Leona: The Die is Cast

Written by Jenny Rogneby

Narrated by Tara Ochs

This best-selling Scandinavian thriller follows its troubled heroine as she investigates a high-profile robbery for Stockholm's Violent Crimes Division.

Naked and bloody, a seven-year-old girl walks into a bank in central Stockholm in broad daylight and gets away with millions. Leona Lindberg of Stockholm's Violent Crimes Division agrees to work on the case. With a long, distinguished history in the police force, she seems the perfect choice. But Leona is grappling with deep issues of her own--a gambling addiction, a strained marriage--that could jeopardize the investigation. As she struggles to keep the volatile pieces of her life under control, the line between right and wrong becomes increasingly unclear--and even irrelevant.
This is a hard-boiled crime novel, filled with unexpected twists and turns, featuring an unusual heroine. Leona makes for gripping reading while challenging feminine norms and posing questions about what lies behind the choices we make.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094416465

Jenny Rogneby

Jenny Rogneby was born in Ethiopia, but was given away for adoption when she was one year old. She grew up in northern Sweden, studied criminology at Stockholm University, and became an investigator in the Stockholm City Police Department. Her work inspired her to start writing and she formed the character of Leona, a criminal investigator with a dark past whose actions challenge social norms. In Sweden, Jenny is also known for her former career as a pop singer.

Reviews for Leona

[sandra2sandradine · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Incredible! This was a wild, surreal thriller that I simply couldn't put down. The plot is so full of twists as to make a pretzel really envious, and the humor is so noir that you can't help but laugh, although you know it really isn't funny.

This has definitely joined my favorite books list, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

The narrator's fantastic performance was a real treat!

[vecharo · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What is post production doing you may ask, Nothing! Which is why the ending of the book is missing.

[Lee Moss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really good story. The main character made me want to choke her at times. But still a very good book.

[speckledpup · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unbelievably great. A movie …yes! Such a fresh take on a crime story! Unexpected criminal..was the best. Partly sympathetic due to ????? ….but made the wrong choices. Such a surprise character… but they do exist

[Josie Moore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book, looking forward to the third one. Clever plot.

[theresa jay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What!?!?!?!?!?!? This book is a must read!! Ending leaves you speechless

[Hilary Easton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing plot and interesting main character, rather uneven though, some thrills and some parts with too much unnecessary irrelevant details. I enjoyed it.

[dspau002 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved the story and characters. Leona is a great kind of terrible person but I love to keep listening to see how she gets in/out of trouble

[B.A. Sandy Sanford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don’t know if it is because it was translated or what, but the entire story had a feel to it that the author was “winging it” or making it up as they went along. I guess that is the case with any fiction story but there were so many incredulous turns, that it didn’t seem believable.

[Robin Holbrook · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I just feel dumb that I read the whole thing. Can’t find very good good audiobooks on here!!

[James Green · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Sheer unadulterated crap. Badly written and read. Unbelievable and unlikeable characters. Ridiculous plot.

[Mitch Ryan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The rich emotions displayed this writer’s amazing ability to tell a story. If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to [e-mail] or [e-mail]

[Kyle mathison · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was great. Should be a movie. That way I can compare.

[Tina Stella · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Probably the single most unlikeable main character I've ever come across. She's a horrible human being who can't manage to do much of anything right, yet still manages to get away with crimes. Though honestly, she's such an awful person, you wish she'd get caught because she is so incompetent.

[Morgan · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It's broken. Multiple chapters play at the same time, on top of each other.

[gloria glidewell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I listen d to the end where I felt the ending was as dissatisfying as the rest. Parts of the story were interesting enough to keep me going but the character just didn’t make sense. She was all over the place in both her actions and the thoughts she had. There were so many unanswered questions I kept thinking about and no answers were ever presented.

[Rachel Kearns · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Audio kept overlaying its of so multiple chapters were being read simultaneously....

[Dear Red · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the worst stories I've ever read/listened to. I kept hoping, praying and waiting for some form of justice to emerge until the very end. I even skipped a dozen chapters of this horrible, vomit inducing, sad excuse of a story in hopes that the main character would die a horrible death at the end. I really don't understand how anyone can write a story like this promoting a wicked, evil, demonic person with zero redemptive qualities.

[Trinadi Shires · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

File is corrupted. Multiple chapters play at the same time.

[Tracy pye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really really enjoyed this book. The plot is so different and clever Lots of unexpected twists and turns. Can't wait to read the next book.!
The narrator is excellent!

[dnelsondesign · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Why have an audiobook set in Sweden and have a non Swedish reader? So much atmosphere is lost by hearing an English/American accent, and having names and places mispronounced. The main character and premise were interesting, but the pace was glacially slow.

[Felicia Jones · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Much too, long and too boring to hold my interest. The ending was disappointing; which made it worse.

[Kelly Johnson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

About 4 hrs too long of a book. 3.5 stars. Great story line. The book was quite drug out. The narrator was really good

[David Putnam · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lots of plot holes and did prefer the writing style maybe it was the translation

[Latrice K Springs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not for the weak or the weary this one is a doozy. Leave all your assumptions and your morals at the door folks cause this chick....I got thru it. Not sure if I can do book 2. And yes. It is very hard to uhm like Leona. The end is a bit of dickery cause really by the time you get there it's more than enough. It's clever in all the ways it can be, but heavy. I recommend but approach with caution.

[Yvonne Wormer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Leona is an absolutely awful person, and though the reasons for her awfulness seem to be described, there’s no redeeming her. I continued to hate her as the story unfolded , always hoping for redemption which never came. BUT: that said, what an excellent book this was! As an American I am conditioned to get a “happily ever after” ending and this has anything but that. I highly recommend it. Just know there’s a strong possibility you, too, will hate Leona!

[Gita Gass · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I rated two stars for the author's effort, but I thought the storyline was ridiculous. I was curious about the ending, but it took effort to continue listening, because it was not engaging. The narrator did a good job.

[Val Menzies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well written . I am not sure I really like the story told from the perspective of the sociopathic criminal. Also, I didn’t like the son’s death almost as a punishment for her crime. It’s certainly suspenseful

[Casey Ferguson · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This was simply one of the worst books I’ve tried listening to and I’ve listened to well over 100 during the pandemic. I tried to listen to all of it, I really did. I ended up getting about half way through the book, all the while, telling myself this is a horrible everything. To the plot, the characters, the writing. The narrator isn’t too horribly bad... considering what she’s having to read. It’s down right a waste of time.

[debkrenzer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The blurb for this book reads:"This is a hard-boiled crime novel, filled with unexpected twists and turns, featuring an unusual heroine. Leona makes for gripping reading while challenging feminine norms and posing questions about what lies behind the choices we make."And that is a very accurate statement for this book. There were several twists and turns in this book. I do have to say, though, that I did not care much for the main character. At least, I did not like the choices that she made in this book. She was a very narcissistic, uncaring person.However, the action, the uniqueness of the crime and the crazy twists made this an enjoyable read for me.Thanks to Other Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.