprisingly good job of pulling new readers along without making you feel hopelessly lost.
The main case involves a serial killer whose methods and victim choices appear completely random, and I don't mean “chaotic genius with hidden clues” random. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern, motive, or logic tying the murders together, which made the investigation feel especially tense because law enforcement never seems fully grounded.
At the same time, Fabian Risk is also digging into suspicions surrounding one of his own co-workers, apparently using whatever scraps of “free time” homicide detectives are supposed to have. That storyline added another layer of paranoia to an already twisty plot. Between internal politics, cross-border politics between Sweden and Denmark, and powerful people playing their usual political games, this book had a lot going on.
And it worked.
The multiple points of view could have become overwhelming, but instead they made the story feel bigger and more immersive. The glimpses into the killer’s mind were especially unsettling. “Twisty” almost undersells it.
What I appreciated most was how intricate the plotting was without becoming unreadable. There are a lot of moving pieces here, but they eventually begin locking together like gears. You can tell Ahnhem enjoys building complicated crime stories and trusts readers to keep up.
It didn't keep me awake at night in existential terror, but it did completely pull me in and keep me turning pages. An easy 4.5 stars for me, rounded up to 5 for Goodreads.
