Product Description

'For several hours I believed that my daughter had drowned and my wife as alive, when in fact the reverse was true'. It is bitter mid-winter when Katrine and Joakim Westin move with their children into the old manor house at Eel Point on the Swedish island of Oland. But their new home is no remote idyll. Just days later, Katrine is found drowned off the rocks nearby. While Joakim struggles to keep his sanity, Tilda Davidsson - a young policewoman fresh out of college- becomes convinced that Katrine was murdered. Then, on Christmas Eve, a blizzard hits Eel Point. Isolated by the snow, Joakim does not know that visitors - as unwelcome as they are terrifying - are making their way towards him. For this is the darkest night of the year, and the night when the living meet the dead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4123 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'Echoes from the Dead was rightly acclaimed in the UK, and this, his second, is even better. A powerful study of grief, loss and vulnerability, with a commendably earth-bound solution.'
--GUARDIAN, 11 July 2009

'The latest Swedish sensation...a bestseller in Scandinavia after publishing only two novels.'
--THE TIMES

About the Author
Throughout his life, Johan Theorin has been a regular visitor to the Baltic island of Oland, where his books are set. His mother's family - sailors, fishermen and farmers - have lived there for centuries, nurturing the island's rich legacy of strange tales and folklore. A journalist by profession, Johan lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Customer Reviews

Another cracker from the Baltic
If you like your crime fiction creepy and atmospheric, yet utterly believable, this is for you. This book interweaves history and the present in a thoroughly captifying way, and once more brings to life the landscape of a Swedish island in winter. I was again struck by the fact that it is dark by 2.00 pm in Sweden in winter, and those long nights by the lighthouse with the wind howling and the rain and snow falling felt very lonely and bleak. It was very satisfying to have characters return from his first novel, and also to see the introduction of a female police officer on her first job, and her interaction with her more experienced and rather patronising colleagues was very well drawn. I can hardly wait for his next book.

Gothic scandinavian crime thriller
Another terrific read, the second of Theorin's trilogy of books set on the Swedish island of Oland; a mix of a genuinely creepy ghost story and more conventional crime procedural. You're never quite sure whether Theorin regards the supernatural elements as real or the wishful thinking of a man wracked by grief and loss - either way they made me feel rather uneasy. The brilliance of this book is its elegant understatement, not the least the final unwinding of the causes of the tragedy, which is almost thrown in as an afterthought. Up to that point the threads of the plot are first slowly drawn together, then the sense of some impending catastrophe accelerates towards the dramatic conclusion. Another fine contribution to the burgeoning stable of fine Swedish crime writers - highly recommended for anyone who likes a little gothic to go with their Mankell/Nesbo/Indridason etc etc

Johan Theorin-The Darkest Room
This dark brooding novel is the author's second,
and won the prize for the best Nordic Crime Novel
in 2009.
A married couple,Katrine and Joakim, and their children
move from Stockholm to a secluded manor house on the
island of Oland.It has not been occupied for some time,
and seems to contain the spirits of previous inhabitants.
Soon after their arrival, Katrine is found drowned off
the rocks near the house.Whilst Joakim is beset by
grief,Tilda Davidsson,a rookie policeman,suspects foul
play.
Set against ferocious winter weather,this subtly
plotted novel builds up the suspense,until an ending
that did not disappoint.