This book was just okay for me. It was too slow for my liking and the foreign names and places made it hard to follow.

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book

Christoffer Carlsson is a Swedish writer whose stories develop slowly and take a few turns to get where they are going. His characters are flawed and relatable; except the psychotic ones of course. His novels are brooding, yet I find myself haunted by the storyline and wanting to continue reading to find out the answer.

This novel spans multiple decades and is read through the point of view of the investigator who struggles with the guilt that he may not have been thorough with the investigation that sentenced a man to life in prison. There is also the view of the convicted man's nephew who was a child at the time of the crime. Will he turn out to be a criminal as well?

I look forward to reading more of his books featuring Officer Vidar Jörgensson.

Thank you @netgalley @ccarlssons

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Under the Storm is listed as the 1st-book in Christoffer Carlsson's Hallandssviten Adult Mystery series. Oddly enough, the 2nd-book listed in that series, Blaze Me a Sun, was translated into English first, in early-January 2023. I read it last year and really enjoyed it. It was a gritty crime story that successfully captured my attention throughout.

I found this one to be equally entertaining, but I gotta say, between the two, my timelines may be a little muddled since I read the 2nd-book first? I'm not really sure why they chose to release the translations that way...

Both are set in the same area of rural Sweden and contain the character Vidar, who sometimes appears when he is young, but mostly when he is an adult and he has become a cop. There may be other similar characters, but none that have as presently stuck in my mind as Vidar.

The primary event in this novel that gets the ball rolling is a fire in a farmhouse. In the aftermath, a young woman's body is found in the remains--murdered. This was a huge event for this small town, the young woman was known by many and loved. It's an unforgettable tragedy.

For 10-year old, Isak, that event is a pivotal moment in his young life, irrevocably changing his family dynamic forever. The first suspect for the police is Edvard, the murdered woman's boyfriend and Isak's beloved Uncle. The investigation is quick. The people want a resolution. Edvard is tried and found guilty. He's sentenced to life in prison.

Vidar is a rookie officer at the time of the fire and the first to respond to the scene. Initially, he feels proud of the work done. It's certainly a defining moment in his career, but maybe not for the reasons he expects.

Years later, Edvard's guilt comes into question and forces Vidar to consider aspects of the case he hadn't before. Isak has always wondered about Edvard's guilt versus innocence. Will he ever be delivered the truth?

Under the Storm is another very solid Crime Thriller from Christoffer Carlsson. I hope that these continue to be translated into English. There are currently 3-novels in the series already released, with a 4th expected next year. I would be very excited to have the opportunity to continue on. I love this author's writing. It feels lush, layered and poignant. The settings are well-developed and the characters evoke a real sense of empathy.

In this story, I truly felt for Isak. I loved following his story. Everything he was going through after the arrest of his Uncle. The emotional turmoil he felt over that. His anxiety over whether or not, if his Uncle really was a violent man capable of murder, was he just like him.

I loved how the author explored those ideas. It's a side of crime we really don't see considered that much in fiction. By that I mean, the fallout for the families of individuals accused and convicted of violent crimes.

I also really enjoy Vidar as a central character. He's not perfect. His personal life is tumultuous and I like that. Despite his respected position at work, he is just a man, one who makes mistakes and has struggles of his own. He is dedicated in his work though and does have a strong moral compass in that regard. I liked how determined he seemed to be about helping Isak get the truth he needed.

There were some time shifts in this that were a little unexpected. While at certain times I had to remind myself where we were in the timeline, how old Isak, or Vidar, may have been at the time I was reading, overall, I enjoyed the somewhat unconventional storytelling style.

I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Crime Fiction, particularly with strong character-focused narratives and small town settings. Thank you so much to the publisher, Hogarth, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

Please translate the rest of this series into English! Pretty, pretty please!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for providing me this Digital Advanced Readers Copy of the book!

I started this thinking it would be a classic Nordic thriller, but it went much deeper than that. Sure, the idea that crimes haunt communities isn't a new one, but I felt connected to the characters, and cared deeply about them. I hoped they'd all turn out okay. Lovely writing, all the way through.

DNF. I tried this book a few times but it didn't interest me at all. The link between the center of action in the story somehow seemed far distant from the characters' lives and it took the author too long to connect them. Maybe the original had more tension.

I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either, it was an interesting physiological thriller but it was a little too slow for my liking, I want something totally grab me from the beginning, hold me with lots of twists and turns but this just didn’t do it for me.

For anyone who enjoys a deep psychological study and a very, very slow burn this book is for you. It all starts with a fire in a house in a small town in Sweden but it is the young woman’s body that they find in the ruins that moves this story, very very slowly. Did the police look closely enough, did they rush to judgment or did they just run out of clues to investigate. Ultimately several families are going to be destroyed as they try to come to terms with what happened and who did it.

This is a murder mystery that when solved never truly satisfies, not the story’s characters nor the reader. So let’s delve really, really deeply into the characters and their personalities and then let’s look at the murder again and as the character age let’s reexamine their attitudes and then back again to the murder. A very, very slow process.

I am rounding up for the quality of writing and psychological profiles which were profound. Thanks to Hogarth/Random House and NetGalley for a copy.

An intriguing story of a dreadful murder of a young woman, the man accused of the crime, and the police detective who stops at nothing to prove his innocence. With gritty determination and a steel resolve, Vidar Jorgensson doesn’t let time or circumstances keep him from his obsession with.

Highly recommended!

I think this was too long and too much of a slow burn for me. I got lost and struggled a little bit with it.

4,5 stars moved up to a 5. 21 years ago a woman dies in a fire that totally destroys her parents home in rural Sweden. The novel (translated from Swedish) tells the story of the investigations into this murder. It is written in a variety of viewpoints and was slow starting and complexly written. But after spending a week getting into it, I spent a day finishing it. Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for an ARC for an honest review.

Isak believes he is living under a cloud, or storm, that is the legacy of abuse left by the men on his mother's side of the family. The story begins with Isak's beloved uncle Edvard suspected of killing his girlfriend. Everyone believes it to be true and he is jailed. Isak grows up believing it is inevitable that he will turn out the same. The story is also told from the perspective of the policeman, Vidar Jörgensson. He is involved in the investigation into the murder, which is supposedly solved with the conviction of Edvard, but it continues to haunt him throughout his career and even after he has left the police. Written by author and professor of criminology, Christoffer Carlsson and translated from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles this novel is cerebral, in that we learn so much about the complex thoughts and motivations that drive the characters, but it's how they act on those thoughts that keeps the plot moving forward. No doubt you'll say (possibly aloud) "No! That’s a terrible idea!" at least once or twice. I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Under the Storm from Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It was quite interesting to read a mystery/police procedural from another country. I had a little difficulty at first with the names and a lot of characters being introduced but eventually figured it out. It moves slowly as I suppose these things do in real time and since the author is a professor of criminology, he writes what he knows. He is probably spot on regarding the treatment of the family and how things transpired over the years. Not the best of human behavior but mostly likely accurate. Overall, a good read. i was provided an advanced reader copy of this book but was under no obligation to provide a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author , publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I'm giving this book a 3 star review although I did not finish it.

I truly believe this was a case of right book wrong time for me and I would very much like to try to read it again at a later point. I know I will not be able to do so though before the book archives in Netgalley.

I'm giving it 3 stars because from what I can tell the average rating is between 3 & 4.

UNDER THE STORM is Book 2 in Christoffer Carlsson's HALLANDSVITTEN Series, an intricately-plotted, detailed, and expansive Scandi-noir combination of suspense, psychological thriller, and police procedural. A murder mystery-- ostensibly solved with arrest, trial, and conviction--instead upends the extended family of the accused and the entire small community in addition to the family of the victim. Ten years later and beyond, the psychological effects, equivalent to ripples from a stone thrown into a pond, still resonate leaving deep unsolved issues and unrest.

This was an interesting slow burn mystery. The characters were all terrible and hard to root for, but I kept wanting to know what was going to happen so that propelled me to finish the book.

Nothing like a Nordic Noir to cheer you up. A farmhouse has burned down and the body of a young woman is found inside. She has been killed before the fire has started. A jaded detective, a boyfriend who is found guilty, but did he do it? Lots of twists and turns.

Thank you to Random House Hogarth publishing, Christoffer Carlsson, and NetGalley for this arc!

When I received this ARC, I was so excited to read another work by Carlsson, and he has raised my standards yet again with “Under the Storm”!

In Märback, Sweden, a farmhouse mysteriously goes up in flames with a murdered woman inside. Her boyfriend, Edvard, is charged with her murder and sentenced to life in prison. This book follows the lives of Isak, Edvard’s ten-year-old nephew, and Vidar, the rookie officer who investigates the crime. Across decades, we see Isak and Vidar age and encounter issues of inheritance, justice, and small town rumor.

Vidar and Isak’s narratives were incredibly detailed and compelling. It’s often difficult to effectively capture a child’s point of view in a book; I’ve read books that have overly simplistic or naive language when writing child characters. However, Carlsson does an amazing job at creating Isak’s voice at such a young age, especially confronting such difficult issues like a family member being convicted of murder. Isak had that childish innocence, but the perspective was still insightful and entertaining. Isak’s turmoil throughout the book was heartbreaking because we watch him grow up and feel betrayed by the parental figures around him. The detailed accounts of the investigation were also well-written, and there was a perfect intermingling of objective and formal descriptions with the flawed characters’ emotions and personalities.

Through this captivating criminal fiction, Carlsson shows how looking too much into the past for present tragedies can have devastating consequences for a whole small town and the delicate familial bonds that reside there.

3.5 stars!

I'm always trying to read more books that are translations, and so this helped with the goal! I have read other crime fiction by Scandinavian authors, and so I did feel like something that is a hallmark of the genre is the slow pace. However, I did find this book very confusing at points. This was good on one hand because I definitely did not predict the ending, but I think it could've been aided by a quicker pace and more things being revealed intermittently.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

IMPRESSIVE.

A crime story that breaks your heart with so many amazing layers and superbly written character development. It was a bit of a slow read but read so beautifully, poetic.