My thanks to St. Martin's Press, Camilla Sten and Netgalley.
This book. This story was just wonky.
Maybe not the story, but perhaps the reader? Who me! Yes you! Couldn't be! Then who?
O.K.,enough!
I met a woman around 4 year's ago, and she had face blindness. She did say that when she first met someone she saw their face, but then it was gone.
I'll admit that I spent days thinking about being face blind. Oh, also get boyfriend was with her too. So, another layer.
I am no good a faces or names. I rely on sound and smells. Is that weird? That seems strange to me!
I don't have anything new to add to the reviews here. I was a wee bit weirded out by what was going on. I definitely enjoyed it more than Ms..Stens last book.
I'm truth? The whole damn thing had an oddly dreamy feel to it.
I'm here for the next book.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of the book.

In this second English-translated novel by Camilla Sten, we see her return to the paranoia and unsettling ground that she used in The Lost Village . I found her new novel to be much better paced and more even all around than her earlier effort.

In this story, we are introduced to a character with prosopagnosia--face blindness. While I would have liked to have seen this used to greater effect in the overall narrative, it was a clever and interesting twist. Our protagonist, Eleanor, walks in on the murder of her wealthy (and often cruel) grandmother; she "sees" the attacker, but cannot recognize or identify the killer in any way. After the older woman's death, Eleanor finds that she is joint heir to a country estate that she never knew existed. As the setting moves to this house, the tension quickly rises and the reader starts to understand that the house contains secrets that could be deadly to Eleanor.

Overall, the atmosphere is tense and threatening; the house feels real--and very creepy. The characters are also much more well-drawn here (then in The Lost Village ) and, even when you figure out the direction the story is taking, you still need to keep reading to find out HOW the events will unfold. I raced through the last 25% of this, unable to wait to discover what happened next.

Sten is certainly an author to watch. I will put her books on my "must read" pile. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when I was less impressed with her first novel than were others, and I'm glad I did. This novel clicked for me in ways the first did not and I felt like the author was better hitting her authorial stride. A great October read.

this was a really good mystery novel, it had what I was looking for in this type of book. The characters were great and I really enjoyed the environment.

I didn’t know if Stein’s next book would be as good as the Lost Village, but it totally was. Usually I can figure out the twist pretty early on but she had me guessing almost until the end.

Note – Thanks to Netgalley and Minotour Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second Camilla Sten book I’ve read. I read The Lost Village last month and it was a decent read. I wanted to give her another try.

In truth – I didn’t love it. It started out all mysterious and eerie. The timelines flipped back and forth from the past to present and back again. In the beginning, it was hard to know who was who – I got a little lost in the introduction of the character Anushka.

The spooky atmosphere starts to build immediately as Eleanor and her boyfriend, Sebastian, reach Solhoga, the abandoned family mansion in the woods. Floorboards creak, a dumb waiter has a mind of its own, shadows appear in the woods and doors open by themselves. The main character has prosopagnosia (face blindness) which adds to the intensity of the story. You can clearly see the two storylines racings heading towards an intersection. Clearly, the author wants us to think the house is haunted and tries to write it as a character on its own.

Unfortunately, it fell a little flat to me. The storm that cuts Eleanor and her party off from all civilization seems a little contrived. The characters were uninteresting and over-dramatic. There were a few loose ends that left me with question – like Vivianne’s background. It’s hinted at but never really explained. The relationship between her and Anushka is weird and unexplainable. The family dynamic was really disjointed. Sebastian was condescending and commonplace. I didn’t buy that he cared even a little for Eleanor.

The macabre ending was predictable and uninteresting.

I will say that Sten’s writing style, her use of vocabulary is stunning. She’s descriptive and fluid. She’s detailed without losing you in the detail and is adept at creating a tangible atmosphere.

Overall, I wanted to love this but I didn’t. However, I’m still a fan of Camilla Sten and eagerly await what she’s got in store for us next.

I enjoyed this book a lot while I was reading it, but it wasn’t a compulsive “gotta see what happens next” read for me. Ironically, I also read back-to-back books with prosopagnosia in a snowy setting, so that was interesting timing. Overall, I think this was well done and a good read! I wish it had pulled me in more, but part of it could very well have been that I’m clinging to the last remnants of summer and not wanting to even read about snow right now! One other note is that since this took me a good while to read, I lost track of the characters - especially those that all stated with the letter V.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for my DRC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book will be out March 29th, 2022!

I have to say that with Sten's previous book, "The Lost Village", I had a fun time reading that. It's not my favorite, but I enjoyed every second of it and the reveal towards the end was SO GOOD. So when I saw that Sten was releasing another book, I knew I just had to try and get a DRC. And where "The Lost Village" left me wanting in some aspects, I think that "The Resting Place" might just be a perfect suspense/thriller. The main character, Eleanor has Prosopagnosia or face blindness and my goodness. It never occurred to me how terrifying having that would be, especially when witnessing a crime like murder. This novel's inciting incident is when Eleanor's grandmother is murdered and Eleanor sees the killer but unfortunately, does not recognize them. Eleanor is then led to her grandmother's country estate and what ensues is truly spooky. I loved it. It was such a fun ride and I love Sten's handling of dual narratives and dual time-lines. She does such a brilliant job with it.

I highly recommend this book and will definitely be purchasing once it's out.

Having read and deeply enjoyed The Lost Village by Sten, I was excited to get my hands on this one. The idea of prosopagnosia being used in a thriller in such a way was intriguing, and I was really interested to see how Sten managed to use it. However, for an aspect to be relevant enough to include in the synopsis, it truly was the weakest aspect of the book. There were many more, interesting and frightening details that should have been included. I feel like this will almost mislead readers about what they're getting into. This isn't a thriller about face-blindness, it's a thriller WITH face-blindness.

This book is heavily a slow burn, and unfortunately, unlike The Lost Village, the peak was "meh". I really wanted more from the ending and was a bit bummed out when I didn't get it. The twist did surprise me, but I wonder if it was because of the prosopagnosia as a scapegoat instead of making it a real twist. The story was good but definitely could have been a bit faster-paced, and a bit more fleshed out with the face-blindness concept.

Creepy, spine chilling, addictive….all words used by some reviewers, and they couldn’t be more accurate. Set in a remote Swedish country home that hasn’t been lived in for 40 something years, with a caretaker who can’t seem to be found, the heirs, a boyfriend, and a lawyer arrive to take inventory of the estate, or at least, that’s what Eleanor has been led to believe. Unexplained happenings and sightings may or may not be real as the main character has had a recent trauma that had had her hospitalized. Unsure what is real or not, Eleanor senses danger as a blizzard moves in, leaving them cut off from the rest of the world.
Don’t read this alone at night, it gets progressively spookier as it goes along.
A wonderful, atmospheric second novel by Camilla Sten, I highly recommend it. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me an advance copy.

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
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“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.”
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Eerie 🖤 Addictive 🖤 Unique
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Camilla never fails to pull me in with her writing style. I couldn't stop thinking about this book every time I reluctantly had to put it down. The way this story unfolds is so addicting and spooky- I caught myself reading under the covers just in case anyone was hiding under my bed.
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Our protagonist, Eleanor suffers from a condition called prosopagnosia (face blindness) Eleanor walks in on her Grandmother Vivianne being murdered and has no way to identify the killer while being interviewed by the police. This spine-tingling story unfolds in an eerie atmosphere at a secret second home owned by Vivianne where every family secret is waiting to be uncovered. This story is written in various timelines, keeping you hooked while leading you into the darkness.
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Having enjoyed Sten’s last book, this one was an easy choice to decide on reading. I got a little burnt out on abandoned house with creepy happenings a few years ago, but this one was different. It was an enjoyable read and I really liked Eleanor, the protagonist. The back and forth with the timeline was well done too. Had to suspend how neatly some of the twists fell into place, but honestly, in this genre, you expect it. Will be eagerly looking for Sten’s next novel.

2.75 rounded up

This book is just very average, and as a result very boring. The mystery isn’t that exciting, and with all the changing names, it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. I was much more interested in the parts set in the past, as opposed to the modern narrative of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for offering me a review copy.

A downright dreary tale, with enough cold, slow-building dread to keep the pages turning. Perhaps more of a mystery than a horror/thriller, THE RESTING PLACE is a nonetheless atmospheric, tangled story that packs an unsettling chill.

Snow. An isolated house in the Swedish countryside. A house that no one has visited for years. More snow. Visitors: a young couple, her aunt not seen for years and a lawyer none of them know, come to catalogue the estate after the young woman’s grandmother is murdered. More snow. Eleanor, the young woman, witnessed her grandmother’s death and saw the killer, but cannot identify him/her because she has prosopagnosia. She can’t recognize faces.

These are some of the elements that make The Resting Place by Camilla Sten a creepy, chilling haunted house mystery. The house, Solhaga, was abandoned fifty years ago after strange happenings and a possible suicide. Eleanor and her aunt Veronica have inherited the property and have come to assess it. Eleanor is accompanied by her partner Sebastian and Veronica by lawyer Rickard. The caretaker, Bengtsson, is nowhere to be found. That should be a clue.

As the snow piles up, the secrets hidden in this house will slowly be revealed. Camilla Sten has mastered the slow drips of suspense that build into rivers of fear. This is an atmospheric thriller to be read in one sitting. With all the lights on. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Camilla Sten for this ARC.

"The Resting Place" was a good thriller. The book starts off with the murder of a woman named Vivianne. Her granddaughter, Victoria Eleanor (Eleanor), arrived at Vivianne's apartment as the killer was fleeing. However, Eleanor has prosopagnosia (face blindness), so she does not recognize and cannot describe the face of her killer. Five months after the murder, Eleanor and her boyfriend, Sebastian, are traveling to Solhoga, a country manor that Vivianne inherited from her husband, Evert, but which Eleanor never knew existed. Eleanor's mother died when Eleanor was young, so Eleanor was raised by Vivianne. However, Vivianne was not a kind and loving mother to her daughters or to her granddaughter, and as an adult, Eleanor had a tense relationship with Vivianne.

The book alternates between the present (a few days in February at Solhoga) and 1965/1966. The storyline in 1965/1966 centers on Annika (Anushka), a maid at Solhoga, and her story helps explain how Vivianne became the person she was, including her cruelty towards Veronika and Eleanor, and the mysteries that Solhoga holds. Many of the story's secrets are revealed in these chapters, so I will not give any more details.

Returning to the present day, in addition to Eleanor and Sebastian, the other guests at Solhoga are Rickard, the lawyer, and Veronika, Eleanor's aunt. They have arrived to inspect and catalogue the property (the manor house, outbuildings, etc. and the contents of the building) in order to settle the estate. However, Solhoga is not going to release its secrets easily. Their arrival is immediately plagued with difficulty due to the unexplained absence of the caretaker. The presence of Veronika, who had a difficult relationship with both her mother (Vivianne) and with her niece (Eleanor), does not help matters. Ever since seeing (but not really seeing) her grandmother's murderer, Eleanor has been plagued with nightmares and possible sightings of a mysterious dark figure. The first night at Solhoga, she thinks she sees someone near one of the outbuildings, but because it is cold and dark with a storm brewing, and because her mind has possibly been playing tricks on her for months, she is not sure what she saw, if anything. More mysterious events occur, including increased tension between the guests, and unexplained injuries to several people. Solhoga is a country manor in Sweden and the visit is occurring in February, so the author utilizes a blizzard to increase the spook factor and keep the guests trapped, with power outages and car trouble (due to the cold weather) preventing them from leaving or calling for help. Between what Veronika reveals of her memories of Solhoga and the clues they find in their explorations, they start to unravel the mysteries of Solhoga, but there is still much that is unexplained or unknown, and it appears that someone else might be present and actively trying to keep the secrets hidden.

The author effectively utilizes the location of Solhoga, the time of year that Eleanor and the others are visiting, and the animosity between Veronika and Eleanor, as well as the lingering animosity of Veronika and Eleanor towards Vivianne, despite her being deceased, to increase the spook factor of the story and keep the characters unsettled and on edge. Alternating between past and present allows the secrets of Vivianne and Solhoga to emerge in a steady fashion, allowing both the characters and the reader to slowly piece together what happened at Solhoga so many years ago and how it relates to the murder of Vivianne and the strange events of the present. I figured out one of the major secrets about halfway through the story (and probably earlier than the author had really intended), but there were plenty of surprises, including the identity of the murderer. The Resting Place is well worth reading.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of The Resting Place by Camilla Sten, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The Resting Place is a propulsive, deeply atmospheric thriller that shouldn't be missed this upcoming year! Eleanor is our main character who lives with a rare condition called Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you. We start with Eleanor walking in on her Grandmother, Vivienne, being murdered, though she can't be a reliable witness due to her face blindness. As she suffers the aftermath and personal horrors of this tragedy with the help of her therapist and her supportive boyfriend, Sebastian, she learns that her Grandmother leaves behind a mysterious country mansion in the Swedish woods. This haunting home is the place of her Grandfather's questionable death and full of dark scandalous secrets from the past 50 years. Along with her estranged Aunt and suspicious estate lawyer, they journey to this claustrophobic, chilling house of secrets to uncover it's dark history. Once situated, Eleanor falls upon the diary of one of the housemaids, Anushka, from 1965 and as the modern day and past timelines collide, we learn the deep, dark secrets of the people who once lived, loved and conspired there. I absolutely devoured this creepy, snowed in, locked room thriller. Who brutally murdered Vivienne and why? Will Eleanor ever be able to piece together the killers face or will she continue to live in terror wondering if the killer has sights set on her now? What really happened all those years ago that led up to her Grandmother's recent murder? Bundle up with a warm glass of Cognac or dark red wine, as you will be chilled to the bone working to solve this twisty, suspense filled mystery. Coming soon, March 2022!

I'm a big fan of Sten's debut, and I was super excited to get my hands on this.

In The Resting Place, the protagonist Eleanor seems just on the edge of (another) breakdown. She has prosopagnosia (face blindness), the direct culprit leading to her inability to describe the person who brutally murdered her grandmother-cum-mother, Vivian. Eleanor had a complicated relationship with her grandmother, and Vivian seemed set on cementing its complexity posthumously. In her will, Vivian revealed she owned a mysterious, isolated summer home that was to be inventoried and sold. As the only other living relative, Eleanor's difficult-to-read aunt Veronika joined her on the mysterious trip.

Unsurprisingly, spooky, unsettling, and just outright odd things start happening almost immediately upon their arrival. From here, The Resting Place is packed with all the excellent markers of spooky-old-house horror (a genre I personally never tire of). The text flips between two perspectives, but telling you who they belong to ruins a bit of the fun.

The pacing is good and the characters we really get to know (primarily through Eleanor) are complex. I had a few knee-jerk ideas of what was happening behind the scenes, but I definitely didn't nail all the twists and turns.

Overall, very enjoyable. I'll happily keep reading Sten's work. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

As a nurse, it was the medical term, prosopagnosia, that first grabbed my attention and led me to read this book. This complicated word means face blindness, the inability to recognize a familiar person's face. The main character, Eleanor, has prosopagnosia and is confronted by the person that has just murdered her grandmother, but afterwards she is unable to tell the police anything about the perpetrator, even if it was a man or a woman.

The story quickly becomes reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel. Murder, mystery and suspense, plus a somewhat unreliable narrator. Eleanor's grandmother, Vivianne, has left her an old manor house in the country, which she never knew about. She goes to check out the house and catalog its contents with her boyfriend, Sebastian, her aunt, Veronika, and an estate lawyer, Rickard. They search for the missing caretaker, Bengtsson and quite possibly a mysterious murderer hiding on the estate. Among this group of helpless people, secrets abound and not everyone is who they appear to be. A winter blizzard comes along to lock them in at the manor and the reader is led to believe that the murderer could be just about anyone.

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be very intriguing. I think that it will be a favorite of many mystery fans. Other reviewers have given high praises to one of this author's other books, "The Lost Village" and I will definitely be adding it to my TBR list.

Thank you to the publisher, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC copy of this book to read and review.

The Resting Place is such an amazing book! Love Camilla Sten's style of writing. The book takes place in the present, but continually flashes back to the past. Loved reading the backstory of Eleanor's family. The characters are very interesting. Great read for anyone who enjoys a good suspense novel.

The Resting Place is another atmospheric and spine tingling read from Camilla Sten! The second I was approved this this novel I wanted to read it right away! There's just something about the mix of horror and suspense that makes me so excited! Did this one live up to my expectations? Absolutely! At first I worried it would be too similar to Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney but was pleasantly surprised to see this wasn't the case. This is a stand out read!