Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A sadist is wandering around Stockholm…
Good Girls Don’t Tell
What you need to know before your trail
A gardener finds his neighbour stabbed to death, scalded with hot water, partly skinned and nailed on the kitchen table of his summer cottage. Inspector Kalo and his team are completely mystified: apart from having alcohol problems, the victim seems to have led a completely normal and lonesome life. But once the police start to dig deeper into the victim’s past, a possible suspect comes to light.
And then things get a whole lot worse…
Travel Guide
Stockholm
This is a Stockholm the tourists don’t see. From the lovely park where the burned victim is found, this is the dark and chilling side to Stockholm you’d really not rather see in real life. A man viciously tortured to death and then only a few hours later in a sedate nursing home just outside of Stockholm, his mother attacked too.
There’s a lot of visits to the more salubrious side of Stockholm too however -the brown car park that is the Akersberga shopping centre where the home is and the approach to it builds a sense of tension and remoteness to it, rather like how a animal is led into a trap. The outskirts of the city and the city itself appears dark and cold here – bereft of all colour. There are plenty of visits to the city’s hospitals and morgues -the smell of linoleum reminding the characters and the readers of the transience of everything. The buildings on Kunsholmsgatan where he later goes are grey and insipid – like the people walking by. The only hint of movement in this grey world is someone hell bent on murder.
Buenos Aires/Argentina
The link to the Argentinian junta takes the journey and the investigation to a very dark park of history. This was a period of brutal beatings, the many people who vanished during the junta’s military regime.Some of those who were involved in the underground activities of the junta were pardoned under the next government. Others went into hiding. No one really told their secrets of what they had done or had done to them during this time. But the consequences of this violent period have repercussions far and wide.
Streetview Maps
A) Sweden - Stockholm - Eriksdalslunden
F) Buenos Aires - Plaza Dorrego
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I am a little bit excited as I ‘ve found another Scandi Noir writer I really want to read again. This is different as the mix with the flashbacks to Argentina’s dirty war was a unique angle on a Scandi crime thriller and made for lots of added interest. The writing was as crisp and clear as the Swedish snow so kudos to the translator who I think does a great job. Have since bought this novel in Swedish which I do with novels I really want to read again so it will fun to learn some new choice Swedish words!
There’s depth to this novel and chapters are short and to the point. The opening scene is not one you’ll forget in a hurry and as the mystery unravels, there’s a lot more to it than you first think. What is the brilliance of this novel? When did I see what the secret was? How do Argentinian violence and Swedish calm mix? I could actually write this review using the title of the book itself “Good girls don’t tell”
A great debut and I’m going to be Roll -ing to the book shop for book two (sorry – had to go there)
Where Next?
