The Ice Beneath Her
A Novel
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
When the prime suspect to a shocking murder vanishes, detectives race to track him down before a vengeful scorned ex finds him first in this “exceptional” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) Nordic noir thriller from the acclaimed Swedish author of After She’s Gone.
“Impressive . . . a tour de force.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Winter’s chill has descended on Stockholm as police arrive at the scene of a shocking murder. An unidentified woman lies beheaded in a posh suburban home—a brutal crime made all the more disturbing by its uncanny resemblance to an unsolved killing ten years earlier. But this time there’s a suspect: the charismatic and controversial chain-store CEO Jesper Orre, who owns the home but is nowhere to be found.
To homicide detectives Peter Lindgren and Manfred Olsson, nothing about the suave, high-profile businessman—including a playboy reputation and rumors of financial misdeeds—suggests he conceals the dark heart and twisted mind of a cold-blooded killer. In search of a motive, Lindgren and Olsson turn to the brilliant criminal profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön. Once a valued police asset, now marooned in unhappy retirement and a crumbling marriage, she’s eager to exercise her keen skills again—and offer the detectives a window into the secret soul of Jesper Orre.
But they’re not the only ones searching. Two months before, Emma Bohman, a young clerk at Orre’s company, chanced to meet the charming chief executive, and romance swiftly bloomed. Almost as quickly as the passionate affair ignited, it was over when Orre inexplicably disappeared. One staggering misfortune after another followed, leaving Emma certain that her runaway lover was to blame and transforming her confusion and heartbreak into anger.
Now, pursuing the same mysterious man for different reasons, Emma and the police are destined to cross paths in a chilling dance of obsession, vengeance, madness, and love gone hellishly wrong.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The decapitation of a young woman propels Grebe's exceptional solo debut, which examines three lives broken by failures to take responsibility in a Stockholm where "even the sky is crying." Peter Lindgren, the detective investigating the crime, is afraid of commitment and still hasn't accepted the teenage son he never wanted; shop assistant Emma Bohman, whose now-missing wealthy lover appears to be the prime suspect in the murder, dwells on her painful dysfunctional childhood; and profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Sch n, who's trapped in a suffocating marriage, faces early-onset Alzheimer's while helping the police with the case. The present-day crime resembles a 10-year-old cold case during which Peter and Hanne shared a short, tragic relationship. In alternating chapters, the three central figures regret what could have been, grieve for what's been lost, and lament what seemingly can never be, until their bone-rattling self-revelations are redeemed at last by human love. Grebe has collaborated with her sister, sa Tr ff, on the crime series featuring psychologist Siri Bergman (More Bitter than Death, etc.).
