Under the Storm: A Novel
Description
A farmhouse mysteriously goes up in flames with someone trapped inside and a community is never the same in the aftermath—both a page-turning whodunit and a deeply touching coming-of-age story by one of Sweden’s top criminologists and “a rising star in Scandinavian crime fiction” (Kirkus Reviews)
“The quintessential crime novel—I can’t recommend it highly enough.”—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls
“Carlsson is the finest crime writer we have in Sweden.”—David Lagercrantz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web and other novels in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series
On a cold November night, a farmhouse burns to the ground. Inside a young woman is found dead—not from the fire but murdered. To the people in the rural community of Marbäck, this becomes a reference point: a before and after. For ten-year-old Isak Nyqvist, it sets in motion something he cannot control, igniting his future into an unpredictable inferno.
The police focus their attention on Edvard Christensson, the boyfriend of the murdered woman and Isak’s beloved uncle. After a quick investigation, Edvard is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison and Marbäck believes it can return to its innocence. Vidar Jörgensson, the rookie officer who first responded to the fire, prides himself on helping solved the murder. Little does he know this will become the defining case of his career and that it will drive him to the brink of professional and personal disaster—and link his fate to young Isak's.
A celebrated author and professor of criminology, Christoffer Carlsson digs deep into the psyches of ordinary people and shows how one crime can haunt a community for decades. A #1 international bestseller, Under the Storm is already a modern classic of Scandinavian crime fiction and demonstrates why many regard Carlsson as one of the great crime writers of his generation.
Praise for Under the Storm: A Novel
“When the body of a young woman was discovered in an incinerated farmhouse in 1994, resolution was swift—it was murder, her boyfriend did it, case closed. But for the boyfriend’s nephew, Isak; the arresting officer, Vidar Jörgensson; and the entire community of Marbäck, closure is a myth about to be shattered. The character trajectories (and tragedies) of Isak and Vidar have real narrative heft, but Carlsson also makes room to explore bigotry, misogyny and nativism . . . wonderfully translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles.”—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times
“A tense police procedural.”—Wall Street Journal
“A brilliantly woven, unsettling crime novel . . . Boasting the psychological intensity of a Hitchcock film . . . this is a gripping, utterly distinctive mystery by a newly established Swedish master. As in Blaze Me a Sun, Carlsson explores the nature of grief and generational trauma, all while keeping readers unsure of what’s going to happen next.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Under The Storm is the quintessential crime novel—not only a brilliantly constructed whodunit about the unfolding of a murder investigation over three decades, but a profound and immersive portrait of the ripple effects of one act of crime, judgment, and doubt on a community. Christoffer Carlsson is a master at layering nail-biting suspense with psychological depth and acuity, and I can’t recommend this book highly enough.”—Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls
“[Christoffer] Carlsson is to the police procedural what Cormac McCarthy is to the Western.”—Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
“A worthy heir to titans such as Henning Mankell [and] Stieg Larsson.”—BookPage
“This slow-burning, masterfully constructed literary thriller from the author of Blaze Me a Sun (2023) and one of Sweden’s leading crime experts lays bare the haunting effects of violent crime.”—Booklist
