Under the Storm is a powerful suspense novel from criminologist and Swedish crime writer Christoffer Carlsson (Blaze Me a Sun), skillfully translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles.
A house burns to the ground in Marbäck, a rural village in Sweden, and a body is discovered in the wreckage. The authorities and community believe that the victim, a local young woman named Lovisa, was murdered by her boyfriend, Edvard, despite a number of confounding indications to the contrary. In a town where everyone has known each other's families for generations, it's easy to assume that criminality and violence are genetic.
Young Isak assumes that he is tainted with the same violence as his beloved uncle Edvard, who now sits in prison for Lovisa's murder. The members of his community presume the same thing, which has a warping impact on the direction of Isak's life and his connections with other people. But holes in the case, along with the fact that Edvard has never confessed to the murder, nag at local police detective Vidar Jörgensson, who continues to pursue the case at great personal and professional cost.
No one is eager to revisit a long-closed murder case and reopen old wounds. The villagers tell themselves that "[a]s long as you know what to watch out for, life is pretty simple," even as hurricanes and tsunamis literally tear up the world around them. In its search for the truth, Under the Storm is an understated, tense, and psychologically alluring mystery. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.