I absolutely loved Blaze Me a Sun,, but am less enamored with Under the Storm. A well-liked local girl is brutally murdered and her boyfriend is the most likely suspect. He is quickly convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The repercussions resonate across decades and generations, most critically with his beloved nephew and the young policeman who first sees him at the murder scene. Unwinding what actually happened that night is painful for everyone involved, leaving broken families, marriages, and individuals in its wake. It is a slow burn of a novel and there are no happy endings. It left me unsettled.

This excellent mystery is set in a small town in western Sweden. A house burns, and the body of a well-liked young woman is found inside., murdered, not burned. The story is rolled out over several decades as families grapple with the arrest and sentencing of a local man, the loss of the victim and questions about the crime. Christoffer Carlsson has created many compelling characters in "Under the Storm: but the one who stands out is Isak, who is eleven when his beloved uncle is sentenced to life in prison. We watch him grow up and have to take on the mantle of violence the town has laid on his family.

This is a skilled and gripping novel, brilliantly realized and artfully translated (by Rachel Willson-Broyles.) Carlsson is a professor of criminology and certainly has the gift for digging into his characters' brains and hearts. I'm so impressed by this book that I've already started "Blaze Me a Sun." Don't miss this outstanding thriller.

This was quite the story. It follows a child, Isak, his uncle whom he adores who is found guilty of murder and Vidar, the police officer who helped send Edvard to prison.

Living in a small community, the actions of Edvard bear a great weight upon Isak and his parents. Isak struggles with believing that whatever was wrong with Edvard will also manifest itself in him.

Vidar struggles at one point in wondering if Edvard was the right man. His looking into it does not bode well for him, professionally or personally.

This book put forth some personalities in great detail, their thoughts, their joys, their sorrows. I will be taking some time to digest what took place and especially in how it ended.

Thank you NetGalley and Hogarth Publishing for this early read.

Book : Under The Storm
Author : Christoffer Carlsson
Pub Date : 27, Feb 2024

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group—Random House, Hogarth, & the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The book is one heck of a fast paced crime novel that literally with twist and bend your brain. This book will absolutely have you thinking. I love a crime book and I love a book that speaks about all the important things that many are too worried about talking about in society. The story/plot was well done and the characters and their dialogue was very well done as well.

We follow a murder that takes place in a small little town, a young boy and his uncle is convicted and found guilty of this crime but is the case actually closed and that’s where the twists and turns take you—they leave you questioning what truly happened and why is everybody so quick to point fingers in this small town. We follow Vidal, a new officer who was first on the scene as he tries to help solve this crime and bring true justice. This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time flipping the pages and trying to solve this the entire time up until the end. I didn’t see the ending coming either.

I will absolutely recommend this to my crime loving bookish friends and I cannot wait for its release in February. I can’t wait to see what else this author comes out with in the future. This is going to be such a great on to have on your TBR or pre-order list right away!

This novel is translated as stated… I am not an expert but for me that was one of the problems. The language is stilted at times and not expressed as I would expect. Translation is an art form also and this book needs editing. The plot is obvious but the characters are poorly described and it is difficult to relate to their stories. The author seems to have tackled too many themes.. racism… prejudice… small town idiosyncratic behavior.. alcoholism.. etc. As a murder mystery, it lacked pace and the ending was melodramatic.

Christoffer Carlsson is a well known author and criminologist professor in Sweden and becoming a name here in the US. His ability to articulate the motivations and illnesses of humans as well as the explaining the trauma of crime is unmatched.

In Under the Storm, a young woman is found murdered in a farmhouse that is burnt to the ground. Isak is a 10 year old bystander
and while his beloved uncle is found guilty, it's unclear if the case was truly solved. Carlsson addresses societal issues regarding who pays for a crime and for how long as he takes on a trip through Marbäck, a town attempting to bounce back after a violent crime.
#UnderThestorm #ChristofferCarlsson #randomhouse

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Christopher Carlsson's Under the Storm delivers a disturbingly delicious crime novel that provides you with a tantalizing buffet of food for thought...

Are we doomed to develop into that criminal who society is all too certain we will become?

Or, convicted by a court, regardless of the details (such as: was the verdict correct) and, as time passes, does anyone care if justice was done, as long as someone is paying the price demanded by society? Do issues such as guilt and innocence continue to matter when your future is forever restricted to residing in a bleak tiny cell, attempting to continue surviving only to wake daily to the realization that you are trapped in a "ground hog's day" from hell, the incarcerated edition...

As this atmospheric moody contemplation of a crime unfolded,
I was reminded that people are not as unique as we would like to believe, the small-minded neighbors in this Swedish crime novel instantly brought memories of my youth (raised as a Quaker in rural Iowa, nonetheless) immediately to the forefront of my mind.

Until next time, I hope you take the opportunity to read this literary masterpiece of a crime novel...