I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

💙🖤💛💙🖤💛💙🖤💛💙🖤💛💙

Blaze Me a Sun is a #1 Bestselling Crime Thriller in Sweden and it made its U.S. debut in early-January 2023. The premise sounded incredible to me, as I love a gritty Crime story and I was excited to get to it. This lush, slow-burn Mystery definitely did not disappoint.

This story is told via various time periods, but the way Carlsson wove it all together was brilliant. We start with an author, who after a divorce, feels the need to return to his hometown, which he has been away from for many years. Known since he was a kid as Moth, this author, befriends a retired police officer and begins looking into a infamous local case, that of the Tiarp Man, a serial killer who haunted the area beginning in Moth's childhood.

We skillfully are shuttled back in time to the start of the Tiarp Man's crimes. It's 1986, and near Tiarp Farm, a young woman is attacked, raped and killed, left in her own vehicle. On the same night, the prime minister is assassinated. It's a time of uncertainty and unrest.

For officer, Sven Jörgensson, who found the first victim, finding the Tiarp Man becomes his life mission. The killer taunts the police, there are more victims, but without much to go on, Sven is left spinning his wheels.

Years later in 1991, there are more, similar, crimes. Is it the same person?

By this point, Sven's son, Vidar, has grown up to become a police officer himself and now it's his responsibility to investigate these heinous crimes.

Finally, in the later part of the novel, we return to Moth's perspective, as he wraps it all up for us. While at first glance, this may sound like it would be confusing, I assure you, it's not. Carlsson has expertly told this tale in a way that makes it approachable and intriguing throughout.

I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend that as a format. I was concerned about pronouncing names and places correctly on my own, so felt it might be a good option for me. I would let a professional take the stress off. The narration by Peter Nobel was fantastic. He has a classic storytelling voice, which was a perfect match for this tale. I really enjoyed it.

From the start, I was intrigued. It is a slow-burn, one that not only pays off, but is enjoyable every moment of its telling. I like how layered the narrative was. It was more than just brutal crimes and the subsequent investigation.

There was a lot involving the history and secrets that small towns keep, as well exploration of family dynamics. For example with Sven and Vidar. Vidar discovers things about his Dad, after his Dad's death, that he didn't know before.

I think that can be an interesting discovery for adults. That our parents sometimes keep secrets from us. We don't know everything about them. They have their own distinct lives outside of us and they may keep things from us for varying reasons. Sometimes to protect us, but other times for reasons all their own.

I did occasionally have a difficult time keeping track of some details, particularly towards the end, but I take full blame for that. I'm not sure if I wasn't paying well enough attention in the beginning or what, but some of the side characters towards the end got confusing for me. With this being said, overall, I had a great time reading this and would definitely pick up more translated works from this author in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Hogarth, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm excited to have found a new Nordic Thriller author to follow and definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a nuanced Crime Thriller.

This book marks, or so I read, the U.S. debut of this book, which hit No. 1 status in Sweden. I can see why; it's well-written, though to me it was more "dark" and, well, sad, than exciting. The complexity and detail, though, were impressive to say the least, although that meant I couldn't breeze through it as I usually do.

The decades-long story begins in a small Swedish town in 1986 with an ominous phone call to local police from someone who says he's attacked a woman and plans to do it again. On that same night, the unthinkable happens: the prime minister of Sweden is assassinated - making it a night few will forget. That's especially true for policeman Sven Jorgensson, who rushes to the scene of the caller's crime; there, he finds the victim still alive, but barely. What he does there (or does not do) changes him forever; if nothing else, solving the case becomes an obsession. And then, more of the unthinkable as two more victims turn up - and Sven's obsession consumes his entire being even beyond his retirement as his son, Vidar, joins the police and, to a certain extent, takes up what appears to be a lost cause.

Years pass with no resolution until a writer - the book's narrator - returns home and begins to collect information on all that happened for a book. By then, much water has gone over the bridge, and just a handful of the players back then are still around and much has been forgotten. Although learning the perpetrator's identity is a thread to be followed throughout, the story seemed to be much more about the ripple effects of one person's thoughts and behaviors on others around him. It wasn't a really easy book for me to read, but it was well worth the effort - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review it. Recommended!

My husband reads all the Nordic noir books that come out, and he convinced me to read this one. I’m so glad he did. It’s not like other mysteries that I’ve read, it’s darker and colder somehow. It’s a slow burn with a payoff at the end that was worth the wait. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I really loved this book. It's thrilling and just a great crime novel. Highly recommended! 4.5 stars

The storyline was good but the changing narratives and time frame made it less enjoyable to me. I also felt the author banged on a few storylines pretty hard. Sven smoked a lot Sven coughed a lot. Sven and son struggled. If the story was told from one perspective and and edited some it would have been better.
I was given a copy from Netgalley. Opinions are mine.

BLAZE ME A SUN opens with several brief chapters that introduce the narrator, a writer who has returned to his boyhood home in a rural part of southern Sweden in the hope of reviving his own creative inspiration. But recollections of an old crime begin to capture his attention. me Thirty-three years earlier, the first of several murders occurred on precisely same night that Olaf Palme was assassinated, an astonishing event and one that has not been wholly solved even now.

It is also the Sweden that the narrator has returned to his childhood home to recapture, a meaning that he has lost in his years away from his roots. Few readers will be astonished to learn, like Thomas Wolfe, that you can't go home again. Nevertheless, Carlsson's achievement is considerable here. He has used the structure of a crime novel to support a moving, deeply felt account of what is a widespread sense of unease that grips a much larger space than southern Sweden.

It is the pervasiveness of this malaise that recommends BLAZE ME A SUN to readers in general - those who share the feeling that something is profoundly wrong in the world as well as those who turn to crime fiction for reassurance that the balance can be restored. Carlsson does not provide that comfort but he does affirm that we can live without it.

A full version of my review appeared in Reviewing the Evidence:

http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=11823

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I always enjoy crime novels, and Scandinavian noir is a favorite genre. It's dark and brooding, and generally seems to have unexpected turns.

In this book, in 2019, the narrator Moth is an author who has returned home to live in his parents' old house while getting through a divorce. He starts hearing about a series of murders from 1986-1991, which Sven, the father of an old friend of his, was unable to solve. The book then is set more during the time when the attempt to solve the crimes is being made. Meanwhile, in the present day, Moth is intrigued and starts asking questions to try to figure out what actually happened.

The plot is intriguing, and the process is as well. We get to view this from multiple time perspectives - what happened in 1968-1991, what happened later with Sven's son Vidar as he tries to follow his father's attempts to solve the case, and finally, in the present day, what clues Moth found and what then eventuates.

It's a dark book, the feeling of the town and the events is dark and brooding, but it's also quite interesting and intriguing.

A classic in the "generations of Nordic police officers and civilians are haunted by the reverberations of a crime" genre. This had its moments of being overly convoluted, to the point that I don't remember who did it just a few weeks after finishing, but the story and writing were really gripping

This was fine. I can definitely see the appeal of the story! Layers on layers. But translated books don’t often work for me and this was one of those times.

Blaze Me a Sun by Christoffer Carlsson is an engrossing read.. A superb job with plot and characters. Well worth the read.

a literary mystery that delves into a Swedish town and its secrets. Classic scandi noir in the sense that the story pulled me in with mysterious characters looking back on a crimes involving a murder the same night the prime minister was killed in 1986. The story is set over the next several years and while we 're first introduced to the narrator who's an author who grew up in the town during that time and is writing a book about the crimes that took place back then and he's some to talk to Eva? What I love about this type of crime fiction is that it's very layered because the author slowly introduces an entire town of people and allows the reader to get to know and become invested in them and their problems, secrets, loves, and struggles all the while delivering subtle clues and red herrings. I loved the setting and highly recommend the audio for Swedish names. That being said, This is a story that requires patience and attention. This is not a pulse pounding, action filled thriller like the girl with the dragon tattoo.

A brooding tale of murder and mystery, told in nordic-noir writing style, making the dark police procedurals of crime writing come to life. This book is a slow-burn, following the hunt for a serial killer in a small Swedish town.

There are multiple time lines, making many moving parts to this book as I tried to keep up with each of the characters and their involvement in the story.

Not my normal go to genre, but I do seem to love a dark criminal mystery when it's translated from Nordic languages!

I typically really enjoy Nordic noir and had high hopes for this thriller, so I was happy to accept an advanced reader's copy of Blaze Me A Sun in exchange for a review. Set in a small Swedish farming town, women were brutally attacked, raped and murdered, yet the police could never find the culprit. Years later, a novelist returns to his hometown and begins to unravel the town's history, ultimately trying to track down a serial killer decades after the case had gone cold.

Unfortunately, I just never connected with this book. It wasn't bad and I could definitely see other people enjoying it, but for me it was just lengthy and boring. There was so much backstory on the main characters Sven, his son Vidar and the novelist that ultimately uncovers the truth. However, very little about the actual murders and subsequent killer was developed in the story.

I will say the twist of who the killer turned out to be was pretty good, though I had guessed it before it was revealed and pieced together. The lead-up and even how it turned out were simply unsatisfying, particularly since we were left with so many holes around the actual killer. I struggled to read this book, and it took me much longer than normal to finally finish this one as I kept getting invested in other novels instead.

Boy, this kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to the end. Do you like a good mystery/thriller, police procedural? This is the book for you.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House for this advanced readers copy. This book released in January 2023.

Book Review
Blaze Me a Sun
Christoffer Carlsson
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


Finally, the American debut of one of Sweden’s best Criminologists and Crime novelists.

Christoffer holds a Ph.D. in Criminology at University of Stockholm and was awarded the International European Society of Criminology’s Young Criminologist Award. His previous critically acclaimed novels have won numerous literary awards and this novel was met with many accolades in Sweden in 2021. He masterfully uses his training and skills to create this cerebral page-turner and welcome addition to the canons of crime fiction, which may eclipse the notoriety of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankiell.

His well-honed tale is told in multiple timelines and the narrative eye of four main protagonists. The story unspools in the viewpoint of policeman, Sven Jorgensson, his son, Vidar, his partner, Evy Carlen, and lastly the “novelist.” A burgeoning serial killer commits his first brutal rape and murder in the small town of Tiarp on the eve of the assassination of Sweden’s prime minister. Sven is first on the scene and finds 20-year-old Stina Franzen, barely breathing in the back seat of her vehicle. He valiantly tries to rush her to the hospital, but she breathes her last on the futile trip. To add insult to injury he is later legally accused of hastening her demise by mishandling her body.

On this fateful night in February of 1986, the killer taunts the local police with a phone call announcing his killing and proclaiming: “I’m going to do it again.” Sven becomes obsessed with the case as no clues or links to the killer are uncovered. One evening at home, Sven receives a phone call: “I did it again… and you’ll never find her body.” Frida Ostmark indeed is missing—no leads or linkage to the first victim arise. And, yet again, this small community is rocked when twenty-three-year-old Gisela is raped and brutalized in her own home. She is haunted by his muttering: “Lie still now, Dolly.” She miraculously survives the attack when the perpetrator is interrupted by the early return of her boyfriend. Robert Mellberg’s body was found three days later in a green van with his head bashed in and a baseball bat slathered with gray matter and swatches of hair. Sven is obsessed and haunted by the unsolved murder’s of the Tiarp Man ( the nom de plume bestowed by the newspapers). This affliction is shouldered to a lesser extent by his partner, Evy, and to a lesser extent by his son, Vidar. ( Who eventually and briefly assumes the mantle of police officer.).

Decades later, the “novelist’ returns to his childhood home of Tiarp, after his failed marriage.

He has not written in a long time, suffering from a “writer’s block.” He’s surprised how so very little has changed in thirty years. He meets and befriends Evy, who has long since retired. They exchange phone numbers and soon frequently chat over tea or wine. She is soon spinning tales of police work that are both hilarious and tragic, as well as stories about her husband, Ronnie and her brother, Einar. The novelist recalls idolizing Sven when he was a child and in fact was a classmate of Vidar. Evy also confides what happened to Sven and his son, because of the Tiarp murders. The novelist becomes enthralled with this cold case and starts to “pull at the threads” of details to better understand and possibly truly solve this cold case. He uncovers many disturbing occurrences and shame, as well as secrets buried for years.

Carlsson proves to be a masterful storyteller spinning a complex and convoluted tale, presented in intense and concise prose, and in multiple timelines and viewpoints. He explores the themes of truth, justice and moral suffering and the lengths that one will pursue to exact closure. Carlsson opines early in his narrative: “ Moral suffering is strange. It can strike the strong as easily as the weak, and no surgery, painkillers …. can help.” …. “ you can let yourself be consumed or resort to drastic measures to free yourself.”`. This gem is a multilayered and nuanced police procedural that rises to the level of literary fiction. Hopefully we will have further translations of his highly acclaimed fiction.

Thanks to NetGallery and Random House Publishing / Hogarth for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning we meet Sven, a cop who finds the first victim almost dead and the mystery begins. On the same night the Prime Minister is murdered so the killing of the young woman doesn't receive the attention it deserves. When two more women fall victim to this killer Sven becomes obsessed with the case which he just can't seem to let go, even after he is retired. When his son becomes a cop he ends up becoming embroiled in the case. Meanwhile a novelist who was a teenager when the murders happened returns to town. He soon is drawn into the story by a retired cop who worked with Sven. He hopes to write a book about the events and begins to put the puzzle pieces into place. This was an intriguing read about the hunt for a serial killer than spans a few decades. You might think you know who the killer is and just what happened but you really don't know until the end!

Blaze Me a Sun is Carlsson's American debut novel. Originally translated from Swedish and told from the perspective of a fictional true crime author, Blaze Me a Sun centers around a Swedish police officer (Sven) in the mid to late 1980's & his obsession to find a serial killer and bring him to justice. Battling his own illness, he slowly disintegrates into a shell of who he was, but with the self-imposed obligation to find him, even years after his last killing. Blurring morals in the process.

Years later, Sven's son Vidar, now a cop himself, carries over the need to solve the case that became his dad's life obsession. Lines are blurred, and we're faced with questioning the ideas of "nature vs. nurture", "fate and karma", family, and duty. What is the truth? And does everyone always benefit from it?

I ended up listening to this as an audio & really enjoyed it! I don't normally enjoy police crime thrillers as much but this was a fun listen once you got into it.

"Blaze Me a Sun" is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that delves into the past and present of a small community in Sweden. The book tells the story of a series of murders that occurred in the 1980s and the impact it has on the lives of the people involved.

This novel is a must-read for fans of crime fiction novels. The plot is well-crafted and keeps readers guessing until the very end. The pacing is excellent and the story is told at a brisk pace. I highly recommended this book for anyone who wants a great crime fiction novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Hogarth for this advanced copy.

Having never read anything by Carlsson, I was expecting a Scandinavian noir. this book certainly delivered. A good mystery with good characters that had more depth than many mysteries. Two women have been brutally murdered, another nearly killed and her husband is. There a very rarely murders in this quiet area and Sven triesnhard to find connections to the victims and the perpetrator. What sets this mystery apart is the depth of the characters and their relationships