Julie's Review: Farewell to Freedom

Summary:  A journey to a new life or a prison of despair and death? A shocking murder on Copenhagen's idyllic streets and a foundling baby reveal a perverse criminal underworld that spans across Europe. A young woman’s body is found on the street in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro district, her throat slit, and the media is clamoring for the grisly details. Detective Louise Rick is investigating the gruesome murder when her friend, Camilla Lind, calls. Louise assumes it is because Camilla, a crime reporter on a morning paper, wants to be the first to hear of any juicy new developments.  Instead, her distraught friend reveals that her ten year-old son found an abandoned baby on his way to school. As Louise digs deeper into the murder and the mysterious foundling, every clue uncovered points to organized human trafficking from Eastern Europe, run by ruthless gangsters who despise women and won’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way...

~amazon.com

Review: Farewell to Freedom  is the fourth book featuring Detective Louise Rick and it is fantastic. Ms. Blaedel certainly knows how to weave a story and keep you guessing until the end. In this one, there is one main plot, the human trafficking story and then the secondary story about a baby who is abandoned in a local church. You know that these are going to be intertwined but it's not until the end does it all become clear to the reader.

In this third installation, Louise's best friend and reporter, Camilla Lind is directly involved in the crime/mystery of the abandoned baby and therefore she gets wrapped up into both cases. Unlike in Only One Life, there isn't a big focus on Louise's personal life it is alluded to, which definitely works.

As hideous and interesting of a subject matter that human trafficking is, I found myself more wrapped up in the case about the abandoned baby. For me, this story had more emotional punch to it. Perhaps it was because Camilla and her son, Marcus were directly involved or maybe just because it had to do with the innocent soul of a baby.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way that Ms. Blaedel pulled these stories together. About 3/4 of the way through I kind of figured a little bit of it out but saying that, it wasn't in the way I had imagined. My version was a bit more dark. The characters in Farewell to Freedom are well written and real. I thoroughly enjoy the squad that Louise is on and the dynamics between the team members.

One thing that I found extremely interesting is the fact that they truly do bike everywhere. I found it so interesting that I made that remark to my husband. There is one part where Camilla is on her bike and she puts something in her basket. I had to chuckle because I just picture my daughter's bicycle basket.

If you haven't read Sara Blaedel and you are crime/mystery/thriller enthusiast, than I think you should definitely start reading her. I have Call Me Princess in my very large TBR pile but I will definitely get to it this year.

I very much look forward to whatever Ms. Blaedel writes next.

Final Take:  4.75/5

Thank you to Erin Mitchell at Hew Communications and Pegasus Crime for an ARC of the novel.