A good read for fans of Swedish noir. It's got great atmospherics and characters. Don;'t worry if you haven't read the earlier books- this will be fine as a standalone.

Another really enjoyable book from Viveca Sten.

The storyline is solid and believable, the characters engaging and the descriptions of Stockholm and the surrounds true to reality.

I am really enjoying this series of novels.

This series is from Sweden and is published in translation for American readers. Very popular in its native country, there is a Swedish tv seriesas well.

This is the third novel. There are six published in the U.S. and more will be coming. The novels are atmospheric and have a strong sense of place. There are characters who are engaging and readers returning to the series will be interested in what has transpired for them since they were last met.

In Guiltless, a lot is going on although the story unfolds at a leisurely pace. Protagonist Nora is making decisions about her marriage while her closest and platonic friend Thomas is looking again at his failed relationship. A twenty year old girl has disappeared. What happened to her and why form the heart of the narrative.

The story is told in two timelines. One is current while the earlier one takes place in the 1920s. They intersect over the course of the novel. I found the parts set in the past to be incredibly painful to read, even to the point of wanting to skim them. They are critical to the story but I wish that there had been fewer of these chapters.

A subtext of the book is what makes a good parent and what happens when parenting goes disastrously wrong. These wrongs can and do lead to long impacting generational issues.

I liked spending time with the series main characters and will certainly read further novels in the series. However SPOILER ALERT:

The father in the historical sections was abused and is an abuser. This is what I found quite painful to read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first of the series that I've read and so I was a bit confused to start with as to who the main characters were as I rarely read blurbs! I found this an enjoyable read, a bit more gruesome than I was expecting from the cover. The format of one present day narrative and one past, is reminiscent of Camilla Lackberg's books who I've read before, and as with her books the past narrative is quite grim. I didn't really buy the motivation behind the killing however I immediately when on to read the sequel (after that cliffhanger!).
3.5 stars.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have had this book on my Kindle for months waiting for a review and to be honest not sure that I can give one as I never actually finished it as did not enjoy it at all.

How many more people can die on Sandhamm? I don't care, let it be the Swedish Midsummer. A truly relaxing mystery read

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Guiltless by Viveca Sten
June 19, 2017 Emma9 Comments
The tiny Swedish island of Sandhamn has always been a haven for lawyer Nora Linde. With trouble brewing in her marriage, she finds its comforts more welcome than ever, even in the depths of winter. That is, until her two young sons trip across a severed arm in the woods.
The boys’ gruesome discovery will once again connect Nora with her childhood friend Thomas Andreasson, now a local police detective. When the limb is identified as belonging to a twenty-year-old woman who disappeared without a trace months earlier, what had been a missing persons case takes on a whole new urgency.
Nora and Thomas delve deeply into the woman’s final hours, each of them wrestling not only with the case but with the private demons it awakens in them. As they do, they’ll find themselves drawn into the history of Sandhamn and the tensions that have been simmering just below the surface for more than a hundred years.
Guiltless is my third trip to Sandhamn, a small island off the Swedish coast with a population of only a couple of hundred people but – seemingly – a lot of murder.  I have to say, it sounds beautiful there, but – given the death count – I would think twice before visiting.
This time, the victim is a young girl, missing for months before Nora’s boys find her body. She is an island native (vs. the visitors that flood the island in the summer) and so her death is possibly more shocking than it might have been otherwise and the small community are rocked to it’s core.  The question is why and who?
It’s a question Nora finds herself in the middle of, not just because her sons found the body but because her best friend, Thomas, is investing the case.  Nora and Thomas make an interesting team.  They don’t investigate together as such but they do use each other to bounce ideas off, as well as supporting each other in life in general.
I like their relationship (purely platonic) and both Nora and Thomas as individuals and I think it is this that keeps bringing me back to the series.  They are genuinely nice people, the type I would want to know.  Their friendships seems natural and I can only commend Sten for how well she has created these two people.
Her plots too are pretty good.  There is a simplicity to them when you first start reading but soon the twists start coming and you don’t really know where you are.  Clever.  At the same time, a word that does pop to mind when describing her novels is gentle because you aren’t being beaten over the head with wild card detectives or omnipotent killers.  There is an old fashioned element here, a lot of who dunit and (thankfully) very little in the way of gruesome.
This style fits me perfectly more often now I find.  I don’t like lots of gore with my crime and I am tiring of detectives that go out on their own and don’t listen to anyone else on their team, usually whilst not sleeping, not eating and drinking too much.  There is none of that in Thomas, and I like it.  I also liked the book – a lot – and definitely recommend it (including for those who haven’t read the first two – it’s definitely a standalone).

Prior to this book, I had not heard of this author, let alone read any books. After reading the book, I can say this is an author who writes quite well, knows the setting well and delivers a pretty good picture of life and society on this Swedish island as well as an interesting plot, with several fascinating twists and turns. The setting is well done and is one I had never heard of or even thought about, but now find fascinating. As I said, the author provides a good picture of the tiny Swedish island of Sandhamn, a resort of sorts for citizens of the larger nearby cities, along with a good picture of life on the island during off-season, with a few visitors and full-time residents. In this story, a group of youngsters, among who are Nora Linde’s two young sons, find a frozen, severed human arm while playing in the nearby woods. The arm belongs to a young girl who disappeared several month ago while riding her bike home from a close friend’s house. Despite an extensive search, nothing of this girl was ever found, and the case obviously slipped into the cold case files of the local authorities. Now, with this discovery, the entire episode of the disappearance and search comes to the forefront. Nora and her childhood friend Thomas Andreasson, now a local police detective, are quickly drawn into the search for clues to what happened to this young girl, searching earnestly into her final hours. The story also ties in a heartfelt story, from years ago, about a young boy, despised by his abusive father, who also lived on the island. For a while, I anxiously waited to see the tie in to this current girl’s story, and found out how the two were tied together close to the end. This non-tie in distracted me and left me wondering a lot as I read. Thus, I think it could have been handled better by the author, so I wasn’t constantly trying to figure out what exactly was going on. As I said, the descriptions of the area are quite well done. The underlying mysteries are also interesting to read, and I was definitely mesmerized by these stories. There were also a lot of twists and turns throughout. The ending was okay, though, in my opinion, not great, as there was a cliff hanger of sorts. I definitely do not like cliff hangers, and this one was a definite turn off. In fact, I downgraded the number of stars because of it. This is a well written story, with a fairly good plot and well developed, realistic characters. I definitely got immersed into the island culture, norms and society, as I read. I just wish the ending had been more to my liking. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

I enjoy reading about Sandhamn by Viveca Sten because each story is totally different from the others except for the main characters, The Island life is very fascinating and interesting and yet you have this weird feeling about whats going to happen. Nora Linde is a fantastic person who has diabetes, a cheating husband, and two small boys that she is fanatical about and then she has this curiosity that happens to be right on the money. Her best friend is Thomas, a local policeman who has been through a lot of finding fault with blaming his former wife for the death of their child. He has come to his senses and no longer blames her.

The story starts with the disappearance of Lina Rosen who was cycling home from a friends house. After an extensive search of the Island the police finally gave up. Several months go by and Nora takes her boys out to Sandhamn away from their father who has been found out being unfaithful . The boys make a gruesome discovery and Nora goes to where they found it and then calls Thomas about it. The police go in one direction but Nora, who's the owner of her make-believe aunt's house discovers some old diaries which tell of feuding relatives and it makes her suspects the people for the disappearance.

The story is more complicated that I have told you but this you must read for yourself. I highly recommend it.

Wow, what a stunning read! Ordinarily I'm not really into Nordic Noir, because frankly most of it is just too drab and dreary, but although this book is certainly no laugh or an easy read it got me hooked from the beginning.
Well drawn characters and an island that's coming alive, plus a look into the past, made me loath to put it down. Wonderful new (for me) author, I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.

4 stars

Nora Linde accidentally finds out that her husband has a girlfriend. She demands that he leave the house and goes with her two sons to the vacation home on Sandhamn. Her boys, out playing with their friends in the snow come across a severed arm. It turns out to belong to a young woman named Lina Rosen who disappeared some four months earlier. During the course of the investigation, Nora meets up again with Thomas Andreasson, a police detective and childhood friend of Nora’s.

This book goes back and forth between the early 1900’s and the present. The earlier story tells the reader about the lives of Gottfrid, Vendela and their young boy called Thorwald and his family who also lived on Sandhamn.

Thomas and his team re-interview the family and friends of Lina and Sebastian, a young man who was killed in a boating accident prior to Lina,’s disappearance. They learn some interesting new facts.

The pace of our story picks up and reaches a conclusion quickly. The murderer comes as a bit of a surprise, but the reason for the murder was anticlimactic.

This novel is well written and plotted, and the translation is excellent. But the ending seemed a little rushed. Especially the reason for the murder; it was weak. I have read Viveca Sten’s other novels and liked them a little better. Perhaps she will regain her form with the next in the series. The characters were familiar from the previous novels, and they are likeable. Enough information was given about the backgrounds of those involved to flesh out the persons, but not so much that it detracted from the story.

I want to thank Netgalley and AmazonCrossing for forwarding to me a copy of this fine book for me to read.

The previous two books have taken place during the summer season when Sandhamn is crowded with tourists and summer people. Guiltless is set during the winter, and the island is largely deserted except for the 120 or so people who live there year round.

Nora Linde has taken her two boys to Sandhamn during their school break. The problems in her marriage that have been building in the earlier books have come to a head, and although Nora has not mentioned anything to her sons, she needs this time away to evaluate her situation.

The boys settle in happily--until making a gruesome discovery.

The book moves back and forth between present and distant past. You know that the story from the past has influenced the current situation, but it is difficult to determine exactly how. Nora's childhood friend, police detective Thomas Andreasson and his partner, are on the case.

Although each of the books in the Sandhamn series can be read as stand-alones, there are interesting over-arching story lines that connect each book.

I'm happy that there are more books in the series to be translated, but I hate having to wait!

I may check out the television series based on the books, but I already have so many images of the characters in my head--it might be difficult to adjust.

NetGalley/Amazon Crossing

Crime/Police Procedural. May 23, 2017. Print version: 370 pages.

Another masterful mystery by the author. At first I had difficulty putting the two storylines together but once I did the story became more interesting. Interesting ending. I will be awaiting the next translation.

Lawyer Nora Linda finds peace and comfort on the Swedish island of Sandhamn, but that all changes when her sons find a severed arm in the water there. The arm turns out to belong to a missing twenty year old woman who has been missing for months and reunites Nora with childhood friend turned police detective, Thomas Andreasson. Both Nora and Thomas look into the missing girls past, trying to understand why and how she was killed, and in doing so, expose the secrets of the not so peaceful Sandhamn Island. Nordic Noir at its best