At one point in The Harbor--Katrine Engberg's third Kørner and Werner mystery (after The Butterfly House), translated from the Danish by Tara Chace--a character thinks, "Oh, Copenhagen, you wonderful, village-size capital!" By now, Engberg's readers will have come to feel the same way. The city serves as a favorite character in a series with stiff competition for the title.
Double burdens plague the Copenhagen Police Investigations Unit: a teenage boy from a wealthy family is missing, and a dead man's body is found at an incineration plant. Is there a connection? Did the boy run away? A cryptic typewritten note left for his parents suggests that the boy has been kidnapped. The family has received threatening letters before, but after 10 years together, fussbudget detective Jeppe Kørner and his temerarious partner, Anette Werner, have learned to look hesitantly at obvious conclusions.
Engberg reliably showcases Copenhagen's attractions throughout the series, and in The Harbor shines a light on Thorvaldsens Museum, named for the Danish sculptor--although it's Ireland's Oscar Wilde who plays a more critical role. As ever, Kørner's and Werner's personal lives provide supplemental drama; he's skittish about moving in with his girlfriend, and she's attracted to a man who isn't her husband. Suspense is generated by a wandering perspective, and Engberg tracks characters whose innocence or culpability is unclear until well into the story. Of course, always blameless is retired academic Esther de Laurenti, to whom Kørner has turned for help throughout the series. It takes a village indeed. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer