The Chestnut Man: A Novel

Astrid anxiously prepares to flee her remote German cottage with a young girl she calls Mulle. Genz was due days ago but is out of contact. A year prior, Genz took Astrid from a psychiatric institution and brought her to the cottage. He arrived with drugged Kristine, intending to use her in revenge against Rosa, and threatened to kill her unless Astrid cared for her, monitoring via hidden cameras. Astrid and Kristine developed a bond and daily routine. After an escape attempt, Genz hit Kristine with the flat of his hand and imposed a month’s pantry quarantine. 

Defying Genz, Astrid decides to leave. Taking bags to the garage, she is ambushed by police. Hess questions her in Danish. She tells them what they want to hear before collapsing beneath him.

Inside the cottage, Kristine waits. She knows Astrid isn’t her real mother and has been biding her time. She notices Genz hasn’t appeared in days and Astrid is nervous. Seeing Astrid hasn’t returned and the front door open, she risks it, moving toward the exit despite the camera.

Waiting with the German task force, Nylander feels humiliated for having to publicly credit Hess and Thulin for solving the case. Hoping there is still a chance to avoid this outcome, he approaches the cottage. The door swings open and a skinny, short-haired girl runs out. Nylander recognizes Kristine Hartung.

Rosa and Steen wait anxiously for the result of the police operation. Overwhelmed by guilt about her childhood sin, she nearly demands they leave. Then Thulin emerges from the trees holding a scruffy young child’s hand. When the child looks up, Rosa knows it is Kristine. Steen weeps as Rosa runs into the field. Kristine lets go and runs to her mother; they embrace.

The following day, Hess waits outside Copenhagen airport for his Bucharest flight, hoping Thulin will appear. Earlier that day they visited Magnus, who has a prospective foster family. Then, at the Science Museum with Le and Thulin, things grew awkward when Hess looked at Thulin hoping to say something. Finally, Hess visited his late wife’s grave for the first time, placing a flower and burying his wedding ring beneath the stone. 

Resigned to leaving without seeing her, Hess receives a text from Thulin with a picture of Le’s family tree project on which she’s glued Hess’s photo next to a parakeet and hamster. He laughs. 

Thulin reflects that she left Hess at the museum to avoid thinking about the idea of a conventional family life. Le was the one insisted on sending the picture of her project. Thulin smiles and decides to pin the drawing to her kitchen wall.

Linus Bekker is released and waits at Slagelse Station, feeling disappointed rather than relieved. He’d noticed the chestnut doll in a crime-scene image, deduced who planted the machete, and confessed to be part of something larger, yet he considers Genz a “bungling amateur” whose plot fizzled. 

Aboard the train, his gloom lifts when he notices a single mother with her young daughter. Exchanging a polite smile with the mother, he plots something ominous.