The first book in a new crime series by celebrated Swedish mystery writer Helene Tursten. Embla Nyström has overcome a troubled childhood and adolescence and has established a promising career for herself as a detective police inspector in a special investigative mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden. She's a health fanatic and competitive welterweight boxer, and she loves the outdoors life.
As the story begins, Embla is taking a much-needed holiday from her high-stress job to participate in a moose hunt with family and old friends in a beautiful but isolated rural retreat. It's something that Embla looks forward to every year, a chance to reconnect with her roots. But this year the equilibrium of the long-established hunting group is disturbed by the addition of a new member, a very attractive but mysterious young man named Peter Hansson, who has just inherited a farm in the area.
Embla finds herself strongly attracted to Peter one moment and put off by his abrupt moods the next. The longtime leader of the hunting group, Sixten Svensson, seems to have taken an immediate and visceral dislike to Peter, but Embla knows that Sixten had long harbored hopes of buying the land Peter inherited to add to his own holdings.
When the hunt begins, at first it seems like everyone has settled down and Embla begins to relax and enjoy herself. However, the good mood doesn't last long. A series of unsettling incidents leaves Embla wondering if someone has a grudge against the members of the hunting party. But when two of the hunters abruptly disappear overnight, the situation turns into something far worse. Embla takes charge of the search, and it doesn't take long to discover the body of one of the missing men, floating in the icy waters of a nearby lake. The other missing man seems to have vanished into thin air. Soon the rest of Embla's investigative team arrives to assist in the search, and slowly a series of enigmatic clues are discovered that suggest someone is exacting vengeance for a dark deed buried in the past. Can Embla put the pieces together and discover the truth?
A classic whodunit with a thoroughly modern female detective who has her own ghosts to face down as she pursues her investigation. Tursten is also the author of the popular Irene Huss mystery series, which was turned into an equally popular television serial in her native Sweden.
Click HERE to read the review from the Crime by the Book Blog.
Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from the New York Journal of Books.
Click HERE to read the review from Booklist Online.
