Andrea's Reviews > Black River

Another fabulous instalment in the Tuva Moodyson series! This one brings me up to date, but I do hope the author plans to continue. In this story, the mystery is very personal to Tuva, which gave it a slightly different tone to the previous books, and I might have rated it higher but for a feeling of déjà vu about the climax.

It's almost Midsommar and Sweden is once again hot and insect-y, with too many hours of daylight. Tuva has been down south for a few sober months now, and is out on a job when she gets a frantic call from her old boss in Gavrik. Lena tells Tuva that her closest friend, Tammy, has gone missing and that she needs to get back to Gavrik ASAP. Without even returning to her apartment, Tuva hits the highway for the long drive back to her old hometown. When she arrives, she finds the local police are trying to keep things pretty low-key, as it's been less than a day since Tammy disappeared, but rumours are rife all over town, Tammy's food van is in disarray, and they've found something that could be droplets of blood. Naturally Tuva is beside herself and wants an urgent search to begin, but apart from a handful of her allies - mainly Lena and her former colleagues at the Gavrik Posten - there is a sense of inertia. That is, until another young woman, a daughter-of-Gavrik, also goes missing.

The author has really expanded his fictional Värmland universe in this book, showing us that forest-bound Mossen Village isn't the only place in the region where the weirdos live! The search for Tammy quickly focuses in on the Snake River settlement, on the other side of Utgard Forest, where we are introduced to an unnerving, skilled taxidermist/snake-breeder as well as a pair of cousins who may or may not be closer than society approves. Then there's baby-faced Freddy Bom, back in Gavrik town itself, with an almost unnatural interest in small, human feet... Will Dean draws these oddball characters so well, taking as much care with those that turn out to be little more than window dressing, as he does with those who become central to the plot.

Another thing I really enjoyed was learning about Midsommar in Sweden. It totally frustrates Tuva because the public holiday puts the brakes on the investigation, and also threatens her sobriety vow at times, but the scenes involving all the families heading out to the reservoir to eat, drink and merrily celebrate, were really vivid.

Once again I chose the audio version of this book to enjoy Maya Lindh's superb narration.

Highly recommended.