Under the Storm by Christoffer Carlsson
Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles
Publication Date: February 27, 2024
Summary from NetGalley:
On a cold November night, a farmhouse burns to the ground. Inside a young woman is found dead—not from the fire but murdered. To the people in the rural community of Marbäck, this becomes a reference point: a before and after. For ten-year-old Isak Nyqvist, it sets in motion something he cannot control, igniting his future into an unpredictable inferno.
The police focus their attention on Edvard Christensson, the boyfriend of the murdered woman and Isak’s beloved uncle. After a quick investigation, Edvard is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison and Marbäck believes it can return to its innocence. Vidar Jörgensson, the rookie officer who first responded to the fire, prides himself on helping solved the murder. Little does he know this will become the defining case of his career and that it will drive him to the brink of professional and personal disaster—and link his fate to young Isak’s.
A celebrated author and professor of criminology, Christoffer Carlsson digs deep into the psyches of ordinary people and shows how one crime can haunt a community for decades. A #1 international bestseller, Under the Storm is already a modern classic of Scandinavian crime fiction and demonstrates why many regard Carlsson as one of the great crime writers of his generation.
ARC provided by Random House via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This Swedish crime novel is a slow burn that encompasses how a single act of murder affects a small town, and in particular a young boy and the police officer involved. The writing is stunning and really gets across what it is like to live in Sweden. The story spans many years as well and follows the two main characters in such a way that you become involved with their lives.
We first meet Isak, when he is quite young. The author does a marvelous job of conveying his confusion and anger when he learns what his uncle is accused of. He was very close to his uncle Edvard, and considered him more like a father than his real father. He doesn’t quite understand how the person he knows could have hurt anyone, let alone the girl that he loves. As he grows he starts to think that maybe he is like his uncle, especially as he tries to control his anger. Isak continues to struggle with his life, and living in a small town that looks down on him for what his uncle did, doesn’t help.
Vidar is a young police officer just trying to do what is right. Many years after the conviction he becomes obsessed with the case and struggles with contradicting the evidence and his superiors with finding the truth. He sort of befriends Isak, and tries to guide him as he grows, especially when he gets into some trouble.
The plot of the story encompasses decades from the nineties to 2017 when everything gets resolved. It was interesting to watch both Isak come of age and Vidar’s growth as a character. The writing is well done, and you often feel immersed in what it is like to live in a rural area of Sweden. It is interesting note that small towns are the same no matter where they are geographically. They all have secrets and petty prejudices against their neighbors. The murder is slowly resolved over the course of the novel, but there were a few times that I thought for sure we would not get a final answer. I also really liked how the author worked in some real world events that affected Sweden at the time, such as the Thailand tsunami and the hurricane that devastated the country.
If you are a fan of Scandinavian noir crime fiction, this is a book that you should take a look at. It is a deep and sometimes disturbing look at the psychology of a crime and of small town dynamics. This is the first book by this author that I have read, but it won’t be the last.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 