Unfortunately this author just isn’t for me. Good writing and a good book, just not for me. I can see why people like this author’s books, and I wish I did, but I did struggle with this one.

I have to admit that I am late to the show with Will Deans books and I blame an ever increasing TBR pile. However when I read Dark Pines I was immedietly transported to a closed rural, Swedish community – and I loved it. I immediately moved onto Red Snow which focuses on the town of Gavrik’s main source of employment, The Grimberg Liquorice Factory and its eccentric owners and workers.


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Tuva Moodyson, the main journalist for the local newspaper witnesses the owner of the factory jumping from one of their tall chimneys and from there many strange and some deadly things begin to happen around the factory, which of course Tuva just has to investigate.
What I loved most about Red Snow was the way Dean paints his characters. Each one is an individual, but Tuva is my favourite and the reason I love her so much is that she is so full of curiosity, so vibrant and yet so very very human.. She is plagued by certain events in her past and she is fiercely independant. Her deafness lreally made me think about how I take for granted the sounds around me. I loved the way that Tuva had a constant battle with her hearing aids – not vbecause she so desperately wanted to hear, but because , on occasion her job necessitated that she could. I loved the way Dean described how free Tuva felt when she took her aids out and was cocooned in silence – it was like her safe place.
There was another character I loved and that was the weather. Dean encapsulated a small communiity battling a murderer, but also constantly having to battle and work round the relentless freezing weather conditions. This escalated the tension for me and Dean, I felt really promoted the bleak weather to character number two.

Red Snow is an absolutely fantastic read and I cannot recommend it enough.

This didn't really work for me, perhaps because I like a distinctive voice. The prose is very plain and a lot of the description felt a bit mundane (car journeys, weather etc). Even when the events are dramatic the writing doesn't evoke any great emotion or atmosphere for me. DNF

Never read the series before but didn't feel that I'd missed much at all and any references to past events weren't so spoiled that I'd be put off picking up the first one. The isolated town of Gavrik is a perfect setting for such bloody and brutal title, so much so, it's almost a character in its own right. Definitely adds another layer of atmosphere in an already intriguing murder mystery that hits the ground running.

I also found the characters both likeable and memorable which appears to be something that's getting more difficult to pull of within the crime/mystery genre. So kudos to the author for that.

Rather liked this one.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Also posted to Goodreads

Dean does it again with Red Snow, I was once again lost in his Swedish toytown world! Admittedly, I personally found the ending a bit more of a leap, potentially as I am more emotionally invested in all of the characters now. But I adored the dynamics with the new love interest and Tammy and can't wait to watch that play out in book three!

My Review: As mentioned above I absolutely LOVED Dark Pines and decided to keep Red Snow until the week before the #blogtour so it’s fresh in my mind. I started reading this book on a Friday and had the entire weekend to savour and devour the book, but for some reason it was taking me ages to read it and I didn’t understand why. The storyline was gripping, the characters fascinating, the writing was beautiful and brilliant but what would normally take me 5-6 hours took me almost 10-12 hours to read and then I worked out WHY?

The book was too bloody atmospheric, set in the snowy, freezing cold town of Gavrik, every time I tried to read the book I went to bed and switched on my heated blankets and 20 mins later fell asleep – like clockwork. The book was so descriptive and authentic I could literally feel the icy wind, see the snow falling and landing on the floor and for some odd reason I needed to be warm and snuggled up in my bed to face The Ferryman and read about The Grimberg Liquorice Factory.

There were several absolutely BRILLIANT sections of writing in the book, that I wish I had the foresight to highlight so I can share them with you, but alas I was too engrossed in the story (and my afternoon naps) to do that. The tongue/penis meal made me laugh; the relationship between Tuva and Tams is wonderful, the strength and dedication behind the Grimberg ladies is incredible.

If you enjoyed Dark Pines you will LOVE Red Snow. If you haven’t read Dark Pines – then do yourself a huge favour and read it now.

Very simply, Dean has gone and done it again. A fresh mystery, a magnificent cast of unique characters, a serpentine plot and an honest, empathetic heroine who you can't help but root for. Another standout read.

Wow this book! Tuva is one heck of a female heroine and is such a wonderful, charismatic, funny, and determined character. I loved reading about her adventures in this book and I truly love how hard core she is! She has a wonderful personality and it is clearly shown in Red Snow.

Red Snow takes place in the small Scandinavian town of Gavrik, where it is bone chilling cold and snowy. We are introduced to the liquorice factory owners and their family, where at the very beginning of this book a death takes place. Was it a suicide, or was something more sinister in play? Tuva is determined to find out.

Although this is the second book in the Tuva Moodyson series, it can easily be read as a standalone book. Some of the same characters from the first book, Dark Pines, are in this book as well which I quite enjoyed. Some of the characters are questionable at best and many have their own fair share of secrets and deceit that they bring to the story.

I do hope there are more books in this series, as I love Tuva’s character and I am not yet ready for her to leave just yet. We need more Tuva!

If you haven’t had your eyes on this series yet be sure to check it out and get your hands on a copy. You will not be disappointed.

I have to say that this book gave me a real look at living off the beaten track in a small town in Sweden, where there is no postcard images to attract visitors. It is a working town with Liquorice production the main source of income for the residents of Gavrik. The winter is harsher than normal, the people are cold and suffering from dry skin that has to be constantly moisturised to stop it getting sore and cracked. This is the reality of every day life for most of the residents. It certainly pushed images of skiing down mountains to the back of my mind. When the owner of the factory takes a dive off one of the chimneys, a local news reporter Tuva Moodyson was there to see it happen.
I liked the idea of the investigation being seen from a different angle than that of a detective. The death of the owner was hushed by the authorities and turned into an accident. This was of course like a carrot offered to a donkey, Tuva just had to dig deeper. Tuva has her own problems which she has learnt to live with, although at times it is a hinderance. Tuva is very deaf but with the help of hearing aids she copes. Her disability is constantly referred to in the story and the everyday problems that come from it.
The suicide had been brushed away but when murder takes place then it starts to get real for everyone. The employees are edgy but keeping schtum. When Tuva is approached with a proposition it opens previously closed doors for her and a world previously closed to outsiders.
The owners of the factory are very private people who look after all their workers and the workers are very loyal to the family. Tuva finds a way in which she can infiltrate the family to really get the know these recluses. I loved this part of the story the most. It was fascinating getting to know the different generations of women that lived above the factory in their private rooms.
It was like taking a step back in time once I was in the private rooms of the Grimbergs, they were living in a cocoon. It was weird because I felt protective of these women that seemed imprisoned in their own little worlds.
This was my first Will Dean book and I shall have to read the first to see how it compares. I like Tuva, she was a down to earth and determined lady that I grew to admire.

I really, really wanted to like Red Snow. But, I faced the same problem with this book as I did with Dark Pines. It's too slow. It's repetitive. And, I find myself just not completely taken with Tuva Moodyson. And, it's hard to really enjoy a book when the main character just doesn't click with you.

Now, many, many love this series so I'm probably just not the right reader. It could be because I'm Swedish and I totally miss the exotic part of this book since I do shop at ICA Maxi often and yes it's cold and snowy here. However, often it felt like much of what was going on was so mundane. Tuva going on about what a shitty town it is. Everyone staring at her ear (she has a hearing aid) like they never seen anyone with one before and how bloody cold is it. Yes, it's winter. Move on, do not mention it all the time.

The book started off great. And, I thought that here we go. Wow, what an interesting start. And, somewhere along the way I just felt that my interested started to decline. The mystery really never got to me. I wanted to the family that owned Grimberg factory to be weird and creepy, but they never really got to be more than mildly odd. And, the explanation in the end? Sorry, it was a bit of a letdown.

I wish I could have liked this book better; however, it didn't rock my socks. So, sadly I can't give it more than 2-stars.

I read Dark Pines in December 2017 and as soon as I’d finished I was desperate to read more about Tuva Moodyson – I loved her character so much (along with the numerous shady people that also inhabited the small Swedish town of Gavrik)! I was delighted to get hold of the next in the series Red Snow. Some familiar characters are back (the Troll Sisters for example) and we are introduced to a few new intriguing ones as well. This could be read as a standalone but I would recommend that you read Dark Pines first to get a grasp on Tuva’s world.

I couldn’t wait to return to Gavrik although I’m pretty certain I would NOT survive the freezing conditions! After the Medusa Murders investigation and the death of her mother, Tuva has managed to escape the happenings of the previous months and bagged a journalist position in the bigger town of Malmo in the South. However…the suicide of Gustav Grimberg (head of the liquorice factory which is Gavrik’s main source of employment) followed by a gruesome murder happen in quick succession and Tuva is determined to investigate the case before her departure. She is also asked by local ghost-writer David Holmqvist to help him write his book on the history of the Grimbergs. The Grimbergs have a little bit of a checkered past and Tuva is intrigued by the remaining members of the family who keep themselves to themselves and guard their secrets well. Anna-Britta (widow), daughter Karin and grandmother Cecilia slowly open up to Tuva which only leads to more questions and danger for the inhabitants of the factory, its staff and Tuva herself!

I was fascinated with the liquorice factory; I work in Pontefract the home of UK liquorice and Pomfrey cakes. The details of the factory were fabulous, Will is such a visual writer and I was right there with Tuva – the sounds of the workers tapping their liquorice coins, the smells from the canteen and feeling the growing fear over who The Ferryman’s next victim would be. Small town paranoia is hard at work in Red Snow and I had no idea who the perpetrator was.

Tuva is one of my favourite protagonists EVER – so sardonic but likeable, I’d love to have a night out with her but doubt I could keep up with her rum drinking but could take her out to our local liquorice festival. It was lovely to get to know her more and see a softer side to her nature, I really hope that love blossoms soon and she gets a bit of a break in the next book!

Red Snow, the second novel in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series, is a real treat for those who, like me, adored Dark Pines and gives us a chance to reacquaint ourselves with both the brutal and beautiful landscape of Gavrik and Tuva herself as a character. This is atmospheric Scandi-Noir where you can feel the claustrophobia as it folds itself around you like a dense blanket. As always in a less populated area, you get the know-it-all's and gossipmongers who try to keep their ears to there ground about everything and nothing.

The vast, frozen landscapes of Sweden are almost as dark and chilling as the suspenseful storyline here. This again is a slow-burner rather than a fast-paced frenzy, but it works perfectly for this type of mystery. It can also be read as a standalone without any trouble at all, but you would miss seeing main character Tuva evolve and grow. The fact that she is deaf puts a whole new and original spin on the crime genre as it makes some methods of discovery and investigation trickier. I look forward to the next instalment!

Many thanks to Point Blank for an ARC.

I have been hearing and seeing a lot about Will Dean lately. Bloggers, readers and reviewers were quite impressed by Dark Pines, the first book in the Tuva Moodyson series. This is the second book, and less than halfway through it I went and bought the first book, which says a lot about the strength of his writing and his talent for telling a story.

This time Tuva happens to notice a link between some tragic accidents and deaths with the biggest local employer. At first they just seem to be random events, but when certain events start linking back to her habit of asking too many questions, she starts to wonder whether something more nefarious is afoot.

It’s witty, eccentric and down-to-earth, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic quips. Instead of presenting the surroundings as the romanticised version most people have of Sweden or Scandinavian countries in general, the author presents a more realistic image of the living conditions and the population.

That particular hardened, brusque attitude towards life is what makes this series so charming, and of course let’s not forget Tuva herself. She is definitely a memorable character. At times it seems as if she just accidentally falls into trouble then her gut instinct kicks in and she starts to dig like a dog who has caught a scent.

For me the most interesting element of Tuva’s character is her deafness. In particular how the author describes the perhaps trivial details of her daily existence in relation to her non-hearing and hearing with hearing aids. Instead of embracing the joy of being able to hear, which is how the deaf are usually described, it’s more about enjoying the silence. The small details about wearing the aids, how they fit and feel, the impact of low level noise on her – it makes all the difference to the story and the character.

It’s an unusual combination of comfortable pace, uncooperative characters – including Tuva, a snarky sense of humour with a noirish vibe. I look forward to seeing where Dean takes Tuva next.

I read the first book in this series last summer and absolutely loved it, so I was thrilled to receive an early copy of Red Snow.

Tuva Moodyson is a city girl who hates nature but lives in the tiny, rural Swedish village of Gavrik. She works as a reporter for the local newspaper but is desperate to move back to civilisation. Covering the 'Ferryman' series of murders is her last story before she starts her longed-for new job. The murders centre around the local liquorice factory and the wealthy family that own it. But as Tuva investigates, she soon finds out that everything is not as it seems, and that trusting the wrong people is about to put her in real danger.

This is fast becoming my new favourite series. Slightly darker than the usual murder mystery, I love the eccentric characters and the detailed description of life in rural Sweden, where the temperature can drop to minus 20 degrees in the winter. Tuva is a great character, thoroughly engaging; stoic, with a dry wit. Her fellow inhabitants of Gavrik are completely eccentric - and not in a lovable way! I especially liked the way the characters from the first book appeared again but I also fell in love with the gloriously mad Grimberg family, living a half-life in their apartment above the liquorice factory, ruled by wacky superstition and desperate to keep up appearances. I didn't guess the identity of the murderer either, which is always a plus for me!

Red Snow can be read as a standalone, but you'll enjoy the series more if you start with the first one, Dark Pines. It's well-written, not too violent, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves cleverly-plotted murder mysteries, particularly the kind where you have to solve a puzzle.


Thank you to Will Dean and Point Blank (Oneworld) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Like the very best Nordic noir, Red Snow conveys an eerie sense of place, of the suffocating claustrophobia endured by the inhabitants of a small Swedish town in frozen February. And like the very best crime fiction, the story in Red Snow centres on a remarkable protagonist, a touchstone for her time.

Tuva Moodyson is a recently bereaved, independent, professional and intelligent young woman. She’s also isolated, deaf – reliant on her all-too fallible hearing aids for ‘normal’ contact with the world around her – and bisexual.

With all those characteristics, you might expect Tuva to be a royal pain in the ass, a postergirl for the #MeToo generation. But the only snowflakes in sight are the ones piled deep into six-foot snowdrifts. Tuva’s written in exemplary fashion, so she feels just like – well, fancy that – a normal person. Which of course, she is.

The events of Red Snow are less than ordinary, however. It’s the second Tuva story, although you don’t need to have read the first one to enjoy this. If Dark Pines was a fairly standard, ‘serial killer stalks isolated community’ set-up, then Red Snow is more of a sociological snapshot, a chilling picture of industrial decline. This remote settlement relies on a couple of long-standing family firms to provide hundreds of jobs for local workers.

And there’s something seriously amiss at the liquorice factory – made all too obvious when the owner apparently commits a very public suicide. His shocking fall – from a factory chimney stacks – starts other dominos tumbling. The stress of his death fractures the already struggling family survivors. Accidents happen… which might not be so accidental. Only Tuva, researching a book and her newspaper reports, has all the access to the right people to pull the pieces of this puzzle together. But she doesn’t realise that she’s working to a very literal deadline…

Author Will Dean writes with the fluidity of a natural English speaker so the text is more readily accessible than most Scandi crime, which typically needs a skilful translator to capture its elegance. He also intertwines explanations for cultural curiosities with seamless skill into the narrative, pausing to provide background detail that a Swedish author writing for a home audience might understandably omit.

The result is the best of both worlds. Red Snow has the pace and panache of a mainstream thriller combined with the stark sensibilities of Scandinavian crime fiction – and that genre’s particular ability to explore ambiguous moral enigmas without passing judgement. Nor does the story suffer for the sake of the ethical dilemma: both elements get equal airtime and both are integral to Red Snow’s success.

Read this on a winter’s day, curled up by a roaring fire. Imagine life in a small Swedish town. 20 degrees below and dark for most of the day. A long slog against the cold, the snow, the ice – and the sinister side of damaged humans. Don’t be surprised if you start shivering…

9/10

I was quite late to the Tuva appreciation party, having not read (or in my case listened to) Dark Pines until around the end of May last year. I'd seen my fellow bloggers rave about the book and I'd even heard the author, Will Dean, talk about the book at Granite Noir. Even did a reading which, I have to admit, did catch my attention. So when I had the opportunity (courtesy of a long drive to Stirling and back) to listen to the audio book, I grabbed it. Very glad of it I was too. So when I heard that the follow up, Red Snow was on the horizon, I was straight in with a preorder (several in fact as I've ordered both kindle and hard copy and will likely buy the audio at some point too ...). No hesitation. No doubts. But, following the undoubted success of such a cracking debut, could the book live up to my expectation?

My honest answer, the only answer I could give really, is yes. Yes it did. Red Snow recaptured everything that was special about the first book but set around a whole new mystery for Tuva to solve. Atmospheric, quirky, and at times claustrophobic, the book took readers on a journey which was fresh yet nostalgic, with a slow building tension that would keep you guessing right to the unexpected ending.

The book sees our protagonist, deaf journalist Tuva Moodyson, nearing the end of her time in the strange little town of Gavrik, her life soon to start over in the big city. By a strange twist of fate, an act of kindness on Tuva's part, she finds herself witness to the death of one of the town's most prolific employers, the owner of the Grimberg Liquorice Factory. When a second man is found dead at the factory, Tuva finds herself at the centre of the case, investigating a family and town history which is as much stepped in rumour and legend as it is truth.

Now I don't to say too much more about the story than that as I think you really should read for yourself in order to allow the full picture to emerge, just as it did for me. The deaths as less, how shall I put it, gruesome (?) than in Dark Pines perhaps, although the death of the second man does have a kind of strange and twisted edge to it in which you wonder quite what message the killer or killers may have been sending. I would say that the pacing of this book felt a little slower too, but it suited the style of the story perfectly.

As with everything in Gavrik, the story itself is quite character driven. First of all you have Tuva, a woman of contradictions, both serious and strong and yet often shown giddy and emotional. We learn more of the relationship with her mother, and are also treated to a show of how she behaves when she has a crush. If is quite sweet, almost childlike in her innocent obsession, her desire to catch a glimpse of the object of her affection. It makes her act seemingly out of character, but also puts her relationship with her best friend, Tammy, on the line. I really like Tuva, her determination and her focus, working through and around her disability rather than letting it limit her. Whilst it was still apparent, and at times a hinderance to her, it felt less obvious to me as a reader this time around, noticed by strangers but almost invisible to the rest of us, friends (fictional) and readers (real - hopefully) who have accepted it as a part of who she is.

There are other quirky characters that readers of the first book will recognise such as the wood carving Sisters from the forrest, strange and reclusive author David Holmqvist, and taxi driver, Svensson, whose obsession with Tuva is a little creepy to say the least. Then there are the new characters, in particular Karin, daughter of the deceased factory owner, and her grandmother, Cici, who is as eccentric as they come but not one who should be underestimated. In fact the whole family is eccentric and a little hard to understand, the reasons for which are revealed slowly throughout the book. Superstitious and weighed down by an overwhelming sense of duty, it is little wonder that they are aloof.

What I do love about this book, and its predecessor, is the skill that the author has for creating a sense of place and a daunting and oppressive atmosphere. The isolation of the town itself, especially when faced with such intense weather conditions, as well as the closed shop mentality which prevails within the factory, all make the story feel real, dark, heavy even. It sets the tone for the story, brings the reader right to the heart of the town, and drives the intrigue, the freezing cold and heavy snows as great a foe as any that Tuva could face. It feels authentic and helps to build the feeling of dread which follows the characters throughout.

If you loved Dark Pines then I think you are going to love Red Snow too. It is everything you would expect - tense, atmospheric, cleverly plotted and very character driven. With Tuva on the brink of a new life, away from the odd town of Gavrik, I'm intrigued to see where the series could go next. Certainly the possibilities are endless in a big city, and in that regard, it is probably the right time for the story to move on. How a new start, away from those she knows and loves, will affect Tuva ... Well I guess we'll have to wait and see, huh?

Very dark impressive story set in a small town just inside the Arctic circle. An investigative reporter hunts a killer and the truth about a factory owning family with secrets. One almost needs to wear a coat while reading this story,it's so atmospherically described! Full of red herrings and great oddball characters the climax is nail biting stuff, will she escape a nightmare captivity or not? Excellent read with hopefully more to come.

A great read! This is book two of the series, read book one first.
Fantastic descriptions and the ambiance is chilling.
A definite recommend for anyone who enjoys cold, dark crime thrillers.

Dark Pines was one of my favourite books of 2017, so I did a very merry happy dance when I received an ARC of Will Dean’s latest book, Red Snow, which was a must-read for me before I even knew of its existence. I absolutely adored Tuva Moodyson, the journalist who starred in Dark Pines and makes her comeback here, getting drawn into yet another dark and sinister crime story in the small town of Gavrik in Sweden’s north.

After the death of her mother and the events that unfolded in Dark Pines, Tuva has come to the decision that small town living is not for her, and secured a new job in Malmoe, in the South of Sweden. Her decision is being reinforced by the inclement weather, the bone-chilling cold that keeps people indoors, the masses of snow that make roads impassable, and the permanent gloom of February that has people seeking out the comfort of their heated homes and UV lamps to beat their dose of seasonal affective disorder. Inside the Grimberg liquorice factory, Gavrik’s biggest employer, business goes on as usual, until one of its owners plunges to his death from one of the factory’s chimneys in front of dozens of workers. Was it suicide or has someone driven him to commit this terrible act? This was going to be Tuva’s last story, until more bodies start piling up and it seems that someone has a serious grudge against the Grimberg’s.

Like in Dark Pines, Will Dean has done a fantastic job is creating a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere brimming with weird and wonderful characters that made this an unputdownable read for me. I loved the fact that a lot of the characters from Dark Pines make a comeback here: there are the woodcarving sisters, the cooking ghostwriter and the creepy taxi driver, but there also is the wonderful Tammy and Tuva’s colleagues, who have supported her during her time in Gavrik. However, nothing compares to the strange family dynamics of the Grimberg family! These people were so weird and so intriguing that I had no idea where this would all lead. I am not exaggerating when I say that these are some of the best characters I have encountered in a mystery in a long, long time. The skill here is that Dean offers just the right amount of information at exactly the right time to keep the mystery tense and suspenseful, but never over the top or requiring the suspension of disbelief. With the amount of psychological thriller I read, I know that this is a fine art that not everyone can achieve, and I savoured it like the rare and wonderful treat it was.

Armchair travellers will be happy to hear that this is a trip to a wintry northern Sweden they are not likely to forget in a hurry. Some of the scenes had me shivering right next to Tuva, trapped in a blizzard in her old car. And the old factory was deliciously creepy, a very unique setting for a suspenseful read that worked a treat for me. And Dean knows just how to add small details to step up the tension – like the addition of the snow skulls suddenly appearing everywhere (who ever knew that such things existed!).

I could go on and on about how much I loved this book, but will sum it all up in just four words: I LOVED this book. I really, really hope that this will not be the last we see of Tuva, but that she will make a comeback in a future novel (please, pretty please!). If you love atmospheric Scandinavian mysteries with unforgettable characters that will stay with you long after the last page has been turned, then this one is a must-read!

All the stars!

Yessss! Tuva is back and it's another gripping, weird, frozen tale of this strange town, it's inhabitants and the kooky newspaper reporter who gets wrapped up in a series of murders all in her last week as she plans her move to a new Job in a new town.

This is a stand-alone thriller, but, I'd strongly recommend you read 'Dark Pines' first as it really sets the scene and ensures you won't miss any of the subtle references. It's also a fab read!

Red Snow is a really great, dark read about some strange deaths in an even stranger town and there's not much to like in either the town or it's residents, so, it's no surprise that Tuva is planning her move. Still, she feels an unusual sadness in leaving and the book has a melancholy throughout.

The atmospheric writing means it takes me longer than usual to finish a Will Dean book as I savour every sentence, well, that and the Swedish names and customs that are peppered throughout. I can't easily describe how this writing gets into your system and chills you to the bone, it just does. I wish there was more to like as the majority of characters are gruesome, weird, or, both. The town is strange and faintly evil and even our lead character has major flaws.
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed both books and this provides for a gripping read with twists and turns aplenty and I was so quietly confident that I'd sussed the murderer and was so wrong - it's full of red herrings and fabulous twists.

In summary, wrap up well (I guarantee you'll feel the cold), pour yourself a glass of rum or cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the strangeness.

Thanks so much to Will Dean, the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this excellent book.