Review: The Guilty One - Anna Karolina

Review: The Guilty One - Book #1 Emma Tapper Series - Anna Karolina and Translated by Lisa Reinhardt - August 2022

While scrolling through my Kindle in search of my next read, I stumbled across a thriller that immediately pulled me in with its chilling premise. From the first page, I was thrust into a nightmare scenario involving twins, a deadly prophecy, and a family riddled with secrets.

The story kicks off with twins Nicholas and Jasmine celebrating their thirtieth birthday — a milestone overshadowed by a dark warning from a psychic: one of them won’t live to see the end of the day. As the evening unfolds with a cocktail of drugs, alcohol, and reckless celebration at Jasmine’s house, the tension simmers beneath the surface. But what starts as a night of fun quickly turns into a tragedy.

Nicholas wakes up the next morning in a daze, with a blank memory and blood on his hands — literally. His sister lies dead beside him, her throat slashed, and the knife is in his grasp. Panicked and confused, Nicholas flees the scene, only to be picked up by the police shortly after. With no memory of the night and all evidence pointing to him, he becomes the sole suspect in Jasmine’s murder.

Enter Emma Tapper, a former police officer turned private investigator, hired by Nicholas’s defense team. As Emma begins peeling back the layers of this case, she quickly learns that the twins’ seemingly privileged life is nothing more than a carefully constructed illusion. The deeper she digs, the darker the secrets she uncovers: incest, sexual abuse, sugar daddies, and now, murder.

This novel is very much a slow-burn thriller in the vein of classic Nordic noir — atmospheric, deliberate, and psychologically driven. While it doesn’t race through twists and turns at breakneck speed, it does build a steady, unsettling tension that lingers. 

What stood out most was the character of Emma Tapper. Her determination to unearth the truth, even as the case becomes murkier and more morally complex, adds a strong anchor to the narrative. The book dives into disturbing subject matter, but does so with enough sensitivity and realism to keep the reader engaged rather than overwhelmed.

Ultimately, this is a story about the ugly truths that families hide behind closed doors, and the lengths people will go to keep their secrets buried. If you're a fan of dark, character-driven mysteries with legal drama at their core, this book is worth the read.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mgt052