You only had to tell me this book was about murder, family secrets, and being trapped in a spooky mansion during a snowstorm for me to sign up! I enjoyed Sten’s newest book even more than her last.

The story starts with Eleanor coming face to face with her grandmother’s murderer as they escape her apartment. The problem is Eleanor has “face-blindness” – she cannot recognize nor remember anyone’s face, including her own. (This is a real thing – look it up!) Eleanor soon finds out she has inherited her grandmother’s country estate, which she never knew about.

Eleanor heads to the estate with her boyfriend, aunt, and a lawyer to inventory the home’s contents, so it can be divided per the will. But Eleanor finds more than old family photos and a wine collection when she arrives. Someone else is at the manor and is trying to keep hidden a 40-year old family secret that Eleanor unpicks bit by bit.

The suspense factor is strong with this one. I found myself frequently reading as quickly as I could to find out what was next and jumping as things went bump in the old, dark mansion! There were several twists to the tale, making it not as predictable as it could have been. I did get a bit confused with almost everyone having multiple identities, but I guess it added to the twists. I look forward to whatever Sten has up next!

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and StMartinsPress to preview. It publishes next week! March 29, 2022

Another creepy, unsettling and atmospheric chiller from Camila Sten! Fans of The Lost Village will love the haunting, isolated setting and the mystery behind a house with a dark history.

The book starts off with Eleanor walking into the scene of her grandmother's murder. She comes face to face with the killer but since she suffers from face blindness, she's not able to identify the person she saw. In her grandmother's will, Eleanor is left an estate that happens to be the place where her grandfather died years ago. Eleanor, her boyfriend, an estranged aunt and their lawyer take a trip to the estate to claim their inheritance and discover why Vivianne never returned to the house despite owning it all of these years.

This is a slow burn mystery with alternating perspectives: Eleanor in the present day and the diary pages of a former maid that worked in the house in 1965. The slow pace and the snowy, chilling setting definitely compliment each other and it's easy to get lost in this book. I think the ending is a little messy and confusing at a few parts but overall I really enjoyed this book and Camila Sten is even more so one of my favorite authors in the genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur books for the ARC!

** “You’re in pain, and you want that pain to stop, so you want revenge. … But that isn’t how it works. ‘An eye for an eye makes the world blind,’ wasn’t it you who told me that? ‘The only one who can heal you is you.’ ” **

Camilla Sten delivers another incredible thriller with “The Resting Place.”

Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition where she can’t recognize faces. This is extremely problematic when she witnesses her grandmother Vivianne’s murder, because Eleanor can’t recognize the killer.

When a lawyer invites her to visit Solhoga, Vivianne’s secret manor house, to clear up her estate, she quickly learns there’s more to her grandmother’s story and the story of this house. Things — and people — aren’t who they seem to be.

Similar to a locked-room mystery, “The Resting Place” takes place in an isolated location where mystery after mystery occurs. Sten does a great job of creating a spine-tingling plot with unexpected events and characters.

“The Resting Place” will keep readers guessing until the very end as to what is truly going on, all while reminding us of the power of bitterness, revenge, secrets and fear (“Your fear is valid, but that doesn’t make it real. The fear may be true, but it doesn’t have to be your truth”).

Fans of authors like Ruth Ware and novels like “The Sanatorium” by Sarah Pearse will love “The Resting Place,” which is due out March 29.

Disclaimers: this novel does include language and adult situations.

Five stars out of five.

Minotaur Books provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

This author does a great job with dark, dreary, suspense-filled sceneries. In this case, an ancestral home that Eleanor didn't know about until her grandmother's death. As the past is slowly revealed, and scary things take place, what happened so many years ago comes back to the surface for Eleanor and family to reckon with. Increasing the reader and character's sense of discomfort is Eleanor's inability to remember faces. I liked how it was explained throughout the book as well as how Eleanor dealt with it. This added a depth to the character and the story itself. At many moments I felt a step ahead of the characters in knowing what was taking place, but never far enough to feel secure in what I knew. Until the end I remained moored in dark dreary suspense!

The Resting Place has just enough clues to figure out most of the deeply protected secrets within its pages. There is just the right amount of angst and tension to keep the reader engaged.

The Resting Place is a psychological suspense by author Camilla Sten.

Eleanor walks in on the murder of her grandmother as the perpetrator flees the scene. Unfortunately because of her prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, she is unable to identify the killer. Fast forward a few months, and she discovers she has inherited an old summer home of her grandmothers. She arrives to take inventory of the house along with her boyfriend, her aunt, and a lawyer. But secrets are hidden at this abandoned summer home, and the four find themselves at the mercy of an isolating snow storm and an unknown person out to hurt them.

The story is told from two separate point of views that gradually reveals to the reader the history of the mysterious summer home. I appreciate a mystery that slowly pieces it all together and everything makes sense at the end. The author did a great job at placing little seeds of distrust when it came to the people around our lead Eleanor that were ramped up by her prosopagnosia. Even her devoted, steadfast boyfriend seemed shady to me at one point and I loved that. My middle ground rating has nothing to do with the writing, but more a personal dislikes of storyline details. Also, while I enjoyed the final reveal of all the secrets, the epilogue of the events was a bit unsatisfying.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and the author/translator for an advance reader’s copy of the Resting Place in exchange for an honest review. I read from 3/19/22-3/20/22.

Okay, so I definitely squealed with excitement when I was approved for this ARC. I loved Camilla’s the Lost Village, which I devoured last year and I couldn’t sleep in the dark for days. I enjoyed the creepy chilliness of her writing which was different from my usual crime thrillers. After that, I committed to buying all of her future English-translated works.

The plot of this book had so much potential. A murder, a witness who has a medical condition that doesn’t allow her to remember faces, a secret mansion in the rural countryside, a bad snowstorm, an estranged family, a missing groundskeeper, secret passageways, and more. I was so interested in how everything and everyone fit together and whodunit. It was definitely suspenseful and had me invested, wondering what was going to happen next. But it
lost me somewhere around 70% when things start to get a little confusing and the ending was unsatisfying in my opinion.

I will say, though, I do like the title and the creepy cover, they are fitting. You won’t understand the title until you get to the end of the book and I really dig that.

There were some English translation and grammatical errors that I am sure were probably fixed prior to the publication.

Overall, I would rate this book 3/5 stars. It was still entertaining even though I had some issues with the story near the end, and I would still recommend to others. Even if it is not my favorite of Camilla’s work, she will still be an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you again for the opportunity to read and review!

First Thoughts:
This book was gripping from the start. Our main characters prosopagnosia is a trippy, anxiety inducing attribute that just adds to the mystery and intensity of the plot. You’re right there, questioning everything and every one right along with her. There are multiple POVs which was enjoyable.

Writing: 4/5
Sten is an amazing writer. Theres no doubt about that. This version was a translation and while it was amazingly done, I can’t imagine it in its original voice. She is vivid in setting. Every detail is there, accounted for and beautifully portrayed. The internal voice she gives the main character puts you right in her shoes. The backlog of our alternate pov is well paced, setting you up for all the necessary clues and cues when it comes back to modern time. I was thoroughly enthralled, unable to put the book down.

Plot: 4/5
High stakes always. From the beginning, we get a bloody disaster that puts you on the edge of your seat. Eleanor comes face to face with her grandmothers murderer. After running straight into said murderer and witnessing the death of the only family she has left, she finds herself incapable of being much help in identifying the murderer due to her prosopagnosia. This gave the book such a creepy edge to it. You were second guessing every stranger.

To make things even more creepy, we move quickly to a mysterious house…in the middle of the woods…in the middle of a blizzard. Let me tell you. I was riveted. The mystery of the houses secrets, family politics, and a murderer on the lose made for a fast paced book with a string of unanswered questions that keep you invested.

Characters: 4/5
Our main character, Eleanor, was obviously the star of the show. She did however have to share a bit of the show when we got the alternative voice, Anushka. Anushkas chapters were blast from the pasts set in the old manor. at first I wasn’t sure how she’d tie in but that becomes obvious the more you get from her. A bit more obvious but not entirely what I thought. The ending got me by surprise.

The above mentioned are the most concerning characters. Though, we do also get Eleanor’s aunt, the lawyer responsible for settling the manor and will, Eleanors boyfriend, and the murderer on the lose. All were great characters to keep Eleanor grounded as well as her character development.

Romance: 4/5
If you’re looking for steam, this is not it. This is a mystery thriller. Most of the love is familial. Eleanor and Anushka both have to navigate family drama and politics. Eleanor has to evaluate her relationship both romantically and in herself. There is however a scandal angle that is everything!!

Overall: 4/5
I feel sometimes, the less you have to say about a book, the better the book is. I honestly have nothing negative to say about this book. I’m not sure what stopped me from giving it a full 5 star review. It was amazing, don’t get me wrong, I just was also not completely gripped to leave a lasting impact. I was ripping through pages. I ended up finishing half of it in a day and then thinking about it on my reading break, itching to finish.

It was a saving grace. My first thriller mystery left me rather disappointed and unimpressed. This book has restored my faith in it and itching to read another soon! I will definitely have my eye out for this author from here on out.

Having previously read Camilla Sten's The Lost Village, I can say I see a lot of parallels between that book and this book. In The Resting Place, Sten uses present and past timelines consecutively to tell the story, unraveling the mystery as she goes along. In both books there is a mysterious figure that is on the fringes of the story that may, or may not, even exist. Generally speaking, if one had not previously read The Lost Village this book would be much more enjoyable and not feel like I was having a sense of deja vu. Despite the similarities in both the plot and the storytelling, the concept of a character who cannot recognize faces but witnesses a murder is actually rather brilliant. If the author had taken that idea and done more with it, then this could have been a completely different story that didn't parallel her other book so much.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller! The setting of the old family estate in the Swedish woods was so atmospheric and creepy! While it was a bit of a slow burn to start, it did pick up about halfway through and I had a hard time putting it down. I loved the dual timelines and that it had the feel of a locked room thriller.

This one releases later this month and I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and @stmartinspress for the e-arc of this book, and to @minotaur_books for gifting me with a physical copy!

3.5 ⭐️‘s
When Eleanor arrives for her weekly dinner with her grandmother, Vivianne, she interrupts a killer. She has seen the killer, but to no avail, Eleanor has prosopagnosia, or as we commoners call it ... face blindness. Her grandmother is dead, she has seen the killer, but has no idea who it was. She now lives in total fear, so much fear that she had a breakdown and now is on the other side, slowly coming to grips with that night. After being contacted by a lawyer about a summer home she knows nothing about, Eleanor, boyfriend Sebastian, and her aunt Veronika head to Solhoga. Eleanor immediately feels uncomfortable with her surroundings and feels and sees things that she’s sure no one will believe, after all she has been unwell. As a blizzard rages and power is lost, people are injured and peril is close, they must ban together to solve the mystery of Solhoga and discover the killer before it’s too late for all of them. Sten writes another twisty thriller with her newest book. An entertaining read, but with the lack of character development it just didn’t pack the overall punch that it could have.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the latest thriller by Camilla Sten, wonderfully narrated by Angela Dawe. 4 creepy stars!

Eleanor arrived for her regular Sunday dinner with her grandmother, only to find that Vivianne had just been murdered. Because Eleanor suffers from face blindness, she couldn't tell the police who she saw fleeing the scene of the crime, so the killer is still out there. When the will is read, Eleanor discovered her grandmother had a house in Sweden that she left jointly to Eleanor and her Aunt Veronika. Along with Eleanor's partner, Sebastian, the trio head to the house to meet the probate lawyer to take stock of the property.

Add a missing caretaker and a blizzard to the creepy house and you have all the makings of a thriller! Eleanor's face blindness adds a different layer to this mystery because anyone could be a culprit - and I was left questioning everyone! The book is told in two timelines - the 1960s from the viewpoint of Anuska, a made in the house, in the form of a diary found on the property, as well as the present. This was a tense read, wonderfully narrated, that kept me guessing to the end.

Thank you so much to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for gifting me an eARC of this book in exchange for honest review! THE RESTING PLACE launches March 29th!

I really enjoyed this one! I can honestly say that at some points I was looking behind my shoulder and behind the doors of my apartment because this book gave me the heebie-jeebies. The story is chilling, twisted, and confusing. There’s a web of characters we need to keep track of and it keeps you on your toes.

I loved the complexity of this story. We have an unreliable (?) narrator, a haunted mansion, leftover inheritance, main characters stuck in a blizzard, and an unknown killer - all elements I really enjoy!

I had three people in mind of who I thought the killer might be and one of them was correct BUT the twist that came along with the reveal was unexpected. I feel like the story got a bit muddled at the end, but I was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together with our MC and felt a part of the story.

This book reminded me a bit of The Death of Mrs. Westaway and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (without the action).

Overall, I give this 4.5/5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

WOW. Mind-blown. This book had my head spinning. It was so good! There were so many unexpected twists, a crazy family tragedy, and an even crazier ending! I loved Camilla Sten's style of writing and enjoyed learning about the past family history in the form of a journal. This was a page-turning, heart-pounding and unforgettable read! I highly recommend this one!

Here is the link to my review on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbSbw99rhPg/?utm_medium=copy_link

@thrillersandcoffee

Eleanor has prosopagnosia where she can't recognize faces. When she walks into her awful grandmothers murder with the murderer still there but she can't tell who it is because of her face blindness. After being traumatized by the death of Vivianne but not being hurt she finds that she inherited a mansion she knew nothing about. To figure out more about it Eleanor goes with her boyfriend, a lawyer, and her aunt to the house. The house is holding so many secrets.

The atmosphere of this book was so tense. I really liked the atmosphere of the old house that hasn't been lived in, in years, a blizzard, and family secrets. The family dynamic was really interesting, Vivianne was so mean but also loved Eleanor. I liked the two times lines in the story, your getting the now with them stuck at the house in the house and strange things are happening to them and then the past explaining this family and why they are the way they are! For me this was a very plot driven book, and it really had me invested in finding out whats really going on. The house had this bad feeling, you couldn't escape just like the characters. I loved seeing all the the pieces coming together and guessing along the way! The ending was satisfying with it all wrapping up!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgallye for my e arc for review!

Thank you so much @minotaurbooks for my #gifted copy of THE RESTING PLACE by Camilla Sten! This one publishes March 29, 2022!

I read the author’s first book, The Lost Village last year, and my thoughts/feelings seem very similar to that book as well.

This book is VERY atmospheric. The descriptions were very well done. A snowed in type thriller set in Sweden? Where the main character has a cognitive disorder called prosopagnosia: the inability to recognize faces, even your own. This is especially difficult, when Eleanor (main character) comes fade to face with her grandmother’s killer, but cannot recognize him/her afterwards.

I usually enjoy snowed in type thrillers, and this one was a win for me, especially with all the descriptions, it really added to the creepiness. Set in an an abandoned family home out in the middle of nowhere, during a snowstorm, where Eleanor is just trying to find some closure over her grandmother’s murder. Eleanor is an unreliable narrator too, which I really enjoy! This book is also told in dual timelines, which I enjoy, but at times was confusing in this book.

What had me the most confused, was how all the different family members and people connected to the family, was connected to the murder at the end. I felt like I needed to make like a smoky chart/web to keep track of it all.

If you read The Lost Village, and enjoyed it, then I think you would enjoy this one as well!

*Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Camilla Sten, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

After reading "The Lost Village" last year, I knew I was a fan of Camilla Sten for life. She is a fantastic writer "THe Resting Place" proves this. I can't wait for more! Her yen for all things creepy reminds me of an earlier Shirley Jackson.

"The Resting Place" begins with Eleanor walking in on the scene of her cruel grandmother, Vivianne, being stabbed. Although Eleanor comes face to face with the killer walking out, she has prosopagnosia, which means she has face blindness. She suffers a breakdown immediately after, thinking the killer has seen her and will come back for her. After the reading of her Vivianna's will, Eleanor is surprised to find she has inherited an estate in the north of Sweden called Solhoga. It is a beautiful countryside estate she never knew existed with a chilling past. Eleanor, her boyfriend Sebastian, her aunt Veronika, whom she has never gotten along with and a mysterious lawyer who had contacted her to do an inventory of the estate. She soon learns the house has a cruel past and wishes they had never come.

There is that same sense of foreboding that we had in "The Village", that something is going to jump out at you. The whole atmosphere of Solhoga is just creepy with many empty cabins and the appearance of having been empty for a long time. The story is told in dual timelines and different points of view, but it flows easily. A very clever book!

Camilla Sten has this beautiful way to make you think you know everything and then she turns it all upside down. It's creepy, and I love it.
The pacing, like her other novel, is slower than I'm used to but her story telling is fantastic.

When the killer in this book was revealed I audibly gasped out loud in the middle of public transportation. (sorry people). The plot in this book was strong, well developed and very readable. I loved the dark, blizzard elements while everyone was trapped in the wintery woods of remote Sweden. The dual timelines flowed easily and I was really intrigued to find out who had killed Vivianne. The extra added element of Eleanor's inability to recognize human faces made it even creepier. How does one feel safe if they can't recognize people? When your only source of recognition may be a voice, the arch of eyebrows or a mustache?

Bravo to the translator Alexandra Fleming! Her translation of The Resting Place (originally titled The Heir). Fleming used contemporary and trendy English words which made the novel come across as if Camilla Sten had written the novel in English vs her native Swedish. I hope the publisher continues to use her going forward with all of Sten's novels.

I loved that this book was set in a different country with untrustworthy characters. My only complaint would be my personal pet peeve when authors have characters with the same letter in the first name. Yes, I get that they're all family members. We tend to do that when naming our kids but the same letter in names can make it difficult for readers to differentiate between characters. Fortunately I did not have any problems with this in The Resting Place. But publishers, please no more Vivianne, Veronika and Victoria in the future.

This book was a strong 4.25stars for me. I loved the plot, the characters intrigued me and the location was fantastically chilly and then there was the gasp with the twist. Applause, applause!

This story is told from present to past and from several points of view.

Victoria Eleanor is the granddaughter of Vivianne Falth and finds herself in the police station trying to answer questions. Eleanor arrived at her grandmother's home only to become a witness of her grandmother's murder and the murderer pushing past her. Unfortunately, Eleanor can't provide answers because she suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition that makes it difficult to recognize faces. Eleanor picks out a characteristic to help her remember people.

Eleanor was raised by her grandmother and had a love/hate relationship with her; much like most people did with Vivianne. Vivianne and her late husband, Evert had a summer home, Solhoga, that was kept secret for decades. Upon, Vivianne's death, Eleanor learns of the house and is asked to meet the lawyer at the house. She arrives with her boyfriend and is surprised to see her aunt waiting along with the lawyer.

Solhoga is a beautiful home, and although the house is well maintained, the groundskeeper is elusive. Eleanor's mental state makes it difficult for her to differentiate from reality or make-believe. When Eleanor finds a hidden room that was one of the staff, her boyfriend finds discovers a diary under the flooring. The story picks up on Annika, the maid, and her life working for Vivianne, her cousin.

This summer home has secrets and once a blizzard hits barricading the four inside the house they are going to have to trust one another if they want to get out safely.

I loved the telling of this story from present to past and varying points of view which kept me intrigued as to where the story was going. The story was suspenseful and I felt along with a gothic nature but not horror. There are quite a few twists, and the ending was a surprise to me.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via St. Martin's Press and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.