A DETECTIVE THRILLER TRANSLATED INTO 15 LANGUAGES. ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SWEDISH WRITERS. “SCANDINAVIAN NOIR AT THE BEST TRADITION OF THE GENRE” - PEOPLE. He is locked in an abandoned house and left to die. And she is his last hope for salvation. Residents of the small town of Malmberg, located in northern Sweden, are forced to move along with their homes because of the mine, which once gave life to this town, and is now destroying its street after street. Two workers moving another house find a frightened and exhausted man in a locked basement. A year later, 700 km from Malmberg, another corpse was discovered in the basement of an abandoned house in the middle of a deep forest. A man about whom nothing is known except the name he scrawled on the wall before his death. What happened to him is a mystery to the local police, so constable Eira Sjodin is brought into the case. No one knows the area and the locals better than she... “First class Scandinavian crime fiction. Belongs to the same caste as Smilla and Her Sense of Snow and the Millennium trilogy. – Bookpage “Tove Alsterdahl is adept not only in writing her crime story, but also in depicting a country undergoing change. Who actually buys dilapidated houses in the forest? What history do these houses hold? Tove Alsterdahl knows her Odalen and she can really portray the past and present of the area.” – Ölandsbladet “Miss Alsterdal weaves together the personal and professional problems of her characters in a manner reminiscent of such Swedish masters as Mai Sjöwall, Per Walle and Henning Mankell.” – The Wall Street Journal “Alsterdahl's language is rich in understated beauty and artful precision. Each word plays its part, but they are all part of the same context, where nothing stands out or disrupts the overall picture.” – Göteborgs-Posten “Alsterdahl once again delivers masterfully, this is Scandinavian noir of the highest order, with people struggling in the valley of tears known as life, while evil lurks in the shadows. Fortunately, there are glimmers of light; the great forest may be dark and the cawing of the ravens ominous, but suddenly love appears, as strong and powerful as the river Angermanland.” – Femina “Tove Alsterdahl’s dark series shows the dark side of society while giving a powerful insight into the Swedish countryside.” – Kulturnews “Strong characters, a great sense of place and plot twists galore.” – Sunday Times Crime Club