Psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren are invited to the small, sleepy industrial town of Ormberg to investigate a cold case: ten years earlier a five-year-old girl's remains were found in a cairn near the town. But when a recurring memory problem resurfaces, Hanne struggles to keep track of the case. She begins keeping a diary, noting down everything she is likely to forget to keep up appearances so she doesn't lose her job. When the body of a woman is found at the cairn and one of Hanne's shoes is found nearby covered in the victim's blood, can Hanne's diary hold the key to what happened? How does this new murder connect to their old one?

This is a deliciously dark, devious and twisted tale. Grebe sets this in the fictional town of Omberg and it works perfectly as a backdrop to the plot that Grebe weaves. All the danger and intensity is reflected in the town we find ourselves in, it is both bleak and beautiful and the perfect setting.

I found myself gripped by this read, now it is not the most thrilling book but there is something about it that is compelling and addictive. I tell the truth by saying I could not put this down and would not have wanted to do so anyway. There are a lot of different elements to this plot and I loved how they all combine to form one complicated but intense plot.

Grebe writes this through the eyes of a police officer, Malin and a young teenager, Jake. I thoroughly enjoyed discovering the plot through their eyes, they offer different perspectives but are equally intriguing. They are likeable characters as well, and I really enjoyed learning about them, their quirks and life story. This goes for the rest of the characters; they are likeable, interesting and I enjoyed my time with them.

'After She's Gone' is a dangerous, bleak read that will pull you in and leave you desperate for more. I loved the intensity of the plot and the reflection of desperation in a beautiful but bleak landscape.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for an advance copy.

If you like crime thrillers, whodunnits, Scandi-noir then this is the book for you. Filled with action and plot twists, told from different perspectives, I found this a fast paced, keep you guessing book full of action.

Very slow to start with and some what predictable but still an enjoyable read. . . . .

Most of the time, I get advance copies of books through services such as Netgalley or Edeilweiss. So I was surprised when I got a request directly from a publisher to review this book. I looked up the description on Goodreads and was intrigued. I've been wanting to read more crime mysteries. This book had some of the same elements that hooked me on the novels of Louise Penny: a flawed police detective, a small town full of interesting characters, and of course, a murder. Even though this is a darker version of the crime novel, I was still thoroughly entertained and excited to find out who the murderer was.

What I Liked:

Setting:

No one would want to live in the fictional village of Sweden known as Ormberg. A once thriving small town, the area is full of shuttered factories, and unemployed townspeople. The abandoned buildings are used as a refugee center, first during the Bosnian conflict, and now to aid people fleeing the violence in Syria. The townsfolk are bitter about the government helping these recent immigrants, while ignoring the suffering of the long-term residents.

Characters:

The book is filled with memorable characters that fall into two groups: The police officers investigating the murder, and the local townsfolk.

I liked the main character, Malin, a young woman who grew up in Ormberg, but left to find a more exciting life in Stockholm. She clashes with a small town cop named Andreas. His boring life of sitting at home and watching television after work represents everything she is trying to flee. But, there's something about him that attracts her, as well.

Malin's colleagues, Hanne and Peter, are older (in their fifties), and involved in a passionate affair. But as the book progresses, we learn that Hanne is suffering from the beginning stages of dementia. Through her diary, the reader sees how scared she is about her future. It would be terrifying to be such a capable, confident professional and realize that you are going to lose all of that. And will Peter stick around?

The townspeople are equally interesting. Jake, is a teenager struggling to understand their gender identity. Jake's sister, Melinda, is an older teen who has stepped into the role of parent after their mother dies of cancer. Their father, Stefan, is an alcoholic who blames the Muslim refugees for his misfortunes. He's a mess, but could he also be a murderer?

As Malin is forced to stay with her mom, we meet a host of locals, including her aunt Margarita, and her cousin Magnus. Each character knows their place in this village, and each of the villagers look out for each other.

Narrative Style:

I liked the way the book was set up. Jake shows us the perspective of the tiny village, with all of its strengths and faults. The diary of Henne shows us the perspective of the police, who are outsiders. But most of the action is seen through Malin, who is both a local and an interloper. All these perspectives add up to a full picture of a complex society.

What I Was Mixed About:

The Ending:

The ending was exciting and wrapped up the plot points nicely. But then the author added one more twist that I felt was unnecessary. It was like when someone adds just one more side dish to a perfectly balanced meal. It throws everything just a bit off. I get that the author did this to make the some of the characters more relatable to the reader. But it was really more of a distraction.

This was my first Scandi-noir novel and it certainly lived up to my expectations. I’ve heard so much about The Ice Beneath Her that I was very excited to read this book!
We meet Malin who is investigating a cold case of a dead little girl - whose remains she actually found in the woods near the cairn 8 years earlier as a teenager. We soon find out that two of the people she worked with on the case have gone missing - Hanne is found soon, but she can’t remember anything about the circumstances of her disappearance. Peter, however has not yet turned up.
There are certainly more questions than answers surrounding the night they have disappeared - especially when a woman’s body is found in the cairn.
We also meet Jake, a troubled teenager, who has “The Sickness” and an alcoholic father. Jake is the one who finds Hanne first, along with her diary that he keeps and starts reading.
The story is set in a small town of Ormberg, in Sweden, in the middle of the woods in the winter. There is nothing here, no stores, no jobs, just a camp for Syrian refugees.
I certainly liked how other than the obvious murder investigation, the author handled a few uncomfortable issues delicately - like Jake’s desire to dress in women’s clothes, Hanne’s battle with dementia and the refugee crisis.
The story definitely had some surprises, and unexpected turns and even though it was a little slow at first, I am glad I carried on reading as it was worth it!

Thank you NetGalley, Camilla Grebe and the publishers for my free advanced copy to read and review!

My thanks to Bonnier Zaffre for an eARC via NetGalley of Camilla Grebe’s ‘After She’s Gone’, originally published in Sweden and translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel. It won two awards for Best Nordic Crime Novel when originally published in 2017.

This novel is the second in her ‘Flickorna och mörkret’ series and a number of characters are carried over from ‘The Ice Beneath Her Feet’ (which is on my TBR list). However, this novel worked fine on its own.

Profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren have traveled to the small Swedish town of Ormberg to reopen a cold case involving the skeletal remains of a young girl discovered under a cairn ten years previously. Hanne has been experiencing memory issues and has been extensively using a notebook to assist her though she is concealing this from her colleagues.

The cold case becomes hot when another body is found in the same spot and Hanne and Peter go missing. Then Hanne is found wandering in a confused state by Jake Olsson, a local boy with a secret life. He also discovers Hanne’s notebook and rather than turning it in, reads it.

This is quite a complex novel with three interweaving points of view. The main narrator is Malin Brundin, a recent police academy graduate and native of Ormberg, who was reluctant to return there on this temporary assignment. Malin was a likeable yet complex character whose views were not always palatable though these were challenged by her colleagues and events.

Other chapters feature Jake, Hanne, as well as entries from Hanne’s notebook. The formatting of the ARC made these shifts a little hard to follow at times but I expect that this will be resolved in the published version.

As with many Scandinavian crime novels, contemporary social issues are included as part of the plot. Here it is the resettling of Syrian refugees in the town and the memory of Bosnian refugees during the 1990s that informed the narrative.

‘After She’s Gone’ is an intelligent and thought-provoking crime novel that focuses on its characters as much as the plot. Certainly one that will appeal to lovers of Nordic Noir and hopefully attract new readers.

I certainly plan to read ‘The Ice Beneath Her Feet’ and look out for other works by Camilla Grebe. I rather hope Malin is featured again as there is potential there.

I felt the book was quite easy to read despite the dark storyline and adult themes.

For a thriller I found the pace a little slow and I definitely enjoyed reading Jake's views rather than Malin and Hanne's. At times it felt forced and I don't personally think the first person added much although I did like the then and now flashbacks.

To me it felt like the author was trying to add in lots of different crime/thriller tropes which meant it was a little unbelievable.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

A really good read. Wonderfully atmospheric with descriptions that had me transported there. The story is really well written and I was gripped from the start.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is the first thriller I've read this year and it has certainly left me wanting to read more. It was creepy and atmospheric and had me happy to be indoors under a warm blanket!

Malin, the main protagonist, is a police officer returning to the town of her childhood to help solve a crime and unknowingly uncover old ghosts along the way. Jake, a boy struggling with his identity has a life-changing decision to make and Hanne, another police officer, is struggling to catch a killer in a town she doesn’t know while battling secrets of her own.

I really enjoyed the way the lives of these three people intertwined. The story tackled many serious issues and didn’t shy away from portraying them in an honest and unflinching way. Sometimes it was uncomfortable reading.

I found Malin to be likeable but deeply flawed. The book posed many thought-provoking questions – is who we are rooted in the blood that runs through our veins or are we a product of our environment? Jake’s journey was the most compelling for me. The author really challenged him. His development was heart-wrenching and I couldn’t help but root for him.

The story had lots of twists and turns. It was fast paced and hard to put down. There were some real spine-chilling moments -- the author was great at building tension. But there were also gentler moments and I thought the author did a great job of showcasing different family dynamics. I did find myself wishing that the racism had been challenged more, but having said that, in some way it was what made the story and characters more real. Humans aren’t perfect and even good people have prejudices they are blind to. Overall a really enjoyable read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bonnier Zaffre Publishing and Camilla Grebe for sending me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book kept me on my toes, the setting and the storyline was chilling. The reason I have taken away one star from my rating is because one of the POV characters was racist. I didn't like the way Muslims and Islam were talked about. It started after 40% of the book and I stopped reading for a while because it didn't feel right to me. I finished the book just because I wanted to be fair while writing this review. It is a great thriller otherwise.

A haunting mysterious tale.
This book has an interesting style of writing but I did like it. Took me a while to get into this book.
Not the best book I have ever read

This was a really good read. I’ve not read any Scandi noir before but I loved this one, I could feel the cold! thanks for the chance to review.

Well written-plot is strong and characters have been written excellently
Recommended read
Thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Who doesn’t love a good Scandi-noir thriller? This book really captures the threatening presence of the cold as it seeps through jackets and turns the breath to fog. It makes reading it in a warm room a pleasure!

Told by three narrators, we start with Malin, the main protagonist - a female police officer who has to return to the tiny town from which she felt she had escaped - Ormberg - to participate in a murder investigation. The second narrator is Jake - a young man with his own secrets who uncovers a diary crucial to the investigation and finally Hanne - another female police officer whose memory is starting to fail. Does she know more than she’s letting on or has a trauma ensured her memory has further deteriorated?

Aside from being a page-turner (particularly once it really gets going after setting the scene), it’s beautifully written and translated. There are some deep insights into what people think and often don’t say and captures the insidiousness of anti-immigration sentiment.

“I think about what I’ve seen on the news. Images of bombs falling on Aleppo and children washing up dead on Mediterranean beaches. It makes me feel so bad I turn it off. No one should have to leave their home because of war and starvation, especially not little children. But at the same time we can’t take in everyone. We are just a small country, and we’re a hell of a long way from those conflicts.”

A very thoughtful book, it’s more than your average thriller. I took half a star off here because I felt I could see what was coming a mile off and was surprised the characters didn’t see it too. It wouldn’t stop me from recommending it to others!

I discovered later that this book is the second in a series but to be perfectly honest, it reads well as a stand-alone novel. I will be seeking out the first from Camilla Grebe.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bonnier Zaffre Publishing and Camilla Grebe for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful Scandic thriller - a real page turner.

This tale set in an imaginary but oh so real town is set to make an impact. The stories of Malin and Jane are skilfully intertwined with the disappearance of a refugee woman and her child. Malin , now an adult finds the remains of a child in the forest and the entire world she knew starts to unravel.

I hope we see more if Malin and of Jake to see where they go from here.

This is a book that needs to be read in big chunks in order to really get into it and keep track of the characters. I started reading a couple of chapters here and there but found I wasn’t enjoying it and nearly didn’t complete it. However, I persevered, read at length and found that I could invest in the story.

I liked the overall idea of the plot and the many twists and turns that sprang up along the way, but I couldn’t take to any of the characters - they didn’t have enough depth or backstory for me to warm to them or believe in them.

A good book but not amazing!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

An excellently constructed and written murder mystery that begins with a young woman finding a body in the woods and who then, years later, is part of a team investigating the murder.
It's an atmospheric, multilayered read and I loved it.

Malin, is the cop who found the skull and who was born and brought up in the small Swedish backwater. The book encompasses so well the description of a small town that has thrived in years gone by, but, that is now an isolated community with little or no employment. In addition, the community is dealing with generations of families still trying to survive in the harsh environment alongside migrants who have been granted asylum within the community and the frictions, suspicions and hatred that can engender. It's uncomfortable reading in parts, but, deals so well with the internal and external conflicts when different cultures are brought together and one is seen to be favoured above the other.
The group of police investigating the murder are a varied bunch and then two of them disappear.

Alongside the story of the murder, is the insight into some of the town's inhabitants and particularly one family, made up of an alcoholic widower and his 2 children, one of whom, Jake, has a secret.
The story is told from 3 main perspectives; Malin the policewoman, Jake a teenager coming to terms with his own identity and Hanne, who is slowly losing hers.

This riveting read maintained my interest throughout and has a fabulous ending. Apparently, this is the second book in a series, but, I wasn't aware of that whilst reading, so, it absolutely stands alone as an excellent murder mystery. However, I'm now very keen to read the first as this writer is now one of my favourites.

Just excellent! Full 5 stars. Many thanks to NetGalley, Bonnier Zaffre publishers and Camilla Grebe for the opportunity of previewing this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm just loving Scandanavian thrillers lately! They're so atmospheric and really hit the nail on the head in the thriller department.

After She's Gone is the second in a series but I read this before reading the first (shocking, I know!) but After She's Gone can be read as a standalone and more than anything it's made me want to read the first in the series.

After She's Gone is set in a small little town in Sweden. A young boy stumbles across a diary that could be the major link to an on going crime investigation but the boy can not take the diary to the police or tell them how he came across it as he has a secret of his own.

The story has many twist and turns that leave you guessing until the very end. It was a slow starter but became very entertaining the further you go in.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Completely mixed feelings on this one.
A good story,a steady slow pace for reveals,an interesting setting,with a good commentary on how the village feel about the refugees.
BUT I was constantly frustrated by Jake and his reading of the diary.
Your dad is a possible murder suspect and you don't read to the end? Nobody would not read the whole thing in one sitting.

I read this in Swedish ages ago (it was called The Girl in the Dark and I didn't make the connection doh!) and so when I started to read this, I shivered a bit as I remembered how dark and chilling it was. It doesn't lose any of the chill factor in the english let me tell you. It's the skill of the translator that some parts seem even darker!

A young female cop returns to a small town she was so desperate to flee. She tells one part of the story. The other, is a fourteen year old boy through a journal he finds. This technique works well and as they describe the same set of people over different time lines, a worrying and haunting picture builds up...

There's a lot of threads to this and characters pop in and out so don't read it too fast and once those threads start to tie up...it paints quite the picture.

There's a body, a missing policeman, a characters with memory loss and a traumatized young boy. Plus someone found wandering around in her bare feet. There is something very strange going on in this town of Omberg ( just as well it's fictional!)

As well as this crime and mystery thriller, part of the plot centers around a refugee house and the issues and prejudices this can cause. Malin, the police officer is forced to change her view on what she thinks of the whole affair and what an ending!

Camilla always places you at the heart of the story and the landscape she describes and this is no exeception