Published by Hesperus Nova,
20 March 2014.
ISBN:
978-1-84391-515-7
Twenty-four years ago, a pregnant woman was buried to her
neck in sand and left for the tide to drown her. When young police student Olivia Rönning picks this case as her ‘cold crime’ investigation, she finds that
not everyone has forgotten the still-anonymous woman’s death.
This thriller cut quickly between three strands:
Olivia’s investigation, the difficulties experienced by the homeless people of
Stockholm, who are being targeted by thugs, and successful businessman Bertil
Magnuson, who has just been awarded a medal for running Sweden’s most
successful company abroad. Part of the
enjoyment of reading was in trying to guess the links between them. The story was fast-moving, with a lot of
exciting incidents and several truly surprising twists. The characters were vividly drawn,
particularly clumsy, outspoken Olivia, the homeless Tom Stilton and his friend
Vanessa. One sub-plot was a variation on
child abuse I hadn’t come across before – nasty. The description of places and, particularly,
social mileu was vivid, though I’d have liked a map to help me keep track of
where everyone was charging off to. I
did feel that at 472 pages the book was slightly too long for the amount of
plot, but the exciting finish with a final twist kept me reading.
A Swedish noir that’s high in thrills but also has a
social conscience.
------
Reviewer: Marsali
Taylor
Cilla & Rolf Borjlind
are not only Sweden’s most praised
script writers for crime and thrillers, they are also bestselling authors. have
written 26 Martin Beck-films for movie theater and TV and most recently the
manuscripts for the Arne Dahl’s A-group series. In 2004 and 2009 Swedish
television showed their long crime series The Grave and The
Murders, written directly for SVT. The series became an immediate
successes, among the critics as well as with the audience. The couple has wrote
material for a number of other TV-series. Rolf Börjlind has written 18 movies
and received a Guldbagge Award for the manuscript for the film Yrrol.
Marsali Taylor grew
up near Edinburgh,
and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time
teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two
Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by
history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as
a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring
in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group. Marsali also does a regular monthly column
for the Mystery People e-zine.
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