An elegant, philosophical thriller set in the remote peat bogs of Sweden. Nathalie is a biologist who has come to study the effects on the peat of climate change. She lived in the area of Mossmarken as a child and we know from the outset that something terrible has happened to her. Not long after she arrives she discovers an unconscious man whose pockets contain gold coins. Whilst he lies in the hospital it is up to policeman Leif and his police photographer, Maya, to discover what has happened. Soon enough the bog begins to give up more bodies, also laden with gold coins.

This is a very atmospheric novel and the author beautifully creates the foreboding background of marsh, mist and bogs. This is a place with a history of ritual and sacrifice and you begin to wonder if it is this which has prompted the killings.

At the outset I described this novel as philosophical and it is in the conversations the characters have concerning science, belief and consciousness. It is very clever and I enjoyed it a great deal.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

A slightly different take on the Scandinavian thriller genre: murders, but not as graphic and gruesome as they usually are. The story twists between past and present and the mysterious bog where bodies have been lost and found. An unusual and absorbing read.

I find Scandinavian Noir mystery thrillers difficult. I enjoy the atmospheric settings and the underlying menace, but I find the pacing inexorably slow and the characters hard to empathise and understand.

All these things are true of 'The Forbidden Place', so from that point of view it fits well into this genre, the ending is good, and the author's ability to create suspense is not in doubt, it's just for me the slow pace, and the characters' insular, inherent coldness negate this.

Nathalie, a biologist, returns to her childhood town to finish her PhD dissertation. She is troubled and eventually, you find out why. The bog steeped in folklore and tragedy is part of her study but when someone is attacked, and the bodies start appearing she is forced to relive her past, face her demons to ensure she has a happier future.

It is suspenseful, and the mystery throws up lots of false suspects, if you are happy with a slow-paced read and accept the characters lack vivacity, this is worth reading.
I received a copy of this book from Hodder& Stoughton- Mulholland Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Forbidden Place is a dark atmospheric creepy story set in Sweden .Biologist Nathalie has returned to Mossmarken her home town that she left when she was 12 yrs old because of a traumatic event she now returns to study the peat bogs and find some closure after all these years .This to me was a great premise for a story but it took a long time to get there ,a lot of the story was centred round the biological composition of the bogs which went right over my head and and I found Maya the Police photographer quite boring as well again too many technical things that I was just not interested in ! I felt the plot was good but it took too long to get all the answers .Many thanks to the Publisher .the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

The Forbidden Place has an unusual plot set in Sweden which was the reason why I wanted to read this. It’s gripping, frightening, it will make your heart race with plenty of twists to keep you wanting to read more.

A dark and gripping tale. This is well plotted out and you get a real understanding of the characters, Its a slow starter but slowly allows the tension to build making this a very enjoyable read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a great debut novel based in the remote Swedish wetlands. Thoroughly enjoyed this book

I enjoyed the sense of place and environment in this book and could imagine why the local people were so superstitious about the bog and believed the myths that surrounded it. I liked the characters although it felt a bit like an Agatha Christie novel at the end with the detective having all the suspects gathered in one room for the final denouement!
Unfortunately the kindle copy I had didn't have any breaks between the narratives which made it difficult to follow at times, but I found it a page turning, well translated debut novel and look forward to reading more by this author.

This was an interesting read and well written. I liked Nathalie's character and the storyline in general, but I did feel that some of the descriptions and biological details went on a bit long. The whole premise of a bog that demands sacrifice was intriguing and the whole story of the bog bodies was great. The police investigation is great and I loved the supernatural elements that continued right up to the very end. The entire novel has a rather creepy feel to it and the atmosphere surrounding the bog was so well done. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the long descriptions sometimes took me out of the story and I found myself skimming to get back to the action. There are lots of twists and things that I wasn't expecting but on a whole, I'd have to give this 3.5 stars.

The core plot and mystery made this a really good read and I definitely wanted the questions raised to be answered. The historical and scientific facts provided as background certainly helped add credibility and Jansson's portrayal of the main character ensures you become involved in an emotional way.
However, although the whole point of the book is the evil element of the bog, I somehow found the references to this fact were too obvious and this became an overstated factor.
Generally a sound read for fans of mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and MulHolland Books for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an unusual idea for a book but it works very well. The characters are believable and the story is exceedingly well translated and,presumably,equally well written in the original. The childhood angst of the main character,Nathalie,is challenging too. I thought had guessed who had committed the murders early on and thought that spoiled the book but I was absolute wrong! There is a lot of padding and environmental detail but that is important to the atmosphere.

This is an unusual story> A Swedish bog that locals believe demands sacrifice. I found it a little difficult to get into and I believe that the download that I received was flawed as the different threads of the story were not separated. This was quite confusing at times as a different thread would begin within the same paragraph as the last one. The main characters were believable and interesting and the link with the famous 'bog bodies' in Denmark was another area of interest for me. Eventually the story is resolved from a police investigation - but the supernatural theme continues to the end.
Different, interesting and a good read.
Certainly worth recommending.

Maybe it was the style of writing but I found this really hard to get into. Good if you’re a fan of Scandi Noir but otherwise I’d stear clear.

Didn’t enjoy this I’m afraid.

Thank you Mulholland Books and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

A seriously good book. The translation of a book can either make or break it, this one, I think makes it. I get the feeling that the writer's words and flow are reproduced clearly. The story is excellent, making it one of the best books I've read in a long time. I could see and feel the bog, and the people around it. The story opens up in front of you and the denouement, when it comes, works perfectly..

Dark and atmospheric, a slow burn of a book, building up to twists you weren't expecting. It was a little confusing at times but lived up to what Nordic based suspense stories should be. I enjoyed reading this book, a great debut novel.
3.5 Stars

I am a great fan of Nordic thrillers, movies and TV-series so I’m always curious after new interesting titles/authors. Nordic thrillers tend to be nicely dark with interesting characters. In my opinion, The Forbidden Place could have done with a little less description of the landscape and the atmosphere and more character development. It was at times rather slow and I thought it a bit unbalanced because only almost at the end of the book more details about Nathalie’s past become clear.
It is very nicely written and maybe I should have just read it with a little different mindset. As I’m surrounded all day by people who can talk about nothing else than climate change, it might have been a bit much for me to have to read about it in this book again. Especially because it has nothing to do with the story as such.
I’m looking forward to reading another title by this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder for the digital copy of this book.

'The Forbidden Place' is Susanne Jansson's debut novel, and it's an intriguing one at that! The premise is highly original and had me excited to get started reading. The setting is the most prominent character is this novel, the village of Mossmarken, in the remote Swedish wetlands is is one of the most interesting things about this deeply atmospheric mystery. Being a lover of Scandi-Noir, I was instantly drawn to this as a result. I appreciated the use of mythology to deepen the mystery and create a supernatural element, adding further interest to the tale.

Nathalie, a biologist, has returned to the village of Mossmarken, where she spent her formative years, in order to study the peat bogs for her university dissertation and knows all too well the terrible events which occurred when she was growing up in the area. Soon bodies start showing up around the mire, with the superstitious locals claiming it's the bog calling out for sacrifices. Non-believers inversely claim that it's evil in human form that is responsible for the deaths.

A chilling setting, a community with a multitude of buried secrets and discussion of philosophical principles make this an unmissable tale. Being a mental health campaigner, the fact that MH was put front and centre in the story meant a lot to me. The descriptions were so vivid that I felt transported to the eerie locations and was completely immersed in a story so intensely compelling that I raced through it. I can see why some people had issues with the way it was written. Jansson's prose is highly descriptive and may feel as though the book rarely moves forward or does so in a pedestrian fashion. If you aren't a fan of this writing style, this is most likely not for you. Being an admirer of Haruki Murakami, who writes in exactly the same style, this suited me to a t. I look forward to picking up more of her work.

Many thanks to Mulholland Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Being a Scandinavian author I was expecting a dark, slow-paced story and bad weather. The first two were correct although the weather was 'better' than in other such novels. The story line is very good although it seemed to take such a long time to unravel and with lots of descriptions that I did not feel necessary for the story. The ending has a Poirot feel with all characters congregated in the same room for the truth to be revealed. You do not really know whether the deaths are human or ghost sourced. However I did think the last paragraph of the Epilogue did not add any value to the story. Parts of the book were very good but I found myself speed reading through pages to move the story on.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. In the remote Swedish wetlands lies Mossmarkens: the village on the edge of the mire where, once upon a time, people came to leave offerings to the gods. Biologist Natalie came to study the peat bogs. But she has a secret: Mossmarken,was once her home, a place where terrible things happened. She has returned at last, determined to confront her childhood trauma and find out the truth.

Natalie is doing field experiments for her Doctoral thesis on Wetlands, but this is not the only reason Natalie is there, Natalie used to live there. She discovers an old friend, Johannes, there. He's been badly beaten and had been weighted down with coins. The police think he was an intended sacrifice. Superstitions have developed about the bog. Sacrifices have been made and spirits live and haunt there. But who is to blame for the people that are disappearing?

I would say that this book, in my opinion, is more thriller than horror, though it does have some creepy moments. The plot has a slow pace that then allows the tension to build. There is also a lot of twist and turns. Natalie's story, we slowly learn, she has repressed for fourteen years, but gradually her memories are coming back. Another book where to say more would be spoiling the story for everyone else. I did enjoy this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and the author Susanne Jansson for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for inviting me to read an advance copy of The Forbidden Place, a stand alone novel set in North Western Sweden.

Nathalie Ström returns to Mossmarken after 14 years to do biological research in the peat bog. It is in the bog that she finds her friend Johannes who has been badly beaten and weighed down with coins. She doesn't know what to think but the police come to believe that he may have been an intended sacrifice.

I enjoyed The Forbidden Place although I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. The actual plot, i.e. the hunt for Johannes's attacker and Nathalie's search for closure on the events that drove her 12 year old self as far from Mossmarken as she could get are compelling reading and I couldn't read fast enough to get to the solution. Unfortunately I had to read through a lot of extraneous detail to get there. Initially it is biological detail about bogs, gases, collection etc which went over my head and if hadn't been for the fact that Johannes was attacked in the prologue and I wanted to know how it came about I would have given up on the novel early on. The novel alternates between Nathalie's perspective and that Maya Linde, a famous photographer who also works part time as a crime scene photographer. Once she gets involved there are too many discussions on the meaning of life, art etc. (yawn). Some may find it interesting but I'm not literary enough to be interested in it in crime fiction. The shifting perspective is quite annoying - just as a scene gets going the perspective shifts.

As I said the crime element to the novel is compelling. It starts with the attack on Johannes and broadens out gradually to a much wider investigation with its roots in the past. This dovetails nicely with Nathalie's vague investigation into her past. It is well done and all fits together seamlessly as the novel progresses.

Nathalie's story is teased out gradually over the course of the novel as she starts to talk about the events she has studiously repressed for 14 years and gradually memories come back. It's difficult to discuss without spoilers so suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have swithered long and hard about my rating for this novel because there are plenty of passages I either skim read or ignored completely and got frustrated with the ever changing point of view but because I really enjoyed the plot and its execution and the atmospheric location I have plumped for 4*.