The Last Pilgrim by Gard Sveen

The Last Pilgrim (Tommy Bergmann, #1)

by Gard Sveen

Young, lovely Norwegian Agnes Gerner is waging a dangerous and secret fight. Outwardly, she is a devoted Nazi sympathizer engaged to a prominent businessman. In fact, she is part of an underground resistance doing everything to win the war against the Germans. The only hope she has of being reunited with the man she truly loves—who serves under the code name “Pilgrim”—is if the Nazis are defeated. Of course, there’s no guarantee that she’ll be alive when that happens…

Many years later, three sets of remains are found in a popular Oslo forest—two adults and a child. Despite his boss’s call to not spend extra time on the old case, Detective Tommy Bergmann cannot help but dig deeper, especially as he uncovers connections to a more recent murder. As he unravels the secrets of the past, it becomes clear that everything is permissible in war—and that only those who reject love can come out victorious.

Reviewed by chymerra on

4 of 5 stars

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Before I start my review, I would like to thank AmazonCrossing and NetGalley for allowing me to review The Last Pilgrim by Gard Sveen and Steven Murray.

*All opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone. I received The Last Pilgrim from AmazonCrossing through NetGalley as an ARC for my honest and unbiased review**

Now onto my review:

I didn’t like this book when I first started reading it and did have a lot of problems keeping my attention focused 100% on it. But after I got past the first few chapters, which raised more questions than answered them, I started to like the book.

I will say that I didn’t expect that I would like Tommy Bergmann by the end of the book. At the beginning, I detested him. He admitted that he beat his girlfriend, regularly, over their 12 year relationship. But he did have an awesome work ethic and his remorse for his past behavior came clearly across the pages. To be honest, even though he is a fictional character, I wanted to slip him a card to a psychologist. Even when he had a chance with another woman, he called it off because of his unresolved issues with his ex girlfriend.

Agnes, on the other hand, annoyed the ever-living out of me. I can’t really put a finger on it but I read her chapters with a bad taste in my mouth. I did find it fascinating on how female spies were regarded during World War 2 and how Agnes basically proved them wrong. Her scenes with The Pilgrim also didn’t ring true with me. Maybe because I kinda figured out that all he wanted was a piece of ass and a place to crash and she, well, she fell in love with him.

I did really like the dual storylines. The author was able to keep them apart and devote entire chapters to Tommy and Agnes. The only time I even got confused was the beginning of the book when Kaj and the detective were killed. Also, I did get slightly confused in the 2003 chapters when Tommy first came to the crime scene where a prominent Nazi Resistance hero was killed and then when he was called the woods when they found the bones.

I will say this, the author did a great job keeping the killers (of the Nazi Resistance hero and the bodies in the woods) under wraps until the end. He took us on a multi country jaunt on the search to find out why those two cases where connected. I did figure out the 1942 storyline about halfway through the book. But the 2003 storyline (and how they connected) did take me by surprise and I was a little shocked by the ending.

How many stars will I give The Last Pilgrim? 3 1/2-4

Why? This is a great well written mystery. While it did lag in certain points of the book, the author did a great job of getting the book back on track.

Will I reread? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age Range? Adult

Why? Sex and lots of violence

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 September, 2016: Finished reading
  • 3 September, 2016: Reviewed