I wasn't able to download and read this book due to a bad flare up of lyme disease. I apologize to Netgalley and the publisher and author.

I have to say, this book didn't quite end up being what I had expected. Elements of it surprised me in a good way and I found myself drawing plenty of favourable comparisons to previous works I had read (Hannah Kent's 'Burial Rites' springs to mind here). But some elements of this book lacked proper execution and it's for this reason that, at the end of it all, I only found it 'okay'.

I'll start with what I really enjoyed - the atmosphere. Books that study human behaviour but bring in elements of the supernatural are always something I like to read, especially when nature itself works for or against the characters. There's something about the unpredictable, wild nature of an environment (in this case the surrounding marshes, mountains and bitter winter) that is fascinating to read about. Ekbäck did a great job with making her descriptions very easy to visualise and eerie, and that never stopped. Her characters were well constructed and the 'whodunnit' mystery itself was a good one. It was fun to see women/girls taking the detective role here, and Ekbäck made sure that every little thing they (and other's) did or said was important in unveiling the mystery.

That being said, this book also felt like hard work. It was slow building and contained so many sub-plots and story arcs that some felt distracting and unnecessary. Every so often, random 'twists' that had no bearing on the story were thrown in to try and keep the appearance of a moving plot, and while I liked Frederika's story-line, I really didn't connect with what was going on 'spiritually' and why. The ending failed to tie up a lot of the loose ends for me, and my understanding of the synopsis of the next book in this series says that I won't get any answers there. If you're a fan of good writing, historical thrillers and wild, daunting settings then this will be a great read. But bear in mind this is not a book that necessarily finishes what it started.

This book was hard for me to get into and follow the plot and characters. I never "warmed" up to the storyline.