More than just a twisty murder mystery, this novel explores choices we make as human beings and how they reverberate through generations. As a first novel, it’s an outstanding effort.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth/Random House for the ARC to read and review.

Loving this one so far truly something special. I will be reviewing a physical copy of this book on my social media platforms but thank you agin to Hogarth for the digital arc

Blaze Me a Sun by Christoffer Carlsson is a very highly recommended Scandinavian crime noir/police procedural set in and around Halland, Sweden.

In 2019 Moth, a writer, returns to his hometown of Tofta where he plans to renovate the family home and write a novel about a series of murders from thirty years earlier and the police officer, Sven Jörgensson, haunted by them. He befriends former police officer Evy Carlén who was Sven's partner and assisted on the case. Moth also talks to Vidar Jörgensson, son of Sven, who went on to become a police officer too. Within the present day events, the story Moth is writing of what happened in 1986 is told.

On the same night in February, 1986, that the prime minister Olof Palme of Sweden is murdered, the Halland police receive a call from a man who has attacked his first victim and says he is going to do it again. Police officer Sven Jörgensson rushes to the scene and finds 20-year-old Stina Franzén in a car. He tries to save her but she subsequently dies from her wounds. Two more women are victims of the perpetrator dubbed the Tiarp Man. This unsolved serial killer case extracts a terrible price from Sven and he retires, dying in 1991.

The writing is absolutely excellent in this intelligent, engrossing crime novel written by Christoffer Carlsson and translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles. The plot unfolds slowly while follows a complicated trail of clues, information, secrets, and surprises across decades. This is not a procedural that follows any standard, expected pattern for a crime novel. It is a thoughtful, detailed oriented novel which follows a crime investigation, as well as the psychological scars and painful legacy left by the unsolved case of Tiarp Man across the community for decades. It also covers the emotional damage and trauma that can be a part of a family's legacy.

Narrative threads are told from the point-of-view of Moth, Sven, and Vidar. All of the characters are portrayed as realistic, empathetic, complicated individuals who are struggling in various ways to live their lives and deal with the knowledge they have or think they have as they pursue the various answers they seek. Life can be perplexing and messy, and Carlsson explores this admirably while developing his characters.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Hogarth via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

Sven is the one to discover a young woman dying in her car by the side of the road and he's not able to let go of the case- even after he retires. There's a fiend in what everyone thought was a peaceful Swedish farming town, a fiend who taunts the police and haunts potential victims. Sven works the case, deals with a charge against him, and struggles with his health even as the world spins around him. This starts in 1986, on the night Olaf Palme was assassinated and moves forward to 2019, with when Sven's son Vidar, also a police officer, discovers a box of his father's papers in the attic. Vidar was the one who, along with his partner, found another of the fiend's victims so he's as invested as his father. Their stories are framed by that of a novelist who has returned to town and found himself talking with Evy, who served as a police officer with both father and son. I didn't think this device was necessary as the story of the hunt for the villain is layered, complex, and twisty but over to others because it does link up a few things. This is less Scandi-noir than procedural with terrific characters and good atmospherics. And it's a very much a page turner. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Excellent read.

This is a translation of the Swedish best seller. It is a dark and complex story of murders and those involved in them one way or the other. It is not a fast and easy read. There were times I found myself rereading previous chapters to ascertain my memory was correct about who characters were. Sven Jörgensson is a Police officer who holds himself partially responsible for the death of the first victim after he found her in the back seat of a car horribly abused and dying. He spends the rest of his life attempting to solve the first murder. He even involves his son Vidar in the investigations and Vidar remains involved long after his father’s resignation from the Police. It is incredibly well plotted and written and easily seen for the award winner it is. Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for an ARC for an honest review.

I love a good procedural "who-done-it" mystery.
Blaze Me a Sun is an incredible book that almost feels like an epic, but an epic with a weird timeline/character structure.
It begins in present day with the narrator, who moves back to his hometown to fix up his old family home. He meets his neighbor, who used to be a police officer involved in one of the biggest unsolved mystery in their small town. Thus begins the REAL story.
We bounce back to 1986 with a rape/murder that haunts police/detective Sven Jorgenssen. This guy is incredibly intelligent and does everything he can to solve this murder, only to watch another woman going missing in the same town.
The story continues with his son, who goes in and out of police work, but follows the steps of his father in trying to figure the mystery out.
I loved Sven's plot the best. I couldn't put the book down when I was reading his parts. He was such a compelling, human character. I felt like I knew this guy and I was really invested with his story and his attempts at solving the mystery.
The thing about this book that I really didn't like was the side plot with the narrator. It felt unnecessary and really annoying to go back and forth. At the end of the book, it all comes together, but I stand by it. There are other ways to tell the story without the narrator's plotline.
Overall, this was a really great read. I would recommend it in a heartbeat.

This was an interesting story, but for me it was a very, very slow story. It seemed to take a long time to get to a place where I felt like something was happening.

I definitely think there's an audience out there - people that enjoy good solid mysteries and I'd recommend this to those folks.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.

Swedish police officer, Sven finds an injured young woman and rushes her to the hospital. However, she succumbs and is the first victim of a local serial killer. Soon after, another woman goes missing with ties to the same serial killer. Sven works his entire career to solve the crimes, but cancer takes him before he can. His son, Vidar joins the force for a short time before it drives him away as well. Years later, an author investigates the crimes, opening old wounds. Can he finish his novel before it does him in?

Blaze Me A Sun is an intense, haunting crime novel written in atmospheric detail. The extremely rich prose engulfed my senses and caused many thought provoking moments. I found it tough to follow at times, but the ending was immensely satisfying.

Blaze Me a Sun is Nordic Noir from Christoffer Carlsson.

"A call comes into the police station. A man claims to have attacked his first victim ans says he will do it again. Officer Sven Jorgensson arrives at the crime scene as the victim takes her last breath.. He becomes obsessed with the case even as two more fall victim. He retires before he can solve it and stays haunted by the victims.

Years later a novelist returns home and begins looking into the case. Sven's son helps him revisit old evidence and interviews. What they find shows how far a town will go to protect their own..."

There is a melancholy to characters in Nordic crime fiction - an almost fatalistic view of the world. Maybe it's because the day lasts for a couple of hours in the winter. This book is not a police procedural but looks more at how a crime can affect law enforcement and the people of a town.

The story starts with the assassination of Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister on the same night as the first attack. Then it slows down as Sven tries to make headway on the killer. It's not traditional police work - just Sven trying to work things out. The story picks up as the novelist digs into some of the inconsistencies that no one ever followed up on.

The ending is tragic and one you will not guess. Fans of Scandinavian fiction will enjoy this book from Carlsson.

“In time, it would become clear. And if it didn’t that meant something too. No one knew anything anymore. People stopped knowing things in 1986.” 1986 is the year Christoffer Carlsson sets most of Blaze Me a Sun: A Novel About a Crime, but it progresses to 1988 and 1991, sandwiched in between the author’s telling of the story in 2019. It takes place in Sweden, which is where one of the main characters, Sven Jörgensson, develops from a healthy, hardy policeman to a wasted shell of a human being, and his transformation is the most jarring and painful one I have ever read in fiction. Lasting pain and the pitfalls of understanding it are common themes in the novel, and the author explores them through a frame narrative and beautiful characterization. The beauty of Blaze Me a Sun should not go unnoticed by you; its revelations will fracture your soul and leave you mending the scars of understanding what happened the night of February 28th, 1986.

Blaze Me a Sun: A Novel About a Crime is much more than just about a crime. It is about a darkness a father and son must uncover and face to mend the broken soul of their country and the stagnancy of their uneasy relationship. Sven Jörgensson, the father of Vidar Jörgensson, investigates the rape and murder of a young woman in the farm village of Tiarp, Sweden, on a cold winter night in 1986, the night an unknown man assassinates the Swedish prime minister, which puts the country into a state of shock for the two crimes. After failing to solve the Tiarp crime, Sven blames himself for losing the Tiarp Man, but the killer ends another woman’s life in 1988, so Sven becomes obsessed with finding the monster Sweden bore out of its heart. In 1991, Vidar picks up where his father left off with the case that drove him to the breaking point and attempts to cope with the false image he had of his father. A fictional author, whom Vidar calls “Moth,” writes Blaze Me a Sun to piece together Sven’s and Vidar’s relationship and the unsolved case of the Tiarp murder. The story exists as a frame narrative, which is a story within a story. Moth writes about Sven’s and Vidar’s journey like it is a play on a stage. He says, “Onto this stage I brought people who not only lived and worked in Sweden, but in some sense were Sweden, the way it appeared to those of us who were children in 1986, the year that would turn out to be, above anything else, a year of dread.” This sense of dread continues throughout the novel and reveals itself through its mesmerizing characters.

I cannot talk about Blaze Me a Sun without mentioning its gripping, authentic, and poignant characterization, and the best one is by far Sven Jörgensson. At the beginning, Moth paints Sven as a noble, stoic hero of the good old days of Sweden, but by the end, even Sven does not know who he is. Moth summarizes his character arc when he writes, “It was a world he felt at home in, where he had a place and purpose. Life was dependable and made sense, and nothing was really a problem, in the end – you could look in the mirror and be sure of who you were looking at. Later, something had rotted, becoming cold and unfamiliar.” Each character takes different leaps in the story, but none are so extreme and satisfying to read as Sven’s. In each chapter, he deteriorates little by little, first physically because of his smoking addiction, but ultimately because of his endless obsession over finding the Tiarp Man and giving him the justice he deserves. The beginning and the end of the story are interesting, but the middle is what makes the payoffs so satisfying, because it filled me with many conflicting emotions. I am impressed with how Christoffer Carlsson managed to write such great characters, but then again, he had a lot of room to work with. At almost four hundred pages in e-book format, Blaze Me a Sun could have been whittled down to three hundred or three hundred fifty pages, but Carlsson uses every page to his advantage and delivers characters I can empathize with. Some twists occur near the climax of the novel that require lengthy chapters, but Carlsson earns all these pages even if the moments are unsettling, frightening, and heart-wrenching.

I am no best-selling author, famous literary critic, or skillful editorial agent, but I know what makes stories compelling and how they function as narratives. Blaze Me a Sun urges the reader to turn the next page through the story’s tear-wrenching twists, unique structure, and authentic characterization. Sven, Vidar, and Moth are all great main characters, and there are some stellar side characters as well. Some side characters play roles in major plot twists, which make the twists even more satisfying to see the story become a cohesive whole. So, if you plan to read Blaze Me a Sun: A Novel About a Crime, be prepared to shed a few tears for Sven, for Vidar, for Moth, and for the torture of understanding what happened the night the Tiarp Man struck, and a country lost its leader. For all that Blaze Me a Sun is, it is most certainly more than a crime and deserves a thoughtful and heartfelt read.

It is an interesting murder mystery that happened in a small Swedish community. The story centers of the effects of an unsolved crime had on the officer who came upon the victim and his son. The case seems to be dormant until an investigative reporter returns home and begins digging into the past. Along with the investigation, the author provides an intriguing insight into everyday Swedish life. Not quite to the same level as "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", but certainly worth the read.

Blaze Me A Sun by Cristoffer Carlsson is a good yet slow read. A small town murder the same day as the assassination of Prime Minister Palme remains unsolved and is the first victim of a serial murderer. Unsolved while the father is alive, the son follows up when he pursues the case. The case and telling is slow is methodical. Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the advance copy for review.

I enjoyed this book. I love books that include the investigation, and all the twists and turns that they can take. I love it when something very small winds up being the thing that undoes a killer. I was a bit confused as to who the narrator was at the end, and it wound up distracting me a bit trying to figure that out.

I was excited for this book as it’s been hailed as a national bestseller(translated from Swedish) and the writer won a prestigious crime fiction award. The story is a very slow burn that starts with a prime ministers death the same day as a serial killer strikes in a small Swedish town. We learn about the many characters over a long span of time. Initially we follow Sven a detective who tries to find the truth. His son later joins the force and wants to also find the truth. A writer and the narrator then comes to town and after the case is re raised he learns about the town and works with the son of the original detective to uncover the truth. There’s a lot going on here and a lot of characters that I think are a little hard to keep track of as a native English speaker. But the book is very well written and covers a small town atmosphere nicely. For those that want a thriller with more action I think this may be too long but it kept me going wanting to know the truth.

Rural tragedy & a writer determined to learn the truth🔍

4-4.5🌟 stars
This multi-decade story set in a rural area of southern Sweden had at its heart an addictive mystery of a series of unsolved crimes that drive, first an ailing policeman and later a writer, to keep investigating until the perpetrator comes to light. And all set in 1986 against the backdrop of the shocking murder of Sweden's Prime Minister on the streets of Stockholm.

I found the investigation itself a real winner. Sven, the seasoned policeman, is disturbed to his core by the tragedy of the violence and deaths, and the victims' relatives loss and lack of justice. He carries personal guilt for not preventing the crimes in their usually peaceful countryside. Sven was a tragic figure himself and perhaps the most sympathetic character in the novel. His job consumes him along with the illness that wracks his body.

The part of the book that revolved around the writer was, for me, less successful. It prolonged the story and I found much of the introspection and biography of his life just slowed the story's progress.

Overall a fascinating tale with plenty of suspense and surprise but it could have been shorter.

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

Before you decide to read one of Christoffer’s books, take a look at his bio. You’ll understand how he can write such intense crime thrillers. He started his writing career at an amazingly young age, and he hasn’t slowed down.
This book is set in Holland- an area I love to read about. It’s the closest I’ll come to traveling there. The procedures of the investigators are different from America’s methods, and it makes the story so much more interesting. The setting, weather, and common language habits add to the ambiance.
In this thriller, a local murder happens on the same evening that the prime minister is assassinated. This immediately throws a wrench in the investigation of the local crime: are the two related? The majority of the manpower is more concerned with solving the prime minister’s murder. But Sven Jorgensson refuses to be sidetracked. He makes it his priority, and over time it becomes a fixation, almost an addiction.
The murdered victim is a young local girl who had just gotten off work at the local bar. She’s found raped and brutally beaten in the back of her car, but when Sven checks her pulse, he finds she’s still alive. His race to get her to the hospital proves fruitless, though. She’s DOA.
The killer strikes again, and to aggravate Sven, he calls and taunts him. The years continue to roll by with no positive ID on the murderer.
Sven’s son decides to follow his father’s path. Against Sven’s wishes, his son becomes a local policeman. The veil of inadequacy that hung over Sven is naturally tossed over his son by relation.
There is so much more going on between the paragraphs of the main story. The ingenuity of the author shines through and makes it difficult to stop reading. I glanced up at one point and it was 3:00 AM! I will most definitely read more by Carlsson.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 3, 2023.

I requested this ARC on a whim after reading one positive review from an online book-friend. In the end, she enjoyed it much more than I did. I did not dislike it, but it was a very, very slow burn. The double timeline was choppy and the large cast of characters often left me scratching my head. I did think it was very interesting and underneath all of the chaos, a good suspense/crime procedural but it was almost too much work to keep enjoying it as much as I wanted to. Originally published in Swedish, I can't help but wonder if a bit of the "flow" was lost in translation. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for my early e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Blaze me A Sun will be released on 1/3/23.

TW/CW: Sexual assault, murder, terminal illness, death of a parent, death of a child, automobile accident

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

Blaze Me The Sun is the story of a Swedish writer who returns to his hometown and starts investigating a series of murders that happened thirty years before. Most of the book is a story within a story – telling of the murders that the writer is investigating.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the actual murder mystery was interesting. I figured it out ahead of time, but that’s okay, it happens.

My problems start with the writing. The writing itself was grammatically fine. But I found myself, as the book progressed, becoming entirely bored by the tedious tangents that this book continuously went off on. It was very, very wordy and overly flowery, and that weighed down the book a lot for me and made it feel very, very slow. I honestly thing that taking a hundred pages out of this book in tangents and ‘philosophizing’ would have made this a much better read. It was clear that the book was trying to be ‘deep’ into things such as good and evil, but really it just seemed kind of silly. I really wish that Carlsson had just stuck to the story – it had good bones and could have been a lot better than it turned out to be.

This is a superbly well written book set in a small Swedish town over several decades. It is detailed and thought provoking. The characters are well developed. The plot develops as Sven moves home and looks back on past events. From a look at the past he takes the reader through the present until the case is solved. The plot is filled with angst and emotions that torment the characters. It is a poignant tale about humanity and its foibles.

It's early in 1986 in Halland, Sweden, and a murderer is attacking young women. Police officer Sven Jörgensson retires from the police force, but he can't escape this case, even as his son Vidar joins the force and hunts for the killer as well. Decades later, Vidar is still uncovering new evidence that causes him to battle with some of the choices he and his father made years ago.

This book is written quite differently than I am used to, more similar to an Anthony Horowitz style of writing, with the author bookending the novel. This book is so incredibly detailed, with amazingly interesting characters. It's a slow burning serial killer hunt which I came to found out is a fictional twist on the assassination of Sweden's PM in 1986.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I love this style of criminal procedural books. It was like the criminal version of an early John Grisham novel. It was so easy to get lost in the pages of this thriller that I completely lost track of time while reading it. It has a lot of moving parts and different characters, but it was deeply intriguing. This is a well developed, emotional piece of Nordic-noir (is that an actual genre or did I just invent it?). I've read a few of these, and they have been some of my favorite detective thrillers.