Closing in, the walls, the house, the forest, the secrets. The Resting Place is a novel about things in the past closing in on the future.
I really liked the fast pace of the story. It was divided between the present and the past.
What makes a family and what will you do to protect the ones you love?
The author writes so beautifully of the woods, the mansion, the dumbwaiter....I felt like I was there.
A few drawbacks, I wish I had known more about the "attorney" Rickard and tie up that lose end.
Further, I felt that the Mats character did NOT get enough of an ending either....the letter...why did he say certain things.

Overall, a great thriller that was fast paced and you could feel the walls closing in.

Whaaaat! Another gripping, horrifying, spine tingling book from the author of Lost Village and heroine struggles with prosopagnosia ( face blindness) which prevents her recognize a familiar person’s face including her aunt’s killer she just recently saw at the crime scene and the killer might be still in her vicinity, playing mind games with her!

Yes, I truly craved this book as soon as I read the blurb! I wanted to devour it so much and as soon as I saw it at my NG library, a few cartwheels ( I hit my thumb and I broke a family souvenir which my mother-in-law gave and I didn’t care- thankfully she’s not reading my reviews) and somersaults later ( I was so close to hurt my neck when I did reverse one) , I canceled everything in my life, pulled the plug off my work- husband- final episode of White Lotus and dived in!

The claustrophobic, stormy snowy, dark, intense, spine chilling atmosphere of the book takes place in a haunted house ( so many bad things happened there and it keeps its own secrets) and four people are trapped in this place when a killer is lurking around the woods, following their each step from a distance is my favorite horror/ thriller theme.

The story connects the past of the house with the events has taken place in 1965 via the maid Annushka’s diary and the present time with the narration of Eleanor gives us clues about the terrible secrets the family buried for years and tells us how far some of the characters go to keep those secrets stay buried!

Eleanor is the key victim of the murder of her grandmother Vivianne: she walks to the crime scene, coming face to face with the killer. But he or she runs away without harming her which means the killer could be someone she knows and the killer also someone knows her medical condition: she suffers from prosopagnosia. She cannot identify the person who took her cruel grandmother’s live even she tries: she isn’t even sure the killer’s gender!

Five months later, Eleanor gets a phone call from Vivianne’s lawyer informing her she’s inherited an old manor house with woodland and private hunting grounds around 1,5 hours drive north of Stockholm. Vivianne also inherited this place from her husband. It’s called Solhöga!

A deserted, strange, eerie place Eleanor never heard of. There must be a reason why her grandmother hasn’t set a foot in this place for decades.

Eleanor plans to meet with the lawyer at this place and her longtime boyfriend Sebastian accompanies her. She realizes her aunt Veronika who has complicated relationships with her grandmother also decided to join them.

But as soon as four of them gather in the estate: stranger things start to happen. Eleanor feels like somebody keeps watching her and she insists somebody locked her in dumbwaiter. The groundskeeper of the place is also suspiciously missing. As the snow storm starts, they find themselves trapped in this strange place as there’s no reception on their phones!

As the attacks start to occur, Eleanor realizes her mind doesn’t play tricks with her: there’s someone out there not to let them escape from the house and that someone is probably the killer of her grandmother!

Overall: I love the claustrophobic thriller theme and I loved how the past and present timelines intercepted.

But the execution of prosopagnosia was the weakest link of the story. It was used effectively at the beginning scene but after that we don’t see Eleanor suffer from this critical condition and there’s not enough detailed explanation why she started dealing with this mental condition at the first place. Her prognosis didn’t fit with the claustrophobic haunted house story so well!

I’m still rounding up my 3.5 stars to 4 dysfunctional family, terrifying, scary house stars!

I liked the author’s previous work a little more but this one is also enjoyable one you read at the edge of your seats!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Minotaur Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Wow! I finished this one in a single night. I couldn’t put it down! Camilla Sten is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. She had such a talent for building tension and anticipation. Her parallel narratives keep me almost equally interested, which is quite rare, and I’m never sure if I’m reading horror or suspense. I can’t wait to share this one with my patrons.