Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free book.
Camilla Sten has a way of creating a bingeable plot that starts off right at the beginning of the book and doesn't let up until the last page. I was fascinated by the beginning of the book, and I had to know where it was going. I liked the diary past timeline mixed with the current timeline. Eleanor wants to know who killed Vivianne, and she is intrigued and confused about the secret estate she inherits. Upon visiting the house, she knows that something isn't quite right. There are plenty of thrills in the book. The blizzard mixed with the seclusion adds a layer of anticipation and creepiness that kept me turning the pages way into the night.
I did figure out one of the twists, but I did not figure out the big end reveal, which was shocking, yet not unrealistic. I can't wait to read more from this author.

I was so excited to read this book, primarily because I loved [book:The Lost Village|53137992] so much. It was one of the first horror/thrillers that actually made me a little scared, and I think that was quite a feat. Needless to say, I had high expectations for The Resting Place, another atmospheric thriller set in a creepy Swedish place.

The Resting Place takes place in Solhoga, a remote Swedish country estate that our main character, Eleanor, has just inherited after the death - the murder! - of her grandmother, Vivianne. In all her years of being raised by Vivianne, she had never even heard of Solhoga, and had no idea that she was set to inherit the property. A few months after Vivianne's death, Eleanor, her long-term boyfriend Sebastian, her aunt Veronika (who grew up going to Solhoga as a child), and the estate lawyer Rickard all go to the property to conduct an assessment and valuation of the manor. Immediately, something feels wrong. Although everything is in pristine condition thanks to the work of the groundskeeper, who is still employed by and lives on the property, everyone can tell there are still ghosts and secrets living in the house. Eleanor sees a ghostly, creepy figure lurking in the doorway of one of the guest houses, and when she's looking in a dumbwaiter she discovers, someone pushes her in.

There's a parallel storyline of Solhoga's heyday told by Anushka, Vivianne's cousin and the maid of the house. She's mistreated by Vivianne over and over, but she also recounts how different things became when Vivianne got pregnant and miscarried. There's a lot of intrigue with this character.

Yet another subplot has to do with Eleanor's condition of "face blindness," or prosopagnosia. In fact, Vivianne was murdered on a night that Eleanor was scheduled to have dinner with her. Just as Eleanor was arriving, she ran into the killer leaving through the front door. But alas, because of Eleanor's face blindness, she was unable to identify who the killer was, not even any distinguishing features. This is marked as one of the main selling points of the book, but it's hardly even addressed until the very end.

There was a decent amount of action all the way through this book - I wouldn't describe it as slow burn necessarily, because things are going wrong left and right. But in the last 20% or so, things really start to escalate. A LOT happens with the Anushka storyline, and you start to connect the dots to what's happening in present day. But I just found that the execution of these crucial end chapters wasn't carried out very well. There are a lot of "shocking" twists, but I just ended up getting more confused than surprised. It doesn't help that certain factors end up mixing names - not to mention the fact that our main character even has two names. Then they throw the face blindness thing in there to top it all off, and it took me a few re-reads of the key chapters to get what was happening.

Overall, this was an intriguing concept and it was successful at creating a creepy, twisty atmosphere, but the execution of the ending just felt a bit off to me. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC via Netgalley!

Eleanor comes face-to-face with her grandma’s killer, but is unable to identifying them due to her inability to recognize faces. She later finds out that she has inherited her grandma’s house; a place full of dark secrets. I was really looking forward to this one since I loved ‘The Lost Village’. Sadly, I found this one all over the place. The switch between past and present was hard to follow and none of the characters were that interesting. I found the prosopagnosia angle gimmicky. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sten does it again! This book was everything-suspenseful, thrilling, twisty, atmospheric, and spine tingling!

I devoured this book, and I absolutely loved the snowy, dark, chilly setting of this book. This book takes place in a small Swedish countryside at an estate that belonged to Vivianne. Eleanor, who suffers from prosopagnosia (facial blindness) , discovers the body of her evil grandmother, Vivianne. Although she had a face to face encounter with the suspect, she is unable to recognize the person. Months after the murder, Eleanor receives a call from the family lawyer stating that she has inherited an estate that belonged to Vivianne, which Eleanor had never heard of before.

Eleanor, her boyfriend, the estate lawyer, and Vivianne's sister, Veronika, travel to the estate, which is called Solhoga, to do inventory on it in order to put it up for sale. What follows is a series of anxiety filled twists, paranoia, and the feeling that someone is watching. The severe snow storm traps them in the eerie creepy house alone together, and Eleanor begins to question who she can trust. She is certain that her grandmother's killer is after her, and experiences so much anxiety and paranoia.

Little do they know that there is more to Solhoga than meets the eye, and the quaint country estate has a dark past, and many buried secrets. Whatever secrets where laid to rest at Solhoga years ago, are being uncovered now, but the group soon wishes they had left the secrets from the past undisturbed and buried.

This book was gripping, chilling, and a page turner. A mix of noir and locked room mystery, it definitely had me on the edge of my seat wanting to find out more and get all of the answers. I really enjoyed the cold, wintery, snowy setting-it was the perfect setting for this twisty tale, and the author did a fantastic job with making this a very atmospheric read (which I always love).

The story goes back and fourth from past to present, where the past and present eventually collide and come together effortlessly, which Sten does an amazing job at. I also really enjoyed the short chapters, it always make it so much easier for me to read a book that has shorter chapters. I will say that the ending did not leave me with that WHOA factor, but the build up and climax of the story which led to the ending was really amazing.

Overall, I highly recommend this eerily chilling book to my thriller friends out there who enjoy noir and locked room mysteries.

The Resting Place (thriller)
Rating: really enjoyed

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur for the advanced copy - all opinions are my own. Full review on bookstagram to come.

What's something that you HAVE to have in a good thriller?
For me, it's usually short chapters. It's crazy how much faster I'll read a book! I also love an isolated setting - it just makes everything feel much more ominious. Lucky for me, this twisty thriller had both of these elements!

This author is SO good at writing a creepy story, to the point of not wanting to read it at night. I read The Lost Village from the author last year and really enjoyed the creepiness factor, and this book is almost equally as creepy, with the setting as an old, remote house full of secrets.

While I loved turning the pages on this one, I still had some lingering thoughts - I'll keep it vague, to avoid spoilers. We know going into the book that Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia (unable to recognize faces), but there needed to be more of how that impacted Eleanor. There also needed to be a bit more development for Vivianne, and Sebastian's character was kind of a dud. That being said, those things didn't impact how much I enjoyed this book. The setting was so creepy, that I flew through the second half, and I definitely did not see the twists coming. This author is officially on my auto-read list!

Content warning: miscarriage, infertility

Read if you enjoyed other thrillers with an isolated setting, like The Hunting Party, The Lost Village, An Unwanted Guest, or The Safe Place

Have you ever heard of prosopagnosia? It’s face blindness, meaning details on someone’s face are unrecognizable. I actually have read a couple of thrillers about this but I thought the author put her own spin on it. The best part of this one for me was the setting, it was claustrophobic and isolated set mainly in an old house and I thought it was a character on it’s own. There was a great sense of underlying tension and dread from the first page to the last and enjoyed both the past and present timelines. I didn’t see the big reveal ahead of time, which is always great and thought the audio narration was excellent and engaging. Overall I enjoyed this one a bit more than the authors last book and if you like creepy books that leave you unsettled try this!

3 stars

For a mystery thriller, The Resting Place is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s in large part saved by its dual timeline (half occurring from Eleanor’s perspective in the present, half written in Anushka’s diary in the 1960s); the present-day pacing is slow and a little stilted, and so glimpse’s into the past as told by Anushka give us a more satisfactory sense of narrative progression.

What’s a little frustrating is that very little is done by our main character, Eleanor, to advance the plot or solve the mysteries of past and present; she and her companions stumble by total chance into plotlines and answers. Eleanor is also a highly unsatisfactory character, which is a real shame, because her setup has a great deal of potential: she’s a young woman with prosopagnosia, a complex grandmother who she both loved and feared, and who has ostensibly made a life for herself outside of her family only to be dragged into the mysteries of her family’s past due to her grandmother’s untimely death. Unfortunately, in the book Eleanor doesn’t live up to this potential; we never hear about any of her life or identity outside of her family and her trauma from witnessing her grandmother’s death. She has no personality outside of being Vivianne’s granddaughter and not wanting to be murdered. I understand that the author really wanted to examine a main character who is unreliable and traumatized, but the way she’s written in practice is just uncompelling.

The ending and wrap-up were also disappointing, in my opinion. The ‘twists’ can be seen coming a mile away, in part because there’s nothing interesting going on outside of those characters, but their ‘twists’ just happen without feeling very psychologically justified, and barely plot-justified. I think I might have been more excited about them if Eleanor and Anushka, our narrators, had more going on in their personalities and lives outside of their being pulled into Vivianne’s orbit, but as it stands, this book feels a little thin to me.

The book gets major points for its setting. I’m a sucker for a grand house in the isolated wilderness, and a snowstorm and blocked road and trope candy to me. If you love an isolation thriller with secrets from the past, this may be a good choice for you to pick up.

Camilla Sten has created another riveting, creepy atmospheric thriller! She writes in such a way that the reader is drawn into the story along with her characters. You can picture the desolate winter setting of the abandoned mansion in this book. Eleanor’s character is mentally damaged and you really wonder if her observations can truly be trusted or are they a product of her mentally fragile state? The tension builds, leaving you glued to the pages because you just have to know how it all will end! An extremely well done psychological thriller!

The Resting Place follows The Lost Village as another psychological thriller by Camilla Sten that will give you chills with its "on the edge of your seat" storyline. As Eleanor reluctantly comes to her grandmother Vivianne's apartment for her usual Sunday dinner, she opens the door to find her grandmother dying on the floor as the killer pushes past her and out the door. What may usually be an indicator that the killer will soon be found is not....as Eleanor has prosopagnosia, and cannot recognize a person's face....its a blank canvas to her. The murder leads Eleanor into family secrets that endanger her and others: boyfriend Sebastian, her Aunt Veronika, as well as Rickard, a lawyer who asked them all to meet at a family mansion to inventory belongings...and yet Eleanor had no idea this property existed. The secrets of the family and the old house eerily unfold through chapters dedicated to a servant/cousin diary that Eleanor finds. The winter setting and isolation of the property as well as the strange things happening have Eleanor questioning her sanity as she is drawn deeper into the secrets and dangers that await her. Ms. Sten has a talent for writing in such a way that the reader can feel the character's fear and uncertainty, but can also make the objects surrounding them add to that "chill on the back of your neck". In reality I would give this a 4.5 starts. I had some confusion with following some of the "past" story. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minatour Bookss for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #SecretsDontDie #NetGalley.

I haven't read this author before and I'm glad I decided to take a chance. I've been wanting a good thriller for a while now and this fit the bill.

I love me some quick chapters and dual timelines so this was perfect for me. It flowed really well and I actually read this in under 24hrs 😂😂

I also really enjoyed Eleanor. I couldn't imagine not being able to recognize people's faces and having to live with that everyday. I have never seen this in a book before and it definitely added to my love for this one. Plus the mystery and twist reveals were great and for once I didn't completely guess the entire secret.

Definitely recommend this one for Thriller fans. Now I need to go back and read The Lost Village by this author. I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

Eleanor's Grandmother was brutally attacked in her home and Eleanor came home just in time to see the killer flee. She has a condition called Prosopagnosia, or face blindness, so although Eleanor saw the killer, she could never recognize them. Shortly after, she finds herself headed to a mysterious mansion in the woods that she and her aunt have inherited from her Grandmother. She never knew this mansion existed and many long buried dark secrets about the mansion and her family will soon be revealed.

This is the second book I've read by this author and both themes are the same - spooky abandoned locations where a group of people encounter macabre events and can't escape. Like The Lost Village, l enjoyed this one and found the storyline interesting. I kept reading because I needed to understand the connections between past and present. It didn't quite suck me in as much as I'd hoped and found myself a bit confused at times, but overall, its a satisfying domestic thriller with a creepy "snowed in with your past" vibe.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me this opportunity in exchange for my honest review.

The Resting Place is a thriller and family drama all rolled into one.

This one missed the mark for me. It was very hard to follow who was who since the names were so similar and some characters had multiple names. There wasn’t enough character development to understand why the characters were behaving so abnormally.

Thank you Minotaur Books and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @stmartinspress @minotaur_books @netgalley for my review copy!

After her grandmother is murdered, Eleanor learns that she left her a remote estate in the woods. Eleanor travels there to settle the estate and learns that her grandmother was keeping some very dark secrets.

I had a hard time putting this one down. I loved the remote setting and Eleanor as an unreliable narrator. However, I wasn’t too crazy with how the author wrapped everything up in the end. I have feelings about it. I enjoyed the journey, but not so much the destination. I’m interested to hear what other readers think.

📚Read this if you enjoy Ruth Ware or if you like books with remote settings and unreliable narrators.

✍️How I rated other books from this author:
The Lost Village 3⭐️

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Resting Place is the second novel I've read from Camilla Sten. The first was The Lost Village, which I read in early-2021 and gave 3.5-stars, not rounding up. While there were aspects of that story I enjoyed, overall I would say I had been hoping for a lot more. I'm happy to report, The Resting Place gave me more.

This story is about Eleanor, who suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. As in, she is unable to recognize facial features. So, when Eleanor walks in on her Grandmother's murder and comes face-to-face with the killer, she is unable to describe the individual after the fact.

The grandmother, Vivianne, was a real piece of work. She was not a nice lady and even though she raised Eleanor, she never showered Eleanor with the love that a mother-figure should. She's Lady Tremaine basically. That's the vibe she was giving me.

Time passes and then Eleanor gets a call: 'Hey, hi, hello. So, your Grandmother owns this creepy manor home that she never told you about. It's where you're Grandfather died actually and guess what, now it's yours. We need you to come to the house and work through some estate dealings. Okay? Great, byeeeeeee.'

Eleanor agrees and travels to the property, tucked away in the Swedish wilderness, along with her boyfriend, Sebastian, her Aunt Veronika, and the probate attorney. Once there, the interactions are tense. Eleanor's Aunt definitely inherited the family gene of general bitchiness, so there are some uncomfortable moments.

Additionally, the property itself gives off an abandoned and haunted vibe. They're told there's a groundskeeper there, Benson, but they're unable to locate him. That fact alone puts a dark cloud over the travelers. It's a confusing first day and what's worse, there's inclement weather coming in. Of course!

The Resting Place is told through past and present timelines. In addition to Eleanor's perspective, you also get that of Anushka, who lived at the property decades before working as a housemaid. Sten uses diary entries as a medium for telling some of the past perspective and I really enjoyed that aspect. There's something about getting to read someone else's diary that is just so darn intriguing.

There's also some psychological tension created because of Eleanor's prosopagnosia. The woman literally came face-to-face with a killer and survived. This killer was never caught. He or she could be anywhere, be anyone, and Eleanor has to live with that. How can she trust anyone?

In addition to the tension, this story is full, absolutely over-flowing full, of dark family secrets. The kind of secrets that are hidden from future generations. They're that bad. I love family drama and I love family secrets. I always enjoy watching people's dirty laundry being aired. Call it schadenfreude, call it wicked, call it whatever you like, it's just me.

My biggest complaint with this one is that I found it to be slightly confusing. After I finished reading, I was thinking about it quite a bit, discussing it with my dog, as you do, and I realized, I have a lot of questions. Like here we were at the end, and I had numerous questions about the familial relationships, connections and the conclusion. I'm not sure if I just missed something along the way, or if the questions I have are questions that will arise for other Readers as well.

With this being said though, this is definitely a step up for me from The Lost Village. Frankly, I like that for my relationship with Camilla Sten. We're on an upward trajectory. I love that.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I'm excited to see what Sten serves up next!

Camilla Sten’s latest novel, The Resting Place, is a deliciously dark psychological thriller. Set in the Swedish countryside, the tale is told in two timelines, and the first person POVs of servant Anushka, in 1965, and Eleanor, in the present. When Eleanor, who is afflicted by prosopagnosia—face blindness—finds her grandmother bleeding to death in her apartment, the young woman’s life changes in an instant, going from dutiful granddaughter to becoming the reluctant owner of a mysterious country house called Solhoga, bequeathed to her by her murdered grandmother.
Once Eleanor travels to the house to inventory its contents, the story becomes more of a locked room mystery, as all the action now takes place at Solhoga and its hunting lodge. There is a gothic vibe as mysterious events occur and the secrets “resting” in this house are revealed in an exciting, disturbing plot line, while a blizzard rages outside!
I liked the two main characters, as their inner thoughts were evident in the first person narrative. The protagonist, Eleanor, was insecure and damaged by her childhood experiences and trauma, but also displayed an inner resolve and growth throughout the story. Anushka, whose story is told by her diary entries, is fascinating, and ultimately reveals the sinister secrets held by this twisted family. I enjoyed the contrasts and similarities of these two young women, separated by 50 years and uneven social status.
Sten’s style is beautifully engaging and descriptive, and I think the short chapters enhance the well-paced atmospheric writing as she weaves the two storylines together toward their chilling conclusion.
I recommend this book to readers who enjoy well-written character and plot-driven Nordic noir, and psychological suspense!

Thank you to Minotaur Books for the ARC. This is my honest review.

The Resting Place has tons of atmosphere but little substance.

Eleanor spends her life being confused. She cannot recognize faces. One day, she passes someone coming out of her grandmother’s apartment and then finds her grandmother murdered. Knowing she probably saw the murderer but cannot describe them to the police sends Eleanor tumbling into mental illness. She doesn’t even know the suspect’s gender.

After returning home from the psychiatric hospital, Eleanor is surprised to inherit a country manor from her grandmother’s estate. She, her boyfriend, her aunt, and the estate’s lawyer go there to inventory the property. Eleanor feels off as if someone is watching her. Is it true or is it all in her unstable mind?

How can you construct a modern gothic novel in a world where it is politically incorrect to have a female character make incredibly stupid moves? Make her mentally ill and incapable of recognizing faces.

I was frustrated by the plot’s extremely unlikely setup and frequently too convenient twists. Of course, there is a snowstorm trapping everyone in the house with no cell service. I anticipated the ending early and just had to slog through the rest of the book to prove myself correct. The Resting Place didn’t impress me at all. 2 stars.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Resting Place is completely creepy, haunting and sinister from beginning to end. And I loved it!

Eleanor’s past comes with a very high price. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was young, and her Aunt Vivianne took over her care. Vivianne was a very aloof and judgmental person to begin with, but add a young child to the mix and needless to say she had very little patience. But to Eleanor, she was the only person she could rely on and trust since she did not have very many relatives. Until Vivianne was murdered, and Eleanor unknowingly walked in on the crime.

So, you would think Eleanor would be able to tell the police who committed the crime, or at least give a description of the killer. But Eleanor has something called prosopagnosia which makes a person unable to distinguish or recognize features on a person. Someone who has prosopagnosia must rely on voice recognition and other qualities to know who they are with. Because of this illness she is paranoid and has intense anxiety which she has been treated for consistently over the years. So even though Eleanor saw the killer, she did not hear their voice therefore cannot recognize them.

When a lawyer calls her to let her know that he is settling Vivianne’s property and that includes an estate up in the mountains which Eleanor never knew existed she is stunned. The lawyer, Eleanor, her boyfriend Sebastian and her Aunt Veronika travel to this massive landholding which also includes a home for a caretaker who has lived on the property for over fifty years. How could she never have known this? But he seems to be missing.

Eleanor then finds out her grandfather possibly killed himself on this property. Perhaps that is why Vivianne refused to acknowledge the home, although her Aunt Veronika seems to be well aware of the house, even having spent time there as a child. Why has this never been mentioned?

The house seems frightening and nightmarish with nooks and crannies which one could get lost in, or even hurt. Eleanor believes this house holds past secrets, but what could they be? Out for a stroll she thinks she sees someone watching her. Could this be the elusive caretaker? Then she finds a diary hidden under the floorboards which was written by a maid at the time which details the daily life and struggles of her aunt and grandfather. She begins to question everything she has been told of the life of her family.

Then in the middle of a blizzard, the lawyer goes missing and she realizes something is very wrong and they must leave immediately. But they cannot escape the weather or the house. She may regret ever coming here because the house holds a disturbing past which Eleanor will never be able to understand or get over.

The Resting Place is a book you will not be able to put down. It reads like a ghost story, only some of those ghosts still feel like they are alive. And perhaps will always be.

Thank you #NetGalley #MinotaurBooks #CamillaSten #TheRestingPlace for the advanced copy.

A slow paced, darkly gothic tale of secrets and revelations. If you are looking for a face-paced read, this isn't it - but if you like a slow build and slow burn, this is for you! #TheRestingPlace #NetGalley #JennReviews

Let me just say this book may be for some people. This was just not the book for me. It dragged incredibly to much. The characters had not depth, and I was super bored. I really thought the author could have taken this further. She did have a creepiness in there that was nice, but overall just fell flat.

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
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Eleanor’s grandmother was murdered. The murdered walked right past her, but Eleanor has prosopagnosia (face blindness) and cannot describe them. Months later she is going to spend a few days at the country house her grandmother owned and never told her about. What other secrets could her grandmother have kept from her? Were they worth killing over?
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This book was fantastic!
Let me count the ways:
-The atmosphere of the whole book was creepy and slightly unsettling.
-The POV switched back and forth between the present and the past.
-A creepy secret mansion with a mysterious past, c’mon!
-I was trying to figure out how everything tied together and I guessed one part but not the other. And the one I did guess I didn’t figure out till the halfway point.
-Several shifty characters to wonder about.
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4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I thought this was so well done and thoroughly enjoyed it! If you enjoy atmospheric mystery/thrillers then be sure to add this to your TBR!
Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur books for my physical and digital copies of this book.