A pyschological thriller in which four women are stalked – possibly by a war criminal or someone closer to home
Four women work at the Danish Centre for Genocide Studies. When two of them start receiving death threats, they suspect they are being stalked by Mirko Zigic, a Bosnian torturer and war criminal. But perhaps he is not the person behind the threats – it could be someone in their very midst. Much of the drama created revolves not only around the scary sense of a killer prowling in the shadows but also around the manipulative games being played between the women in the office as they come under pressure and turn on each other.
The irony is that these betrayals and persecutions are taking place amongst professionals who daily analyse cases of appalling cruelty. Now and again, the narrative is broken with extracts from ‘articles’ dealing with crimes against humanity and the pyschology of evil. Whilst the women apply this to their work with genocide (and the killer), there are parallels to their own behaviour.
Four women work at the Danish Centre for Genocide Studies. When two of them start receiving death threats, they suspect they are being stalked by Mirko Zigic, a Bosnian torturer and war criminal. But perhaps he is not the person behind the threats – it could be someone in their very midst. Much of the drama created revolves not only around the scary sense of a killer prowling in the shadows but also around the manipulative games being played between the women in the office as they come under pressure and turn on each other.
The irony is that these betrayals and persecutions are taking place amongst professionals who daily analyse cases of appalling cruelty. Now and again, the narrative is broken with extracts from ‘articles’ dealing with crimes against humanity and the pyschology of evil. Whilst the women apply this to their work with genocide (and the killer), there are parallels to their own behaviour.
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Reviews
It reminded me of the novels of Patricia Highsmith, and even more of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin, which asked the same question - how innate is evil?...A horribly vivid and fiendishly clever novel.
Christian Jungersen provides an excellent example of what we find admirable in Scandanavian crime writers...The Exception is an interesting novel with quite unexpected pace and a great deal to tell us about the psychological games we play with other people and with ourselves
From the quiet, understated early chapters the story develops into a tense struggle for survival...it is a powerful yet disquieting study of the psychology of evil, and a tense thriller
An original and brilliantly constructed thriller
It's a wincingly nasty, brilliant piece of work
It's a taut book with a powerful hook...Terrific stuff
THE EXCEPTION is excellent on so many things: the texture of office life, the appalling inconsistencies and lacunas in our perceptions of our own characters ... but most of all, one comes away feeling there is a hugely empathetic imagination behind this novel, one that resists allowing us to fall into the simplifying judgments ... its characters are deeply true to life