Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman’s tragic death somehow hold the key?

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia’s deepest, darkest winter?

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Three women
Three eras
One extraordinary mystery?
 
1899, Belle Époque Paris.  Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them.

1949, Post-War Québec.  Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s life in the darkest way imaginable.

2002, Quebec.  A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation.

Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism ? and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love?

_________________________________________

‘This novel is a whirlpool that draws you irresistibly into levels of darkness so much deeper than you can possibly be ready for’  Ambrose Parry

‘I found myself racing through the book, always wanting one more page, one more chapter. A wonderfully creepy, unsettling read, with a superb twist in its tail’  James Oswald
 
‘Gustawsson’s writing is so vivid, it’s electrifying. Utterly compelling’  Peter James
 
‘I was hooked from the first page – a stunning and beautifully written gothic thriller full of atmosphere, intrigue and delight’  Alexandra Benedict
 
‘What a brilliant, brilliant book ? the last chapters knocked me sideways, and it’s a long time since that’s happened’  Lisa Hall
 
‘A dark world of elegance and grotesque ? mesmeric’  Matt Wesolowski
 
‘Harrowing, compelling, haunting, vivid, twisty and shocking!’  Noelle Holten
 
‘A powerful page-turner’  Livres Hebdo  
 
‘Fluid, skilful, fearsome and breathtaking ? the ending is horrifying’  La Marseillaise  
 
***NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IN FRANCE***
 
FOR FANS OF Laura Purcell, Elizabeth Macneal, Bridget Collins, Anna Mazzola, Ambrose Parry and Laura Shepherd-Robinson
 
Praise for Johana Gustawsson

***Longlisted for the CWA International Dagger***

‘A satisfying, full-fat mystery’  The Times

‘Assured telling of a complex story’  Sunday Times  

‘A real page-turner, I loved it’  Martina Cole

‘Dark, oppressive and bloody, but it’s also thought-provoking, compelling and very moving’  Metro

‘A bold and intelligent read’  Guardian

‘Utterly compelling’  Woman’s Own

‘Cleverly plotted, simply excellent’  Ragnar Jónasson

‘A must-read’  Daily Express

‘Bold and audacious’  R. J. Ellory
 
‘Gritty, bone-chilling, and harrowing – it’s not for the faint of heart, and not to be missed’  Crime by the Book

‘A relentless heart-stopping masterpiece, filled with nightmarish situations that will keep you awake long into the dark nights of winter’  New York Journal of Book