I enjoyed this suspenseful thriller. This is not my first book by this author and it is one of my favorites by her yet. I enjoy this author's writing style as well as her attention to details that bring her stories to life. I was pulled into this engagging story from the beginning. by the characters. They are relateable, strong and supportive of each other. They bring the twists and turns to life as well as had me coming back for more. I wanted to know what was lurking in the next page. The growth of not only the characters but the plot are great and made the story easy to read. This is a story that is full of action, secrets and characters that are searching for the truth. A great story that brings suspense to a new level of horror. I really enjoyed this story and I highly recommend it.

I love Scandia Noir TV shows, but this is the first book I’ve read in that genre (although I own some, just haven’t had time to read them yet). I wanted to love this book. Parts of it were great, other parts were okay. Overall, this book was good with some lagging parts that were supposed to build tension but just slowed it down too much for me. I also figured out everything before it was revealed except for the final plot twist. That plot twist, though, was great and the author definitely deserves kudos for it. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for providing a copy of the book for an honest review.

This had me hooked from the beginning and I absolutely could NOT put it down! Once I found time to read, it was read in one day! If you are looking for a creepy, atmospheric book this is it.

Eleanor has come upon her grandmother, Vivianne, who was just murdered. She catches the murderer in the act but she suffers from prosopagnosia which renders her unable to see exactly who the killer is. (side note: prosopagnosia seems to be a new common theme in novels). Eleanor is then contacted by a lawyer letting her know she inherited a country manor from her grandmother and needs to go and review/log the assets.

Flash forward and we are now at the manor with her boyfriend, aunt and lawyer. What I really enjoyed was the exploration of the manor along with the secrets it may have. Chapters then flip to Anushka's POV about her time in the manor. How it all ties together we do not know.

What I loved:

Inherited creepy manor: That just always sucks me in.
Hidden Diaries: Yep, check!
Alternate timelines: Always a favorite, double check! And they came together very nicely.
Alternate POV: For sure!

All of these things came together really well and the atmosphere generated was perfect. How the author pulled everything together was so good!

What I didn't like(up until 80% this was a 5 start read):

The ending! Not because it was bad at all, it was how it ended, it's like the tone of the book changed and the why didn't resonate for me. I would totally get into it further but don't want to spoil the book. Once several of the big reveals happened I could totally see the clues interspersed throughout and loved how I would be like hmmm, ok I see that now, nice!

This is my second book by this author and the writing and atmosphere is awesome and can't wait for the next one.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

An amazing book. I had read the previous book from Camilla Sten and greatly enjoyed it. Having read the synopsis for this book, I knew I would enjoy it and I was not wrong. This book follows Eleanor, a young woman who has face blindness. She sees her grandmother murdered and then has to go handle her grandmother's affairs at a country home she was unaware did not exist. This book had so many twists and turns which were unexpected but so well done that I would never have guessed what would happen next. The characters were so well developed and relatable. Sometimes in thrillers its hard to believe that someone might take the action described in the book and in this case, this did not occur. It was honestly believable for the most part. (Usually the most fantastic tales are!) I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a great thrill and a good book that you cannot put down.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Resting Place
Rating: 4 stars
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC given through NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.

The Resting Place takes us to a psychological dark place. It switches between two POVs and it slowly unfolds of how the past plays an important role in the present where one woman who suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness) is learning the truth of the woman who raised her.
I enjoyed this story so much because I had no idea of where the author was taking us. I had a theory of who was the villain of the story but I was wrong. I loved how at the end Eleanor finds some revealing truths about her grandmother but it is the reader who really knows what happened in the hunting lodge where the lives several people changed due to some difficult choices that were made.

Great psychological thriller!

Suspenseful and well-written. Camilla Stern weaves a thrilling tapestry of family drama over several generations that slowly unravels to reveal a family history with several twists. I look forward to reading more works from this author.

When I finish a book in less than 24 hours because I can't put it down, and when I do have to put it down, I'm counting the minutes until I can pick it back up again, of course it's going to be 5 stars! Just like Camilla Sten's last book, The Lost Village. The Resting Place is such a spooky and dark thriller that left me on the edge of my seat at the end of each chapter. The setting in an old mansion in the Swedish woods during a snow storm just adds to the chilling, possibly haunting, atmosphere. The story mixes present day happenings with the diary of women who lived in the house and with each chapter, a little more is revealed about the family and their backstory. There are so many twists and reveals, some I had figured out or suspect and others that were so shocking I didn't see them coming. I loved everything about this book and Camilla Sten is definitely becoming a favorite author of mine. I highly recommend this book to fans of locked room mysteries and "chiller" thriller lovers.

🌨Chaos on a remote, frozen estate: parts original, others not so much😩

3.5-4🌟 stars
This thriller was an interesting combination of some unique elements combined with a tried, true and, for me, not that inspiring format where characters go missing and get terrorized one by one. I liked that the contemporary female lead has a condition that makes her the worst kind of witness to a crime and keeps the suspense going as you wonder whether she actually knows the person who brutally murdered her grandmother.

The story alternates two timelines almost fifty years apart, told from the perspective of modern-day Eleanor and Anushka, a young Polish woman brought to Sweden by her cousin in the 1960's for domestic work. Their stories eventually converge and their family connection is a good story that provides the genesis of the grandmother's murder. There are a good number of twists to keep you guessing and Eleanor is an unreliable narrator who's had mental problems: are things really as dark and dangerous as she sees them or has hysteria taken over? I found the enforced captivity in a remote house in the middle of a blizzard part of the plot chaotic and confusing, but a bit of an overused trope.

A little more horror than I normally read, this story kept my interest but I can't say I loved it.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

3.75 stars

In stories like this one, when a man (because it’s almost always a man) spends a lot of time and energy trying to convince a woman (and it’s almost always a woman) that she’s imagining things, that situations are all in her head, that she’s delusional…you can almost guarantee that she’s not imagining things, that’s it’s not all in her head, and that she’s very much in touch with reality. Even when he’s not directly responsible for the unsettling and dangerous events, the gaslighting is still intense. (Exception: when the writer pulls out the “oh haha look, this woman was crazy and dysfunctional all along” and calls it a plot twist instead of a cliché/stereotype.) Regardless of this one being rather predictable, I did still like it and enjoyed some of the characters; it also included some tropes and setting elements that I really enjoy. It was a fun, interesting story that I’ve been meaning to read for quite a while now. Glad I finally got there!

“The Resting Place” by Camilla Sten is my second of hers and I have to say, she’s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. In this book, a girl named Eleanor walks in on her grandmother’s murder- but she has a condition that makes her unable to recognize faces. As she grapples with whether she might know the killer, she receives a call from a lawyer to go to her grandmother’s mysterious secret country estate. The longer she stays there, the more she realizes that there’s a lot to her grandmother’s history that she doesn’t know, but worse, these secrets are likely to get everyone staying at the house killed.

If you know me, I love a good “And Then There Were None” scenario. This book is one of those type of mystery thrillers, mixed with a dose of noir gothic vibes. Eleanor, her boyfriend, her aunt, and the lawyer are isolated in this recluse country mansion during a snowstorm with the road out blocked. A lack of cell service and the addition of mysterious old house noise puts you on edge. As you shuffle through the names you know, you know the killer has to be familiar, but how?

I could not put this book down. Sten is a great writer and she creates interesting characters. “The Resting Place” was an easy 5 star rating for me and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery book.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

If you’re looking for a spooky, atmospheric mystery to get lost in, this is the perfect book.
Set at a remote mansion in Sweden, a small group of people become trapped at the mansion due to a snowstorm. The trouble is, there are some dangerous things going on and no one feels safe.

After the death of matriarch Vivianne, an attorney named Rickard gets in touch with the family in order to go and inventory what is at the mansion. The granddaughter Eleanor, her boyfriend and her aunt Veronika all gather to help with the inventory. Eleanor had never been there or even knew of its existence until after Vivianne died. Vivianne kept many secrets and they are soon to be revealed during their stay at the mansion.

I was loving this mysterious tale and the haunting atmosphere until the very end. I felt that the author left some loose ends at the conclusion of the story, but overall this was a great read for a cold, dreary day by the fire.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.

Camilla Sten is back with another gripping, spine-tingling thriller- The Resting Place. It follows our main character Eleanor, whom we don't get much background information on but we know she had a complicated relationship with .her grandmother, Vivianne. Tensions rise when Vivianne is brutally murdered, leaving Eleanor devastated. She soon embarks on a trip to a farmhouse she had no idea existed, and there the truth begins to unravel all of her family's secrets. The book flips back and forth between present day Eleanor, and 1960s with a character named Anushka. The way these two stories begin to intermingle had me asking so many questions! This book gave me "The Family Upstairs" vibes by Lisa Jewell, where you know something is going on with the characters but it hasn't been revealed yet. The first half of the book had me engrossed; Sten does a wonderful job of making you as paranoid as her main characters-the way they see shadows lurking but can't be sure. We don't really get to know much about Eleanor, other than her diagnosed face blindness. I do wish we had gotten to know her a little better, what her life was like outside of this situation, but this was more of a plot-driven novel than character so I am okay with it. The last 50 pages of the book is where it really picked up, answering all of my questions and the story coming together in a way I had hoped. I really enjoyed this book, more than The Lost Village, and I liked that one quite a bit! Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this copy in exchange for an honest review!

I couldn’t wait to read this one after reading the premise and I’m so glad I did; I really enjoyed this. An engaging thriller throughout, Camilla Sten’s The Resting Place is a perfect read over a rainy weekend.

This is my first book by Ms. Sten and I’m looking forward to reading more of her works.


Thanks to Minotaur Books, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an eARC of this title. Opinions shared are influenced by nothing other than my reading experience.

Loved the short chapters, the creepy atmosphere and elements that this read had. The alternative time line and pov made for a quick fast paced read.

This one was dark and twisted and oh so good! Face blindness in a thriller?! You can’t go wrong! It’s such a brilliant plot idea! Despite the multiple characters introduced in this story and the dual timeline, I was still completely engaged. I love the short chapters and twists and turns at every corner. You can kind of figure out the ending of the story by the clues she leaves, but it was a wonderful thriller in my opinion!

I really enjoyed this claustrophobic, spooky read about a woman with face blindness who witnessed the murder of her often cantankerous grandmother and is now forced to stay in a remote home her grandmother once owned. This is told two 2 different storylines, one being diary entries from someone who worked in the home years ago and I really liked how those 2 stories came together. A great one to read when it's snowing as our characters soon get trapped at the house by a blizzard, adding to the claustrophobic feeling of much of the book.

This psychological horror/suspense/thriller follows Eleanor after she witnesses her grandmother's murder. She came face to face with the killer as they fled the scene but Eleanor can't identify the killer because she has prosopagnosia - or face blindness. Eleanor's relationship with her cruel grandmother is complicated, but not being able to help find her killer and knowing that the killer could be right in front of her and she'd never know causes Eleanor's anxiety to spike, leading to stress-induced hallucinations. Months after the murder, after Eleanor got some psychological help, a lawyer calls and advises of an estate deep in the countryside that her grandmother never told Eleanor about. Now, Eleanor, her boyfriend Sebastian, her aunt Veronika, and the lawyer all meet up at this house to inspect and inventory it. The longer they stay there and more hidden secrets they unearth, the more they come to understand why the house has been left abandoned for over 50 years.

TW/CW: suicide, miscarriage, infidelity, child abuse

This was a really interesting blend of psychological horror, suspense, and thriller. Some aspects were more successful than others but overall this was a really great creepy read. We have a somewhat rundown estate in the middle of the wilderness, a snow storm blowing in, and uncovering unsavory family secrets from the past. I just want to mention one pet peeve of mine that was really prevalent in this story - we have 3 characters with names that start with M and 4 characters with names that start with V. For some reason, this just really bothers me and makes it harder for me to keep the characters distinct in my head.

I think the psychological horror portions of the book could have really been developed more. We're told that a few months prior, Eleanor was having stress induced hallucinations and ended up staying in a mental health facility for a while. We're told she's doing better now but when she mentions how she thought she saw someone out in the woods the first night, Sebastian is hesitant to believe her and thinks she's just getting too worked up with memories and grief of her grandmother. This makes sense in the grand scheme of the story, but it falls a bit flat because we're in Eleanor's POV and she never really questions herself. She's pretty much certain what she is seeing and experiencing in the house is real but just stops mentioning things to Sebastian because he thinks she's just getting stressed. I think if we got more of Eleanor also questioning herself and her own mind it really would have upped the horror elements. As it stands, this really felt more like an isolation thriller and less a psychological horror.

The thriller elements, I thought, were really well done. I really enjoy a good isolation thriller and this book really hit the spot. It really reminded me of Alice Feeney's Rock Paper Scissors with the tense interpersonal dynamic, snowy setting, and eerie feeling that our characters aren't alone. I feel like I could read a thousand snowy isolation thrillers and I'd never get tired of them. I think there was such a good gradual build up of the thriller elements where each character sort of came to the conclusion on their own that they might be in danger and then when the snow traps them at the house, they find out of their fears are correct. I also enjoyed how the thriller elements built on elements and places we'd seen in less-threatening situations. For example, we see Eleanor and Sebastian exploring the estate grounds early on and then later, when they're trying to figure out what is going on and if they're in danger or not, we see them revisit the same places but now they have a much different tone.

There's a dual timeline element that worked fantastically. I'm a big fan of dual timeline stories, especially when it isn't immediately clear how the two timelines will cross. In this case, we're following Eleanor in the present day and also 1965 following a maid in the home. The 1965 timeline starts off pretty mundane, but quickly becomes more interesting as we get more secrets revealed. Some of these secrets Eleanor discovers as well but some she doesn't so the reader has some extra information at times. Taken on their own, each timeline could be a bit slow but I think the simple act of flipping back and forth between the times allows the pacing to feel a bit quicker and more interesting.

Where this book lost me, a bit, was the ending. We had a good amount of tension built up by that point but then when it comes to the actual ending reveal and twist, the pacing felt like it ground to a halt. The actual twist, on paper, was good but just the way it was executed and the amount of exposition needed in that moment to put all the pieces together ended up really slowing down the story. There's also a pretty significant time skip in the ending where I was a bit confused. We get the big climax of the ending and then sort of skip over the resolution/come down portion and then to right to the epilogue. I had so many questions that were really more logistical than actual plot holes but I still would have liked maybe a chapter with some of this information to act as a gentle calm down for the reader. I did like the way Eleanor's face blindness came into play with the ending. Her condition is really important in the set up of the story and then I sort of forgot about it in the middle. It didn't feel, to me, like her face blindness was used as a crutch or 'easy' twist for Sten to use which I'm always concerned about when this particular condition is used in a thriller.

This is the second book I've read from Sten and I really enjoy the way she writes character group dynamics in these isolated settings. Both books I've read by her include a small group of characters who are somewhat connected, but often all members don't know each other super well which leads to some great tension moments. In this case, Eleanor is a bit estranged from her aunt and the lawyer is a complete stranger to everyone in the group. Despite only being in Eleanor's POV, Sten does a great job of giving us a good amount of characterization of the others in the group through their interactions. For example, Eleanor's aunt wasn't initially going to come but once she's in the house where she has memories from her early childhood, she becomes almost wistful at times which is a stark contrast to the person Eleanor knows. I really loved the ramp up from little snide remarks and hidden digs to when the gloves are fully off and each character is done with trying to keep things civil. I would have liked a bit more interpersonal drama before we get the outside threats taking over.

Overall, this was a fantastically atmospheric read. I loved the creepy atmosphere of this snowy, isolated estate. The character dynamics were spot-on and the thriller elements worked well. I do wish the ending was a bit snappier and that the psychological horror elements were a bit more developed. Sten is quickly becoming an auto-read author for me and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.



Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC

Expected publication date is March 29, 2022

Originally published in Swedish. English translation by Alexandra Fleming

Thank you to the publishers at St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this e-ARC of The Resting Place!

Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition that doesn’t allow her to recognize faces. Instead, she has to use other markers, such as hair color, hands, or clothing style to recognize even those she’s close to. During her arrival for her weekly Sunday meeting with her grandmother, Vivianne, a stranger flees from the home, leaving Eleanor to watch her grandmother bleed out on the hallway floor.

Now, 5 months later, she’s visiting the mansion in the Swedish forest that she’s never known about with her lawyer, boyfriend, and aunt. What other secrets did Vivianne hide from her, and how will this affect her future?

I really enjoyed this story! The atmosphere was very locked doors mystery. The four characters are essentially trapped in this house in the middle of nowhere during a blizzard in February. The phones don’t work and shady things start happening. There is also a secret diary hidden beneath the floorboards, written by the mysterious Anushka. I love the way the entire story came together, but I was a bit disappointed that we, the readers, seem to have all of the answers by the end, but the characters themselves didn’t. I guess this is more realistic, but I wanted them to have that closure. I can’t wait to read more from Camilla Sten in the future!

The Resting Place hits bookshelves March 29th! Preorder your copy today!

If you like a good Scandinavian horror story, then you should definitely like The Resting Place! The main character, Eleanor, suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition which prevents her from recognizing faces. On her weekly visit to her grandmother (Vivianne), she finds her Vivianne murdered and sees the murderer as he/she flees. But because she has face blindness, Eleanor cannot readily identify the killer. After Eleanor learns that she has inherited her a mansion in the Swedish woods, the place where her grandfather dies, the story begins to heat up and does not let up. Strange happenings at that mansion as well as the need to discover who killed Vivianne will keep you turning pages and on the edge of your seat.

TW: Infertility, language, family death, family drama, depression, smoking, abusive family, gaslighting, miscarriages, cheating

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.
Release Date: 03/29/2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 336
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
• I'm a sucker for people moving into a house with mystery

What I Didn't Like:
• I hate the jumping timeline
• The ending
• It is confusing

Overall Thoughts:
✔️Woman inherited mansion from rich aunt she knew nothing about.
✔️Suffers from some kind of issue (has face blindness).
✔️Needs sleeping pills because of traumatic situation.
✔️Jumpy as fuck to ANY sound or movement!
✔️Character named Eleanor who moves into a mansion (sounds familiar....)
✔️Storm that knocks out all communication.

Why would it take them so long to check on the caretaker?

What is with this weird Psycho mother voice that Eleanor keeps hearing and tells her stuff.

I will give this book credit I was engaged enough to want to know what was happening and how stupid Eleanor could be.

Prepare to have whiplash after reading this book because it makes you go back and forth so many times that you literally get confused on who's who and what's going on. Some books should just not have the timeline from the past to the present. Also be prepared to have the most unsatisfactory ending ever in a book. Like seriously where the fuck did this ending come from? The therapist! The therapist is the one who did all this! What a ridiculously stupid ending. I don't even know what you're supposed to think about this book.

This book's seriously has so many twists and doesn't even need them. Every single character is someone else that you think they are but they're not because you find out that it's really a different person living a different life.

Final Thoughts: I just can't..... The author and I are parting ways after this. I gave her two books. 😑