Christoffer Carlsson writes another moody, fast-paced Swedish crime thriller. The time is Christmas Eve 1999, just before Y2K. Police are called to the grisly scene of a wrecked car with the body of a teenager beaten to death in the trunk. The small community has many secrets of passion, envy, and fear, and the police never fully solve the mystery. Then, 20 years later, another murder occurs that seems connected to the first. An edge-of-your-seat mystery that keeps you guessing and an ending that I did not see coming!
The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson, (List Price: $29, Hogarth, 9780593733059, December 2025)
Reviewed by Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida