The Exception edition by Christian Jungersen Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
Download As PDF : The Exception edition by Christian Jungersen Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks 
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.
The Exception edition by Christian Jungersen Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
Four women work at a small institution for genocide studies in Copenhagen. They gather and organize information from various sources, about various outbreaks of genocidal behavior, some well known and others less so. They study the psychology of evil and explore how normal, everyday people can become caught up in murderous rampages against those who are different. These women each carry baggage from the past---experiences of being held hostage, childhood abuse, traumatic memories from the breakup of Yugoslavia. They are not a harmonious group. The newest member of the little group is excluded and psychologically tormented by the others. Things begin to spiral downward when they receive a series of death threats by email. Is it a voice from the past or someone in the office? It takes them a long time and much psychic distress to sort this out. In the process they will take a personal journey through the psychology of evil.Author Christian Jungersen has written a fascinating study of evil--in the Bosnian war and in a seemingly quiet office. The tension builds slowly, the inner torments of the characters are built up piece by piece and the book (finally) races to a shocking climax.
At 500 pages this novel is something of a slog. Sometimes it almost seems to be happening in real time --- day after day of outward tedium and inward mind-numbing distress. The author also inserts written documents about the psychology of evil that the characters are supposedly reading (or writing) during their work at the genocide center. It took me a long time to finish The Exception but it's well worth reading. Don't start it unless you have some free time. Recommended. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber
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The Exception edition by Christian Jungersen Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews
This is the story of four women who work together in a small office that acts as a clearinghouse for information about genocides, and an interesting parallel is the behavior of the women toward each other, given the focus of their professional resources all day. Early on two of the women receive a death threat email. As the story unfolds we hear about their work tasks and observe their behavior toward each other, and we become aware that they should be able to see their own bullying behavior as part and parcel of the same phenomenon, yet none of them does. Perhaps this is the author's point -- that part of the reason evil exists is because we don't think of anything WE do as evil. The mote in your eye and all that. Iben writes a series of articles that offer a condensed history of genocides and well-known psychological studies, and in fact these were more interesting than the stilted accounts of each woman's activities and thoughts. The rotating narrative is told by each of the four women involved. This is tricky when it's possible one of them is involved in the threats, but that aspect is handled quite well. However, the narrative voices are identical; the voice is always rather clinical, as if it's a documentary with a narrator, and it's exactly the same for each woman, though they have very different personalities. The two younger women, Iben and Malene, are best friends and have taken a dislike to the new librarian, Anne-Lise. The other employee has been bullied in the past, and at first we don't know if she approves of the bullying or is just too intimidated to confront her colleagues. The girls constantly give Anne-Lise a hard time hide stuff from her, complain about her, spread rumors, etc. Probably the strongest chapters belong to Anne-Lise, who acts believably and is a more sympathetic, intelligent character, but even she is an enigma. While the secondary characters act without motive or consistency, even the four main women are never fleshed out much, complex but not necessarily deep.
Like lot of other people I've been reading quite a few Scandinavian thrillers in the past few years, and I would say that this is, in my opinion, relatively weak. The book is a little too tedious and monochromatic to be called a psychological thriller, and the denouement is confusing and rather outlandish. All of a sudden we go from quiet psychological profiles to the last act of a private detective show, with goons and guns and chases! Finally, the author's view of people is a bit bleak. No one here is truly normal or anyone you can really root for, or care much about. And everyone is not just flawed, but at or near mental illness. The title, The Exception, implies someone is different from the others, but that's precisely what I found not to be true here -- the four main characters were practically indecipherable from one another, and not one of them emerges from this intriguing but rather depressing story unscathed. There are redeeming factors, but they are primarily technical, and if you are interested in reading more visceral Scandinavian thrillers, this is not where I would start.
I would definitely try another book by this author, but I would not recommend this particular book to a friend.
The Exception is marketed as a Danish thriller about office workers in a fictional non-profit that disseminates information about genocide. When two of them receive threatening emails, a Bosnian war criminal is first suspected. Then they begin to suspect one another. Paranoia and obsessive behavior ensues. Unfortunately, the last quarter of the book evolves into nothing more than a boring chase scene. The ending and motivation for the emails and subsequent events is preposterous.
However, there is one compelling reason to read The Exception. When doing research for the book, the author approached The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies who recognized the possibility for providing information on genocide throughout the novel. Studies, theories and facts are included throughout. It is informative and deeply disturbing. Assuming the statistics are factual, 40 million people were killed in wars during the last century. However, 60 million people were killed in genocides organized by their own governments. An American phycologist, Gustav Gilbert, wrote several books after observing the behavior of high ranking Nazis. He concluded that mental illness was not rife among the Nazi leadership. Traits were their ability to overvalue their abilities and their willingness to adjust their behavior to anyone who was considered the leader. The Stanford Prison experiment is referenced, as is the Stanley Milgrim electric shock treatment study showing that people will willingly ignore their own internal moral compass when told to do something by someone "in charge". We refuse to believe that we could participate in a genocide, and yet it happens - The Holocaust, Armenians in Turkey, Cambodia, Rwanda, Hutus, Bangladesh and Bosnia are some, but not all of the last centuries' genocides. The trigger for murder and torture is surely more complex than a willingness to follow a leader, and should be studied. So while the actual story of the the office workers in The Exception is preposterous, the novel does provide a vehicle to illustrate the importance of understanding human behavior and therefore preventing future future atrocities.
When researching Gustav Gilbert, I came across this quote from Herman Goring during an interview with Dr. Gilbert. "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Four women work at a small institution for genocide studies in Copenhagen. They gather and organize information from various sources, about various outbreaks of genocidal behavior, some well known and others less so. They study the psychology of evil and explore how normal, everyday people can become caught up in murderous rampages against those who are different. These women each carry baggage from the past---experiences of being held hostage, childhood abuse, traumatic memories from the breakup of Yugoslavia. They are not a harmonious group. The newest member of the little group is excluded and psychologically tormented by the others. Things begin to spiral downward when they receive a series of death threats by email. Is it a voice from the past or someone in the office? It takes them a long time and much psychic distress to sort this out. In the process they will take a personal journey through the psychology of evil.
Author Christian Jungersen has written a fascinating study of evil--in the Bosnian war and in a seemingly quiet office. The tension builds slowly, the inner torments of the characters are built up piece by piece and the book (finally) races to a shocking climax.
At 500 pages this novel is something of a slog. Sometimes it almost seems to be happening in real time --- day after day of outward tedium and inward mind-numbing distress. The author also inserts written documents about the psychology of evil that the characters are supposedly reading (or writing) during their work at the genocide center. It took me a long time to finish The Exception but it's well worth reading. Don't start it unless you have some free time. Recommended. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber
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