By Mari Jungstedt. Great Britain: Double Bay, 2016.

Time for some Scandi Crime! Set in Gotland, a large island about 90ks east of the Swedish mainland, this is the first Jungstedt novel I have read and it won’t be my last. Easy to read, fast-paced and cleverly plotted with mainstay detectives Anders Knutas and Karin Jacobbsen. A robbery takes place in the harbourside town of Klintehamn and in the getaway, the robbers knock down a six year old girl on a bike who dies from her injuries a couple of days later. Tracking down the robbers is the driving story but when one of them is found at their hideout with his throat slashed, things start heating up. This is intertwined with a story from 20 years earlier, the story of Terese, a ‘problem’ teenager who goes to stay with a foster family in Gotland and doesn’t endear herself to them. Past events – including bikie gangs, a botched domestic robbery and a suspect’s wife who drowned under suspicious circumstances – begin to seep into the current investigation until it becomes clear whose lives are in danger and why. I love the way the robbery and little girl’s death at the start are actually part of something bigger. Recommend starting at #1 in the series ‘Unseen’ (2006) instead of blithely jumping in at #9 like me…I just have to track it down!