The Quarry by Johan Theorin, Doubleday, $32.95.
The Swedish crime wave rolls on. The interesting thing is how good these books are; turns out there was a talented crowd banked up behind Stieg Larsson.
And within the genre is emerging a sub-genre centred on remote islands; the winter locks them off, bad things happen there.
Author Theorin — winner of last year’s CWA International Award — has chosen the Baltic island of Oland where traditions run deep, including faerie-stuff — which normally I don’t enjoy but here serves as a shadow, a mysterious twist, to a strong story.
Per Morner is preparing for his children’s Easter visit to the island when his estranged father, video porn-peddler Jerry, rings and begs for help.
There’s a mysterious fire, several murders, and some link to the dank, green overgrown quarry at the bottom of Per’s garden.
The novel starts slowly but builds compulsively, sucking the reader into a world completely other to our own.
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