Jennifer Palmer has read crime fiction since her teenage years & enjoys reviewing within the many sub-genres that now exist; as a historian who lectures on real life historical mysteries she particularly appreciates historical cime fiction.
This is a deeply harrowing tale about a serial
killer operating in contemporary Sweden and London, with a linkage to the
horror that was Buchenwald in 1944 under the Nazi Regime.
The
horrors commence when Linnea Blix, a young jewellery designer, disappears in
Falkenberg, Sweden. Later her body is found under a boat in the snowy
marina. Her friend Alexis Castells travels to Sweden with Peter
Templeton, Linnea's partner and Alba Vidal, another friend. The other two
return to England but Alexis remains. Alexis is a true crime writer
and is French but lives in London, and joined with Emily Roy, a Canadian crime
profiler to help investigate Linnea's murder and a similar murder of a young
boy in London. The pair work in concert with the police in
London and in Sweden investigating the connections between these murders.
The narrative shifts to the unspeakable atrocities under
the Nazi regime. The continual and casual cruelty of the guards in the
concentration camp makes shocking reading even for those with knowledge of Nazi
atrocities. The build-up of horror upon horror illustrates painfully
what life for a prisoner in Buchenwald was like during that time; and a timely
reminder about the depths of darkness within humanity.
The horrors of the Nazi concentration camp and their connection
to contemporary times and the hunt for a serial killer requires a little
patience from the reader as it takes time to gradually unfold. This is a
multi-layered story told in alternating chapters from various viewpoints and
different times. The violence in the narrative is implicit though shocking, and
a feeling of danger pervades and permeates the story making this debut at times
hard to read. The tale is heavily researched as is the detail of the
investigation making it engaging but also very dark and not for those of a
nervous disposition.
This
debut by journalist Johanna Gustawsson is written with an assured hand, woven
intricately where the strands knot into a breathless and startling dénouement,
so it is of little surprise that further adventures of Alexis Castells and
Emily Roy are in the process of translation into English.
Editor’s Note : Translated into English
by Maxim Jakubowski and winner of Balai de la
Découverte 2016 and Nouvelle Plume
d'Argent 2016
