Review: Still Waters (Sandhamn Murders #1)

Author: Viveca Sten

Started reading: July 8th 2020

Finished the book: July 11th 2020

Pages: 387

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime

Published: October 1st 2015

Source: Borrowed the book

Goodreads score: 3.69

My score:

Synopsis

On a hot July morning on Sweden’s idyllic vacation island of Sandhamn, a man takes his dog for a walk and makes a gruesome discovery: a body, tangled in fishing net, has washed ashore.

Police detective Thomas Andreasson is the first to arrive on the scene. Before long, he has identified the deceased as Krister Berggren, a bachelor from the mainland who has been missing for months. All signs point to an accident—until another brutalized corpse is found at the local bed-and-breakfast. But this time it is Berggren’s cousin, whom Thomas interviewed in Stockholm just days before.

As the island’s residents reel from the news, Thomas turns to his childhood friend, local lawyer Nora Linde. Together, they attempt to unravel the riddles left behind by these two mysterious outsiders—while trying to make sense of the difficult twists their own lives have taken since the shared summer days of their youth.

My thoughts

I had heard about this series but never really looked in to it. When my mother-in-law was reading this one, and I asked about it, she was positive, so I got curious. I borrowed the book and as you can see, finished it within 3 days. I'm mildly in love with the Scandinavian countries, so I was happy that Sweden is the spot where this book takes place. The characters were well written and the plot was good.

Pros

• Characters: The characters were written so well. The author takes the time to give them layers and depth and a history. I loved that the main character plays or played handball, that's something you don't see often. It was fun to have a hobby in common that's not all that well known. It is pretty big in Sweden, though and that's why it fit the character and the country this takes place in.
• Setting: Next to taking the time for the characters, the author does the same with the setting. Every time you switch places in this book, the author makes sure you know what the weather is, what the surroundings look like and stuff like that. In this book I could almost smell the sea and feel the beach sand between my toes!
• Relationships: The relationships between all the different characters in this book were interesting. I loved Nora, she intrigues me and I was especially fond of reading all the scenes that featured her.
• Plot: The plot was amazing! We go along with the characters in solving this mystery and only and the end of the book I got a little hunch of what was going on. I'm sure not a lot of people will be able to guess it, even though the author throws little clues your way.

Cons

Nej.

Overall

I just found out that this series already contains 10 books, so I'm in for a treat. I already got my hands on the second book, by borrowing it from somebody, again! I can't wait to see if it's that good and I really hope I'll stay hooked to this series. I'm definitely curious to see how the things in this beautiful crime/mystery series in Sweden will develop.

Thanks for reading!

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