Eleanor has a disease I had never heard of, she can't recognize peoples faces. When she meets someone, she must find something distinct about them to tell them from one person to another. One particular person takes full advantage of this when they murder her grandmother. This person knows that Eleanor will not be able to identify Vivienne's murderer.

Eleanor must go to their family estate, that she had no idea existed, and settle the affairs. Here is where things go awry. Eleanor, her boyfriend, her aunt, and a lawyer all go to the estate to organize and inventory all of the belongings to sell. But, they are followed and drama is certain to follow.

This estate gives way to many, many family secrets and as things begin to fall apart, they see the truth that Vivienne has been running from for decades.

This was my first book by Camilla Sten and I was not disappointed.
The story starts off with Eleanor walking into her grandmothers apartment only to find her murdered as the killer runs out. Eleanor has prosopagnosia (face blindness), so even though she saw the killer there is no way she can identify them if they were to cross her path again. Eleanor becomes paranoid and anxious as the days continue and it only intensifies when she finds out that her grandmother left a house to her that she had no idea existed. As she spends time in this foreign house with her boyfriend, lawyer and aunt secrets start to surface.
The beginning of this story started off a bit too slow for me. I really had to push through the beginning but once we got past that it kept me hooked. I honestly didn't know if face blindness was real (it is) but I found it to be a weak excuse for the storyline. However I loved the story as a whole and there were some twists and turns that I did not see coming and that part was done extremely well. I would definitely recommend this book!

I received a free arc copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very engrossing book, told in two timelines with interesting unique characters and the setting of the haunted house was done very skillfully, the fear, the cold all were so compelling and convincing. Very well done

This book was a slow burn, and somewhat anticlimactic in certain parts. However, the protagonist is like-able. She suffers from face blindness and her paranoia of possibly seeing someone around the mansion builds throughout the story. I didn’t figure this one out until the end and for me, that’s always a plus. I added an extra half star for that alone. I love the cover of the book and felt it fit in well with the rest of the story. If you like slow, anxiety-building, atmospheric burns, you will enjoy this one.

This book started off great and grabbed my attention right away. The tension started to build almost right away which gave me the impression that I was in for a wild ride. But leading up to the halfway point the suspense leveled off and the story started to drag and I adjusted my expectations. Even so, through most of the middle of the book I was bored. I can totally appreciate a story with a slow burn but this was too slow in my opinion. Toward the end things picked up and the story once again became suspenseful and more interesting and had good twists. Overall, my opinion is that it was a great beginning and a great ending and I did fly through it in a day, but it needed more “oomph” in the middle.

Camille Sten does a great job of creating a creepy, tension filled story. From almost the very beginning, the book had me on edge.
Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. So, when she walks into the scene of her grandmother’s murder, she is unable to identify the person who rushes out the door. Then she finds out her grandmother owned an estate in the Swedish countryside which was left jointly to her and her aunt. They go out, with the probate lawyer, to take stock. And then the fun starts. Eleanor keeps swearing she sees someone lurking around, and strange things do happen to her. A snow storm hits and they’re trapped creating a sort of locked room setting.
The story has two timelines - Eleanor’s story in the present day and Anushka’s in the mid 1960s, told from the standpoint of a diary found on the property.
This isn’t a fast paced story, but there’s an underlying sense of anxiety. Sten throws in enough twists that every time you think you know who’s behind the violence, you’re proven wrong. I was keen to see how it was all going to play out. This will work well for those who like some horror mixed in with their mystery.
There’s not a lot of character development here and for that reason, I’ve only rated this a three.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆
𝙱𝚢: Camilla Sten / @wednesdaysten
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Thriller, Horror, Mystery
𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛: @minotaur_books
Releases On: March 29th 2022
@goodreads 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 3.65
𝙼𝚢 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 👀👀👀👀 / 5 Eyeballs

Thank you again @minotaur_books for this gifted copy for an unbiased review.

~My Thoughts~

In my honest opinion (which I always give) I have enjoyed both of Camilla’s books, however, it seems I’m always left with not a great impression about holding onto them afterwards.

You see, after I’m done with a book I decide what to do with it. If I feel the story is extraordinary or special, it deserves a spot on my forever bookshelf.

But if that’s not the case then I decide if it’s A.) Sellable, or B.) If I should give it to a friend or family member or C.) If I should do a giveaway on here.

And for me "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆" is of the latter. It was a great story. But I just don’t see myself rereading.

You might think "Well, you gave it a pretty high score for a book you don’t want to keep”.

Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to give it a three because I don't think it deserves a three. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

One of the best thrillers I have read, I had a personal issue and that was the only reason why I couldn't read it before, but it was a delight! I can’t wait to read something else by Camilla!

WOW! Great novel of horror and suspense by Camilla Sten!! I couldn’t stop reading! When I did have to stop I was thinking of it or getting back to reading it. Didn’t take me long to read at all. The only thing I have to complain about is the language from time to time throughout. It wasn’t continuous but enough to bother me, Not stop me from reading. I would just skip over. I did deduct one star because of it though. I didn’t think it was necessary. It was too good and too well written for the language, for me anyway. Great, great book! Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, for the opportunity to read and review #SecretsDontDie with my honest thoughts.

This was my first book by Camilla Sten, but I'll definitely be seeking more of her work! The Resting Place was a complex thriller jumping back and forth between present-day and happenings from 1965. I loved that Sten trusted the reader's intelligence as she slowly untangled the secrets of Eleanor's family and the death of her grandmother. Full of twists that the reader doesn't seem coming, this thriller still stayed true to the story, with well-developed characters and a riveting plot.

Eleanor and her boyfriend travel with her aunt Veronika to a remote mansion she and her aunt inherit after her grandmother’s grisly murder. Eleanor saw the murder, but due to her face blindness was unable to identify the attacker. Once they arrive, Eleanor keeps seeing someone around the property, and strange things begin to happen. Will Eleanor discover what is going on before she ends up like her grandmother?

I LOVED this book from start to finish. Spooky gothic mansion in the middle of nowhere? Deadly family secrets? Missing groundskeepers? Mysterious diaries in a different language? There is all this and more. Sten kept me guessing until almost the very end. If you love noir, especially Swedish noir, this is a must read.

For this novel Sten took a minute by minute approach some thriller authors do, meaning the bulk of the narrative is dedicated to chronicling every minute moment and every momentous minute of the live of its characters and that’s fine to bulk up the word count, but doesn’t do much for the suspense building. In fact, the plot is so precisely so meticulously stretched out, you can see the seams straining to contain it.
Because of course if the story hurried up, there wouldn’t be much of it. There aren’t even that many characters and the ones you have aren’t there aren’t even that likeable or interesting. The only interesting thing about Eleanor is her prosopagnosia (and how contrived it that), meaning that while she saw who offed her granny, she can’t tell who it was.

I definitely enjoyed this book. I read the whole thing in two days so it was a quick read. Although there were some parts that I thought were a bit predictable Camilla Sten proved me wrong. I was trying to figure it out as it kept unwinding.. I normally don't like books where the main character is a weak but she definitely overcomes it as we get further into the story line. It is like a game of clue, trying to figure out who did what? Who the characters really are and so forth. I recommend this book. As a matter of fact I was nagging my son to read it with me so we could talk and decipher it together. Enjoy!

After she witnesses the murder of her grandmother, Eleanor learns that she's inherited a lost mansion. The estate has been in the family for many years, but it's been decades since anyone last visited the main house. There's a groundskeeper and hunting parties visit the lodge on the property, but the house itself has stood empty. Now Eleanor and her boyfriend visit the house along with her aunt and her grandmother's lawyer to take an inventory of the furnishings. The story unfolds slowly, alternating between the present day and chapters from a diary they find in a sealed room. It's intriguing, but didn't hold my interest nearly as well as The Lost Village did.

Well where to start with this one? I read this author’s previous work and remember being disappointed it wasn’t as supernatural as I thought. This book for me at least was a little confusing. We jump between two different timelines and there are many characters. However I enjoyed this one a lot more than her first book.

Eleanor has prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. This means that she is unable to recognize peoples faces. Even those who are closest to her. Eleanor unfortunately found her grandmother Vivianne murdered in her apartment. She actually bumped into the killer as they fled. She begins almost obsessively thinking about who the murder could be and if they will return.

The family lawyer calls and tells Eleanor that her grandmother has left her an a beautiful estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. Eleanor, her boyfriend, her crazy aunt Veronika and her lawyer all make their way to the estate. This has a dark past and as the visitors dig deeper for the answers to their questions they come to the realization that maybe some secrets are meant to be buried.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Another creepy horror/thriller from Camilla Sten! I actually liked this one a lot better than The Lost Village, mostly because of the complicated family dynamics that were the focal point of the whole book. The Resting Place was a shorter read at under 350 pages, but I liked how everything came together. I actually liked Anushka's diary entries better than the main storyline of Eleanor at Solhoga in the present day, and I didn't see the twist coming at all. I really liked the dynamic between Eleanor and her aunt, too.
I've only read one other book with a main character with prosopagnosia, but I was a little disappointed that this didn't have a larger impact on the story. Eleanor is surrounded by people she knows well, her aunt and her boyfriend, for most of the book, so the only time the condition is relevant is when she is unable to recognize the person who killed Vivianne. 3.5/5 stars, rounded to 4.

Eleanor has experienced a great deal of anxiety and post-traumatic stress after walking in on the murder of her grandmother who raised her. The problem is, Eleanor has prosopagnosia, or the inability to identify faces, leaving her unable to identify the killer that she saw at her grandmother's. After receiving a phone call from her grandmother's estate attorney, she learns of a property that her grandmother stills owns far in the woods of Sweden, the estate where her own husband died mysteriously years ago. Summoned there by the attorney to inventory the estate, Elanor, along with her boyfriend Sebastian, and her aunt Veronika, soon become trapped there not only by the secrets that lie within the estate, but also by someone on the property who appears to be trying to kill them to protect these secrets.

"The Resting Place" is a chilling story that goes back and forth in time from the present day to the past, as the reader gets to slowly discover the secrets contained within the walls of the home, leading up to the crisis occurring there at the present time. Its a perfect Scandinavian thriller, and a chilling winter read. Looking forward to reading more from Camilla Sten!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. "The Resting Place" is scheduled to be released on 2/29/22.

4.5 stars!

I loved The Lost Village by this author so I was thrilled to receive an arc of The Resting Place. I'm happy to say this one was just as enjoyable for me.

The story is told in alternating timelines, with the past being narrated by way of a diary. I thought that the way the mysteries and secrets were questioned and ultimately answered throughout was perfect and the pacing was flawless.

The isolated location was perfect for this and the extreme snowstorm that trapped them there added to the dread and tension. I suspected so many people of nefarious things in this, but I was utterly shocked at the conclusion. The jaw-dropping twists then added together to all make a satisfying ending.

Make sure you pick this one up in March! The Lost Village is definitely worth a read too 😉

Thank you so much to @netgalley and Minotaur Books for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

What a great book this is! I will admit that it started out a bit slow for me, but once I got into the storyline, I was hooked. I really enjoy the writing technique of Camilla Sten and her pacing is always on point. One of the more interesting aspects of this book is the affliction that she gives the main character: face blindness, or prosopagnosia. I had never heard of this until reading this book and I think it definitely gave the storyline an extra layer of mystery. This is one book that kept me guessing until the end. I highly recommend!

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!