I love a good mystery / thriller and this certainly lived up to my expectations. I didn’t guess the plot which is always a bonus as it keeps you on your toes.
Well written, great plot, intense and twisty! Brilliant

This book is my favourite kind of crime thriller with its slow and steady well woven plot that becomes about more than just the crime, it’s about the people, it’s about their relationships and it’s about the location and its community. It is also as much about what is not said as what is written on the pages. This book is really beautifully written, and very emotive, you easily get lost in the story, feeling every emotion along the way. The story is about grief, love and hope in all its forms and alongside all this it is a really good crime thriller too. The characters in this book will stay with me for sometime to come.

4.5 stars

‘There are no monsters only men’.

The central much disliked character in this Scandi noir is eighty year old Vidar Björland who lives in rundown isolation in Ödesmark with his daughter Liv and her son, seventeen year old Simon. The dark tale is told from Liv’s perspective and that of Liam Lilja and his unpleasant brother Gabriel, who are local drug dealers.

This is a very well written novel with some beautiful descriptions especially of the Swedish landscape which allows you to easily visualise the unfolding drama. The characterisation is excellent especially Vidar, Liv and Liam. Vidar is watchful, harsh, extremely mean despite being rich and treats his daughter harshly to say the least. Liv is trapped, she’s miserable, full of loathing and hate, she longs to escape but she is inert and she can neither stay nor leave. Liam is trying to improve his life and break away from his controlling brother with limited success. The book is full of unease and tension between characters that is so intense you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. This is magnified by the bad blood and gossip about the Björlands in the surrounding area that creates a volcanic mix. There’s menace, violence, threat and fear with suppressed rage and hatred and a desire for revenge from several quarters. The story is darkly intense and builds from a slow simmer to boiling point with the resultant heated overspill being horribly fascinating as you try the figure out the truth from rumour and suspicion. Liv’s terrible despair is transmitted loud and clear. The end is a shock and one I didn’t see coming but it fits with the narrative.

My only negative and hence four stars rather than five is that the story moves backwards and forwards from 1998 and it’s sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. However, the backstories are vitally important in trying to identify where the truth lies and to understand the characters motivation.

Overall, this is a really good Nordic noir which makes for gripping and compelling reading and one I recommend to fans of the genre. The translation is seamless too.

With thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books/Corvus for the arc for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I normally enjoy this type of book and was not wrong, really good storyline and had me gripped to the end. Would recommend.

Have you ever read a book and wanted to reach in your hand to grab a character and shake some sense into her?
I understand why Liv was so reckless and slept with so many men but I didn't want to necessarily go through each of these liaisons with her. Great character building apart from that though and the two brothers were particularly chillingly drawn.

What stood out for me was the small Swedish village where this is set. You wouldn't want to go anywhere near those woods after this.

Remote, claustrophobic and dark. Scandi Noir takes us all the way to Lapland !

I really enjoyed this story and found the characters lovely and relatable. A good suspense story with a hint of romance. Really good and highly recommend.