Publisher Description
In this thrilling mystery set in rural Sweden, Detective Inspector Embla Nyström must solve a murder case and find two missing children before the small town takes matters into their own hands.
When a little girl disappears a few weeks before Christmas, suspicion falls on the last person she was seen with: the teenage loner who gave her a ride home after school. Complicating the matter is the fact that detectives can hardly get a word out of him. When a second child disappears and a police officer is found dead, tensions in the small town of Strömstad reach an all-time high.
Meanwhile, 28-year-old Detective Inspector Embla Nyström has just returned to work and is still recovering from her recent brush with a killer, which left her unable to get back in the ring to defend her title of Nordic light welterweight champion. As she hunts for the missing children, Embla can’t help but think of the case that has been haunting her for years: the disappearance of her childhood best friend. Could the incidents be linked? With the passing of each dark winter day, the odds of finding the children alive shrink, and desperation mounts. Their parents want answers and will stop at nothing to get them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Det. Insp. Embla Nystrom, who's also a big game hunter and Nordic light welterweight champion, has a lot on her plate in Tursten's fast-paced sequel to 2018's Hunting Game. In Str mstad in western Sweden, she takes on a lethal combination of two missing children, arson, and a policeman's murder. On the personal side, she has a torrid affair with the married lawyer of a suspect and must cope with nightmares about a lost friend. Though badly injured when assaulted by a man during a moose hunt the previous year, Embla relishes the thrill of the hunt, whether stalking wild boar or killers bent on gory revenge. Embla and her team manage to create satisfying personal relationships and enjoy some great nights out, and the villains get appropriately punished. Embla also crosses paths with Tursten's other detective heroine, Irene Huss, and their professional chemistry clicks. Readers will be curious to see how Tursten develops her complex lead in future outings. Those looking for Scandinavian crime fiction that's not entirely bleak will be rewarded.