A wonderful, traditional crime novel set in Selma Lagerlöf's Värmland, one of the most beautiful Swedish landscapes.
On a cold and snowy New Year’s Eve 16-year old Hedda goes missing in the small town of Hagfors north of Stockholm. As time passes without any news of her, the parents are torn between hope and despair. But a few days later a young, naked girl is found dead, shot in the head. Is it their Hedda?
The journalist Magdalena Hansson has left Stockholm and moved back to Hagfors with her adopted 6-year old son Nils. Her divorce has left her exhausted and depressed, and she is hoping that the quiet and security of her hometown will raise her spirits. Finding something to write about for the local paper is quite a change from her bustling and stressful old job at a Stockholm daily paper.
While trying to get a grip on her new life, she renews old friendships, worries about her son’s long bus trips to his father in Stockholm every second weekend, and asks herself if the quiet of the countryside might be just a little bit too monotonous.
But things change completely as she becomes emotionally involved with Hedda’s disappearance while at the same time chasing a scoop for the paper. The local police are understaffed and Magdalena starts investigating on her own. It turns out that in this remote and peaceful place she thought she knew so well, there are some people who would do almost anything to keep their secrets hidden.
When she starts receiving threatening text messages, evil seems to be lurking everywhere in the dark winter night, and although reluctant at first, she is soon glad to be involved once more with her ex-boyfriend. Was their relationship ever really over?
With warmth and a fine psychological touch, Ninni Schulman knows how to bring her complex characters close to the heart of the reader.