Dame Charlotte Lazerton, the mentor to Danish academic and one-time sleuth Toben Helle is dead. She was found in her house days after her death – you can’t blame Mortimer, her Irish wolfhound for what he did, he was hungry… Natural causes is what everyone, except for Torben, believe is the cause of death. When going through her papers, it is clear that she had enemies and was in fear of her life. But who could have killed her? And how?

Helped by his friends, notably his unrequited passion Leyla, Torben starts to investigate the murder. If indeed it is a murder…

First of all, go and read Helle and Death before you read this one. Some suspects from that one reappear here which does show their innocence in the first book, so don’t let this one spoil parts of that one. And also… I did enjoy the first one a bit more than this one.

The first is a hugely entertaining and clever version of the isolated country house mystery. Here, Jensen has released Helle into the big wide world and he and his friends are investigating a cold case. And there’s a lot of Torben and his friends, especially the will-they, won’t-they, why-exactly-won’t-they between Torben and Leyla.

This time, though, the friends aren’t suspects and so we spend little time actually meeting the suspects. When we do, they are really interesting characters, but I think your enjoyment of this one will depend on how much you enjoy Torben and Leyla’s company. We’re watching them investigate and to an extent they are investigating a case from a distance. All this stuff is a lot of fun, but I did find it hard at times to get particularly involved in the mystery.

When it all comes together, it’s a clever solution and a very satisfying ending, but it could have done with the claustrophobia of the first book to help propel things forward at times. Still, well worth a look, just read the first one first to get to know Torben.

Helle’s Hound is out now. Many thanks to Viper Books for the review e-copy.