This is my first foray into Nordic Noir and I am sure it won't be my last. In his debut, Will Dean has created a vivid but haunted and claustrophobic town in Gavrik, Sweden and a lively, spirited and forthright character in Tuva Moodyson. The story might be gruesome and overwhelmingly creepy, but that doesn't stop it from being humourous in places.

"My mouth’s dry and I’m hot in my sweater. I’m reversing into a crash with an elk in my face."

Despite the few lighter moments, the plot is generally quite dark and there are some very freaky characters throughout the book - almost literally everybody is a suspect in the ominous Mossen village and I did not work out whodunit.

"‘Well,’ I say. ‘It’s not like the killer will be wandering around the forest with a sign and a pocketful of eyeballs is it?’"

The story starts with a bang - and gives you a really good feel for the place and for Tuva - but I did find it a little over-long in the middle. That said, the final fifth or so was absolutely thrilling and frankly terrifying, and I raced through it. I will definitely read more from Will Dean and from Tuva.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications / Point Blank for the ARC of Dark Pines.

All reviews can be found on www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk

OMFG this is such an amaaaazing book, I am not sure my review will do it justice! But I will give it a go!

The reader finds themselves in Sweden facing loss; grief; differences; secrets/lies; discrimination; small-town mentalities; judgement; a search for the truth – all is not what it seems in the isolated Swedish town, that’s for sure!!

Can I just say that the description throughout this debut novel was EXQUISITE!! I could just about smell the forest as I drank in the scenery that was so beautifully portrayed in this eery and somewhat haunting setting. Soooo atmospheric. *sigh* – I simply loved it! I also LOVED the story/plot! This was a total page-turner for me as the thrill of the mystery and suspense just grabbed me and would not let me go until I finished! I love how the suspects were all laid out early on in the book and as you got through each chapter you were left wondering – could it be….AWESOME! For me, the pace was perfect – a gradual build up of tension throughout until the big reveal and OMFG – what a BOOM!

As for characters…this book was RICH with some fantastic, well developed characters that had me curious throughout! I wanted to know EVERYTHING about them – and Will Dean did not disappoint. I will mention just a few though as I think this is the type of book where you have to EXPERIENCE everything and my own views may differ from others.

Tuva Moodyson is now on my list of favourite characters- no doubt about that! After leaving London to help her mother, Tuva finds herself working in a small town newspaper office as a reporter. Tuva is deaf – though she can hear with the use of hearing aids. I love how she switches off her hearing aids when she wants to shut out the world. I also loved that she was determined that her hearing impairment doesn’t define her. I suspect there is a lot more for the reader to learn about this character, especially relating to her life in London as we really only scratch the surface – Eeeek! I can’t wait!

Another character…well two…who captured my interest were those creepy sisters and their trolls….WTAF!? I rarely get freaked out…but WOW – totally got under my skin ….even now I am getting shivers just thinking about them!

Finally – Frida and Hannes- a helpful couple, right? Erm…the pair are the type of couple that everyone seems to love on the surface but talk about behind their back. I personally thought this pair were fascinating. Frida is exceptionally inappropriate but you get the impression that although what she says at times is very offensive, it is down to her ignorance rather than being intentional. I really want to mention a few more characters – but I don’t want to overload readers and take away the pleasure of discovery when they first come across them! So I won’t – buy the book and find out for yourself!

So the million dollar (pound??) question is – would I recommend this book? Holy sh*tballs, peeps! You bet your sweet arse I do…with bells on! This was an incredible debut and I am soooo thrilled I had the opportunity to read this prior to publication. Dark, intriguing, atmospheric – the perfect delivery of noir on a plate – a deliciously twisted journey that will have you aching for more when you hit the last page – grab your copy of Dark Pines now and tell me I am wrong! #TopReadof2018 #BOOM!

I am a HUGE fan of Dark Pines. This book is everthing I hoped it would be and more. It’s a very unique read with a setting and lead character which are just so different to what I’ve read before. First of all, we’re thrust deep into the dark forests of sweden in the middle of elk season.Now I was lucky enough to attend a gathering where people were out shooting in the woods and the noises, the feeling, the excitement and fear are brilliantly evoked here. The sense of darkness and claustrophobia tingles your senses and the book just gets better from here.

A great newness to this novel is the man character who is deaf and uses hearing aids. Again, more claustrophobia but this was more than that – I really got to feel part of her world and experience her world of silence and sounds – so through the ears of a character this time as well as her eyes. She is very much her own person – her disability is not her weakness. You don’t mess with this lady.

The mystery which takes place initially off the page with that gunshot in the woods ramps up big style and the ending is just perfect for the story.But oh my,what a journey it takes you on first. Through those dark unforgiving woods, the eerie shades of the dark pines cast shadows on the actions being played out below. It’s a backdrop to a theatre show where the actors are mere silhouettes – the forest rules here.

Brilliant in every way. I loved the little touches of Swedish humour and history – the ICA supermarket, the Prins Polo sweets…I hugged the book when I’d finished it.

Highly recommended. Will Dean I need book two NOW!

Five starts easy but this would be more if more existed on this scale

Well, apparently I am in the minority here. I never found my way into the story. I also never connected to Tuva. To be honest, I did not like her. I found her actions and investigations quite stupid.

Yes, there was a dark and disturbing atmosphere. The setting is creepy but the story itself did not work for me. I got bored and almost stopped reading. But I tent to finish books I got from NetGalley, just to give it a proper chance. Also there are a lot of raving reviews so I thought I was just missing something. But the end was no twist for me, maybe a bit of a surprise but the motive was ridiculous.

I also did not like the writing style. It was very slow and full of strange metaphors. For example: “The three-quarter moon makes the woods as grey as the blood you find under a cooked salmon filet”. Hm….I just kept stumbling over such strange sentences.

I always feel terrible when I have nothing good to say about a book which was given to me kindly by a publisher. I wanted to like this book so much. Fortunately I am almost the only one who did not like this book. It is probably me. Maybe I get picky or just read too much thrillers over the years. I find it harder and harder to be thrilled by a book these days. I hardly had a 5 star-review last year and I am very disappointed in myself that my first review in 2018 is just a 2 stars.

I am very sorry but “Dark Pines” war not my cup of tea.

Hard to put down this book as one becomes immersed in the darkness of the landscape and the forest. Tuva is a likeable character who shows she has weaknesses and not afraid to tell others. It was nice to see that when she was afraid she turned back or when given a gun to protect herself said no as she didn’t know how to use. The descriptions in this book were unbelievable and at times a bit over the top. The author likes explicit detail. The mystery component was interesting with the five houses along that eerie stretch of road. All unique characters. Very good read . Could of used less of the descriptions .

Many thanks to Netgalley, Oneworld publications and Will Dean for the opportunity to preview this book. It’s an excellent creepy, atmospheric crime thriller with a lead character very different from any I've read before. Tuka is deaf and this book is so well written and descriptive that I felt I was experiencing the claustrophobic town of Gavrik along with Tuka.

A really good read.

I am blown away by the fact that this is a debut novel. Admittedly at first, it was the cover that drew me to the book but after reading the synopsis I knew I needed to read it.

Will Dean has managed to create such a vivid setting with his writing, so much so I felt cold just reading it. Set in the isolated town of Gavrik, Sweden. The characters have such depth and such individual voices that I felt every single one of them was believable, regardless of their quirkiness. This is the first 'Nordic Noir' that I've read in a very long time and boy was a spoiled with this one! I enjoyed this so much that I have actually pre-ordered a finished copy and it'll be arriving on the day that it's released.

Tuva, the protagonist in the story, is brilliant. A deaf reporter that moves from London to Gavrik to be closers to her unwell mother. She find a job as a local reporter and decided to investigate when a body is found in the depths of the woods, the MO matching a serial killer that was loose in the 90's.

It is thrilling, mysterious and thoroughly gripping. I think this book will be a massive hit when it hits the shelves on the 4th of January and I'm betting you'll soon be seeing it everywhere, and that would be totally well-deserved.

Have Scandi Noir crime thrillers run their course?? Well on the evidence of this brilliant novel I think there's still room for a new name and it seems a new star to investigate crimes in the dark cold countries of the northern hemisphere.
Tuva Moodyson has moved back to the small town of Gavrik in Sweden having started her journalistic career in London. Her mother is now terminally ill and Tuva has taken up a job on the small local newspaper which has very little to report beside the closure of businesses and the timings of the elk hunting season.
One night when she is driving through the dark overgrown Utgard forest she swerves to avoid an elk and then hears a gun shot. The next morning a dead body is found shot in the chest with its eyes gouged out. The death reminds locals of the notorious unsolved Medusa murders during the 90s. Has a local serial killer re emerged to seek other victims? Will the small suspicious town lay bare its fears or close ranks against those brave enough to investigate the murders?
Tuva is an interesting character. She is deaf, using hearing aids to pick up some sounds and is escaping some ghosts herself - her father's death and the life she led back in the UK. She knows some of the locals but is still seen as some what of an outsider and is scared of the terrifying depths of the forest and the local village residents who provide some classic suspects for the crimes. Who can forget the image of wood-carving scary sisters making life like trolls using human and animal hair!
The atmosphere is truly Scandinavian with darkness, numbing coldness and locals who live for "TV coffee and alcohol:the holy trinity pf cold countries", however Tuva is a bright light in the midst of this gloom and doggedly works to get her story, sort her life and solve the crime.
There will probably be more books in this series with Tuva Moodyson and author Will Deans has struck a good slant on an old idea inviting us into her world and the dark undertones of firs, fire and frozen nights.

I don’t tend to read Scandinavian/Nordic type thrillers, although I’m not sure why. This one caught my eye and I’m glad I picked it up.

It was very atmospheric , the grimness of the town of Gavrik where Tuva Moodyson has moved to, so that she can be closer to her mother who is dying, was so astute.
Tuva works for the local paper as a reporter and starts investigating the murder of a local in the nearby Utgard Forest....and then another murder occurs. These murders have the hallmark of similar murders that happened in the same area in the 90’s. Are they related or just copycat killings?
I did find the novel a little hard to get into at first, I think this was more to do with getting a handle on the type of person Tuva was and the unfamiliar sounding names. But once I got going I was very invested. The sense of time and place was great. I could feel the darkness and cold of the forest and Tuva’s fear of all the area (she hates nature)
Then there were the strange inhabitants of the village that sat on the edge of the forest. Strange and quirky is all I can say.
I really enjoyed this story and admired Tuva, suffice to say I will certainly pick up the next installment of the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read and review.

Traditional Nordic noir isn’t to everyone’s tastes. It can be oblique as well as beautiful, taking subtle understatement to the brink of a stilted stall. The bitter chill of a Scandinavian winter can be brittle and unwelcoming – not only to the characters, but to a new reader who might struggle to engage with the stoic nature of a soul honed by months of darkness in lonely isolation. At times, the genre can push matter-of-fact minimalism far beyond the boundary of mainstream crime fiction.

Dark Pines is the exact antidote to this. It seizes the core concepts of Scandinavian crime fiction and amps them up with a quarter-million volts of electric energy. It perfectly captures the eerie atmosphere of small-town rural Sweden, and blends it with the page-turning pace of an American thriller. You can feel the frost on your face and sense the menace in the twilight world of woods and wilderness. But author Will Dean doesn’t let the plot get bogged down by the stark beauty of the landscape. Instead he pushes events along with the urgency of an episode of 24 – there’s barely time to draw an icy breath…

Nor does Dean skimp on the characters. We ride along with journalist Tuva, a savvy young woman who’d be far happier working for a multinational media conglomerate in a hectic urban environment. She’d rather eat sushi than sheep’s head, any day. But for intensely poignant personal reasons Tuva is spinning her wheels at a local paper – trying to come to terms with a deep-seated grief while writing puff pieces about snow ploughs, school plays and planning applications.

When an elk hunter is found dead in the woods – with his eyes scraped out – Tuva seizes the chance to write her big story. And once she starts pulling on the threads of the investigation, we see just how solid a character she is; how committed and capable, but also terrifyingly vulnerable.

Tuva’s profound deafness is skilfully woven into the fabric of the story; her dependence upon her hearing aids feels like second nature by the end of the novel. This isn’t a token disability, but instead is an unflinching and realistic portrayal of coping with an additional challenge. In Tuva, Will Dean has created a genuinely three-dimensional protagonist, one who demonstrates considerable grit without breaking the boundaries of the real world.

The supporting cast are equally engaging – or threatening, depending upon their role in the absorbing storyline. People who live in log cabins in the middle of nowhere are likely to be out of the ordinary, and these guys are far from the usual suspects. One of them is a serial killer, a successful stalker and cold-blooded murderer. All of them are strange, slightly out of kilter, unsettling and sinister. Most have secrets they’re trying to hide – and Tuva swiftly discovers the sordid side to many hidden lives.

The result is a Scandinavian thriller which is perfect for people who haven’t tried (or haven’t liked) conventional Nordic noir. It’s accessible but complex; fast-paced but deeply layered. Think of the paperback equivalent to The Bridge or The Killing. Dark Pines would be a considerable accomplishment for an established author with dozens of books to his credit – it’s flat-out astonishing for a first novel. Definitely one of our best books of 2017, and a perfect way to start the New Year…
9/10

A really polished and accomplished debut and I'm loving that this is going to be a series!

Dark, atmospheric and at times claustrophobic, Dark Pines is well written, the characters are vividly drawn and I loved the witty and observant descriptions of life in the remote Swedish town. It's a tense and compelling mystery and Tuva Moodyson has joined the list of my favourite characters :)

Thank you Oneworld Publications for the Arc of this book - I'm really looking forward to the next instalment.

4 - 4.5 stars

Dark Pines is the ideal read for Winter! Set in an isolated town in Sweden it's the perfect mix of thrills, heart pounding tension and murder. I love the main character Tuva Moodyson and hope we'll be seeing more of her.

Every so often, a book comes along that is written in a way that is so in tune with the way I read and delivers exactly what I need from a great read, that it really does read itself to me. It's just a joy to sit down with a book that is so far away from hard work, so easy to block out everything else and totally immerse myself into. This was one such book and I devoured it in just one sitting (plus comfort breaks!)
It also helps when I connect with the main character right from page one and, in Tuva, I almost think I've found a new friend. She is so much on my wavelength it's scary! Some of the things she says and does just had me nodding my head in absolute agreement. Especially some of the commentary about her being deaf. It actually got me thinking with something she said about total silence being something she can create whereas the majority of hearing people often have to work hard to achieve it. She's a reporter for a small, local paper but really is better than that having worked in major cities including London. She has had to return to the wilderness because her mum is real sick and really kinda resents it even though she puts on a brave face and tries to do the best for her community. She loves and has a flair for investigating as soon becomes evident to all and sundry when she embroils herself in a murder case. A hunter has been shot dead in the forest. Is this just a nasty accident, it is elk season after all, or is it connected to an old cold, unsolved case from the 90s where three people were shot and had their eyes removed; it could even be a copy cat? As the police start to release certain details, Tuva's investigative juices start to really run but is she creating trouble for herself in her investigations, and when I say trouble, I actually mean danger! Can she cut through the noise and, often strange, suspects to get to the truth before the killer strikes again; or worse, turns on her?
I've already said that I loved this book but apart from being beautifully written , well plotted, and played out by a fantastically colourful cast, I really can't put my finger on exactly why it was so brilliant. I guess like with regarding a painting, you can't always explain why you like it, you just do. In the same way, I am powerless to explain what exactly gave this book the wow factor to me; just that it did. There were so many little things that connected me to what I was reading. So much that just felt right to me. So many little observations that the author included that actually had me reading bits of the book out to my brother along the way. It's also quite funny in parts to, whether it means to be always is debatable but some parts really tickled me.
But, you know what the very best thing about this book is? The fact that it is book one of a series. That is catnip to my reading juices and I will definitely be counting the days until I reconnect with Tuva again. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Dark Pines is more than just a crime thriller, it’s a story full of quirky characters with depth set in an atmospheric and creepy surrounding.

With a wonderful main character, Tuva Moodyson, a deaf, bi-sexual reporter who has found herself relocated from London to Gavrik (Toytown) to be near her dying mother and working on a small local newspaper when a body is discovered deep in the forest in the middle of hunting season with the same signature as a serial killer from the 90’s. Determined to solve the crime herself, Tuva decides to investigate despite hating nature, elks, the forest, the dark, insects and small towns.

Dark Pines is my first Nordic Noir and boy did I pop my cherry on a good’un! Atmospheric, creepy, tense, dark, descriptive, gripping and beautifully written.

"Something just died. I don't know how I know this but I do. The air has changed around me."

I really enjoy thrillers that are reliant on their setting. I recently read The Dry (review to come) and the harsh and arid landscape is integral to the plot. Dark Pines is the same, but with a completely different environment. A small Swedish town on the edge of a mighty pine forest, where stepping off the path can be deadly, yet most inhabitant's livelihood depends around the forest.

It's an ideal place to set a murder mystery and Will Dean does this brilliantly in Dark Pines (which is also a perfect name for the book). You really feel the forest setting the whole way through, and it just wouldn't be the same if it was set somewhere else. It's intensely claustrophobic yet there is a power and energy both in the setting and the story.

I think the wild setting in Dark Pines is so pronounced because of the feelings of protagonist and city girl Tuva Moodyson. She doesn't want to be in Gavrik and hates the forest, yet as a reporter she has to investigate the murders, which means entering the woods everyday.

I think Moodyson is a great invention. She stands out, not just because she is deaf, though this is unique in my reading, but because she is funny, independent and determined. She's got her own demons but she's not the usual grissled detective that we usually follow in thrillers.

The cast of characters on the whole is excellent, including a varied and believable cast, though some are downright bizarre, like the Sørlie sisters, who are disgustingly wonderful and original. I would love to know if they were drawn from real life.

The story itself is a little slow moving and doesn't roll along as easily as some thrillers I've read, but it was still page turning.

However, that's a little niggle, overall I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Pines and felt it was atmospheric and thrilling.

My Rating: 4 Stars

I received a copy of Dark Pines, via NetGalley, in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

Dark Pines is just my kind of book. Dark, atmospheric, suspenseful and with a protagonist you very quickly come to adore, I read this book all the way through without pausing for breath.This is Nordic noir at its finest. Contemporary drama that grabs you and doesn’t let go until, panting for breath, you lie wrung out on the floor.

Tuva Moodyson is a journalist on the local paper in the very small town of Gavrik. She has left a good job as a London journalist to come to Sweden to be close to her dying mother. Theirs is not an especially close relationship, but they are all the family each other has and Tuva is determined to be there for her mum.

In Gavrik she churns out the usual local paper stories; the start of elk hunting season; church notes, how the paper mill is doing, how the local sports teams are faring. She knows she is blessed by having in Lena a good editor who recognises the quality of her writing and is prepared to let her work through the bigger stories.

Gavrik is surrounded by dark pine forests, eerie, forbidding spaces it is far too easy to get lost in and full of biting insects, rotting vegetation and carcasses and both cold and damp. When, in the midst of elk hunting season, a dead body is discovered with gunshot wounds to the chest and the eyes gouged out, it is not long before local people start to speculate about the relationship between this death and the so-called Medusa murders some 20 years ago in the same town.

Tuva is responsible for writing up what will be the papers main focus for many weeks and to do so she has to really get into the lives and attitudes of the people connected to the story. What a cast of characters she meets as she investigates. From the reclusive David Holmqvist with his peculiar culinary habits to Alice and Cornelia Sorlie, carvers of specialised figures to the head of the main hunting team, Hannes Carlsson and Viggo the local taxi driver. These and other characters are all put under Tuva’s spotlight as she bravely tries to overcome her very real fear of the forest and the creatures that live in it in order to get to the heart of her story.

Along the way she also has to grapple with a growing hostility from the town’s business people, concerned that Tuva’s writing may be giving the town a bad name.

I love Tuva’s complex character. She is brave and feisty, has absolutely no idea of how to take care of herself and I want to know more about her and her life.

Will Dean’s writing is tense, well- crafted and full of very creepy moments. The plot is taut and fast-moving with plenty of false leads and twists. Writing in the first person really works for Tuva’s character and I loved her best friend Tammy, also an outsider to the town, whose perception of the challenges she faces is hard hitting and in your face.

I really loved this book and hope there will be more of Tuva (and Tammy) to come.

Dark Pines is one of those novels that I’d heard a lot about months before it’s publication, and when it became available on Netgalley I knew I had to read it.

SEE NO EVIL
Eyes missing, two bodies lie deep in the forest near a small Swedish town.
HEAR NO EVIL
Tuva Moodyson, a deaf reporter on a small-time local paper, is looking for the story that could make her career.
SPEAK NO EVIL
A web of secrets. And an unsolved murder from twenty years ago.
Can Tuva outwit the killer before she becomes the final victim? She'd like to think so. But first she must face her demons and venture far into the deep, dark woods if she wants to stand any chance of getting the hell out of small-time Gavrik.

When a hunter is found in the woods under circumstances that are similar to a previous, unsolved, spate of killings, journalist Tuva Moodyson is sent to investigate. Tuva is relatively new to Gavrik, having moved there to be near her mother, and keeps to herself beyond the few friendships that she has developed in her time there. I think that Tuva is a wonderfully unique heroine – she’s strong and capable, and I loved her quirkiness and her attitude to reporting the facts accurately in her newspaper articles – she is particularly aware of the impact that misreported facts can have, and this felt particularly relevant given the recent occurrences of "fake news".

The plot moves quickly, and has plenty of potential suspects and red herrings thrown into the mix. I found Tuva’s investigation to be thoroughly absorbing – this was a novel that I wanted to read nonstop to find out who was behind the murders! And I enjoyed that the reader saw the investigation from the perspective of someone who isn’t on the police force, and without the same resources or information available to them, although Tuva does have her contacts there, and does manage to glean a few hints along the way. By the time of the big reveal, I had several theories, and whilst one of them did prove to be correct in terms of who (more guesswork than intuition on my part), I enjoyed the revelation of that person’s motive.

If you like a small-town mystery, then I highly recommend this novel. Dean perfectly captures the small-town vibe, where everyone knows each other and where residents are, more often than not, related to each other by marriage if not by blood. There are some wonderfully idiosyncratic characters in the small town of Gavrik – I won’t be forgetting the Sørlie sisters in a hurry! – and everyone has their secrets, loyalties, and grudges which make it so difficult to solve a crime, particularly for someone who is an outsider.

I really hope that Dean plans to return to Tuva and Gavrik in future novels – I’d love to see what she gets up to next, and I think that there are avenues left to explore from this novel.

Dark Pines will be published on 4 January by Point Blank. Many thanks to Will Dean, the publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Without question, one of my favourite reads of the year. Dark, twisted, urgent and desperately atmospheric - so much so that if I shut my eyes I'll somehow smell pine, mud and blood. One of those books that will live with you long after reading not just because it was excellent, but because it's so far under your skin you can't possibly hope to get it out. Outstanding.

Will Dean’s Dark Pines is an excellent, well-paced and intriguing mystery. It’s got an eerie and claustrophobic atmosphere, a great protagonist and interesting characters. While I do think the writing needs some more editing and the ending could be more fleshed out, I really love this book.
Our narrator is reporter Tuva Moodyson who has moved to the tiny and isolated town of Gavrik to be closer to her dying mother. She’s also looking for the story that could make her career. She gets her chance when two eyeless hunters are found murdered in the forest. Are these new deaths connected to the mysterious Medusa killings which happened twenty years earlier? While investigating the mystery, Tuva unearths numerous secrets about the claustrophobic tightly-knit town. As she digs deeper, she angers the town’s residents who are worried about the way she’s depicting the town in the newspaper. She has run-ins with some creepy characters and someone may be following her...
Tuva is an interesting and well-written protagonist. She is extremely relatable as she tries to cope with her father’s death and her mother’s slow deterioration. Her strained relationship with her mother is particularly poignant. Tuva is also deaf and bisexual and I greatly welcome the diversity because her uniqueness is not a throwaway feature. Instead, it adds an interesting and new dimension to the character and novel. She is also resourceful and brave and although she is scared of nature, she is determined to venture into the forest to investigate.
I also really like the novel’s other fascinating well-written characters which include an eccentric ghost-writer and a pair of sisters who create trolls from their own body parts. They all seem like plausible suspects and they perfectly add to the creepy atmosphere permeating the book. I also love Tuva’s supportive best friend, Tammy, and I wish she had a bigger role. She is Asian, and Dean realistically and unflinchingly presents the racism she experiences in this small Swedish town.
I did guess the murderer’s identity halfway through the book. However, the gruesome mystery is well-crafted and captivating. The plot is taut and fast-paced with some nice twists and red herrings. However, the big reveal and the aftermath feels a little rushed while the killer’s motives are also a little cliché. I would really like some more explanation on certain aspects of the mystery.
Although the writing is sometimes too abrupt and the transitions are a little choppy, I love the tense and eerie feeling of the novel. Dean’s descriptions are so vivid and realistic that everything, especially the forest, really comes to life and I truly feel as isolated and claustrophobic as Tuva does.
Dark Pines is an engaging mystery with a perfectly tense atmosphere and well-crafted characters. This book is definitely worth the hype because it’s a well-written and satisfying read. I hope that Will Dean writes more books starring Tuva because I will definitely read them. Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can't quite explain where my recent fascination with Scandi-Noir comes from. For one, I absolutely hate cold weather and the mere mention of freezing temperatures and snow makes me want to run for the hills. And yet, when one of my dearest blogging friends couldn't stop raving about Dark Pines, I dived right in and didn't look back.

Tuva Moodyson is a journalist, working for the local newspaper in the tiny town of Gavrik. When a body is found in the forest, Tuva sets out to investigate the story that could make her career. But there is a fine line between telling the story truthfully and not alienating the community you live in. On top of that, Tuva must face her biggest fears and head deep into the dark woods.

There's an incredibly threatening and claustrophobic vibe running throughout this entire story. It doesn't just come from the small town feeling, but also the forest, which is almost a character all on its own, and the residents themselves. Each and every one of them is a suspect in this murder and I probably pointed my finger at all of them. From the massively creepy woodcarving sisters, to the ghostwriter in his fancy house, to the taxi driver with his slightly odd son, each and every one of them displays a certain level of eccentricity that made me eye them in the most suspicious way. I can't even begin to explain how much I love it when an author can keep me guessing.

Everything in Dark Pines works like a charm. The atmospheric setting, the weather and our main character being deaf adds another brilliantly intricate layer. I loved how Tuva doesn't make a big deal of her deafness. It's just a part of her, like the colour of her eyes. I can't for the life of me imagine what it's like, thankfully, but I feel the author did a great job incorporating it into the storyline. Especially by explaining how certain sounds can interfere with hearing aids. I had no idea.

The investigation into the murder is utterly gripping. Will Dean will have you second-guessing everyone and everything at every single turn of the page. Just when I thought I figured out the who, there was a curveball. And I completely gave up on figuring out the why but the reveal blew me away. Fantastic!

So, a brilliantly executed plot, an extremely interesting protagonist, a cast of fabulous if slightly weird characters and an amazing setting. What more could you possibly want? Scandi-Noir has completely won me over and Will Dean is most definitely one to watch. I have no doubt Dark Pines will do well and it's kicking off the new year in style!