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Dark Pines (Tuva Moodyson Mystery, #1)

Will Dean

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Sep 20, 2020 Andrea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-foreign-locale, series, city-library, audio, around-the-world-2020, ssop

A vast, dark, Swedish forest, a deaf print-journalist and the suspected return of a serial killer from the past -- these are the main ingredients for this fabulous concoction of Scandi Noir from British ex-pat author Will Dean. It's the first in a series that I'm excited to have discovered for myself.

Tuva Moodyson left a good life in London to return to Sweden when her mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She's landed in Gavrik, which she disparagingly refers to as Toytown, working for A vast, dark, Swedish forest, a deaf print-journalist and the suspected return of a serial killer from the past -- these are the main ingredients for this fabulous concoction of Scandi Noir from British ex-pat author Will Dean. It's the first in a series that I'm excited to have discovered for myself.

Tuva Moodyson left a good life in London to return to Sweden when her mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She's landed in Gavrik, which she disparagingly refers to as Toytown, working for the Gavrik Posten; circulation 6,000. It's not all bad though. After 3 years she's still not sick of the scent of liquorice that pervades the town, courtesy of the liquorice factory, one of it's two main industries. The other positive is her editor, Lena, who is someone she can learn from. Deaf since a childhood illness robbed her of her hearing, Tuva is 100% able. Her hearing aids are a part of her life that is so ingrained she barely even thinks about it (except when it rains), but she does use it to her advantage, for example when she wants to shut out the world and concentrate on her writing.

When a body is discovered in nearby Utgard Forest - a local man shot, and with his eyes removed - connections are quickly drawn to the unsolved Medusa Murders of 20 years ago. Tuva is one of the first on scene and finds herself almost in the centre of the investigation. If she can stay ahead of the media pack, this story could make her career and help her to get away from Gavrik once and for all.

This book has everything - an intriguing main character, a well-paced mystery, lots of thrills and so many red herrings you just know you are in Scandinavia (boom)!! Tuva is smart, gutsy and exceedingly capable, but she's also an outsider so things don't always run smoothly for her. As the story is written in the first person, it's interesting to be inside Tuva's head as she works out how to handle different situations. When she realises she's getting closer and closer to discovering the truth, she doesn't let anything get in her way. As a reader, I honestly couldn't see where the mystery was leading. I did guess the identity of the murderer, but only by accident as I ran through a list of increasingly unlikely options (by which I mean that I didn't really pick it at all).

Maya Lindh's narration was superb - for me, she was Tuva! I was so tempted to roll straight into #2 when I saw it was available at my library, but I made myself practice some restraint. I'll go there soon though, and it will be audio again.

Highly recommended for those who like their thrillers with some grit, or for something a bit different. ...more

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Apr 15, 2021 Andrew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very atmospheric and tense first in series thriller set in a remote Swedish town with a very oppressive forest as character of it's own. The lead character Tuva is a reporter newly arrived on the local paper when a body is found whose injuries mirror those of a series of murders 20 years earlier. Tuva is deaf and this aspect of her character adds to the jeopardy as she is constantly one step ahead of the police which of course raises the question of who is watching her. A real page turner. ...more

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