The darkest room

Johan Theorin, 1963-

Book - 2009

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MYSTERY/Theorin, Johan
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Subjects
Published
New York : Delta Trade Paperbacks 2009.
Language
English
Swedish
Main Author
Johan Theorin, 1963- (-)
Other Authors
Marlaine Delargy (-)
Physical Description
438 p. : map ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780385342223
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Theorin's second novel, after Echoes of the Dead (2008), again takes place on the Swedish island of Öland and features, in a secondary role, amateur sleuth Gerloff. He gets involved in a new investigation after his great-niece, Tilda, becomes the officer in charge of a drowning case. The victim, Katrine, a seemingly happy wife and mother, had only recently moved to the old lighthouse keeper's house on Eel's Point; her devastated husband, Joakim, is left alone in the huge and possibly haunted house as winter sets in on the island. As Joakim deals with his grief, Tilda doggedly investigates both Katrine's death and a rash of burglaries. The modern-day plotline is framed by multiple stories tied to the names and death dates that are carved on the wall of the cavernous barn on the Eel's Point property. The island of Öland comes alive in Theorin's telling, which works both as an atmospheric thriller and as a psychological study of crime and grief. The Darkest Room is among the very best of Scandinavian crime thrillers. Suggest to readers who liked Alvtegen's Missing (2008), Mankell's new work of literary fiction, The Italian Shoes (2009), or the more traditional but equally atmospheric thrillers by Asa Larsson.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2009 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

At the start of Theorin's intense and atmospheric thriller, his second after Echoes from the Dead, Stockholm schoolteacher Joakim Westin has just joined his wife, Katrine, and their two young children at their new house on Eel Point on the northern island of öland. When Katrine mysteriously drowns in shallow water near Eel Point's twin lighthouses, Joakim can't shake the feeling that Katrine is still with him. Though the police declare Katrine's death an accident, a new rookie cop in the area, Tilda Davidsson, isn't convinced and quietly pursues her own investigation. Joakim and Tilda's paths intertwine as they both uncover disturbing secrets about Eel Point's past. Theorin crafts a modern ghost story, expertly weaving together the present with glimpses into the lives-and deaths-of Eel Point's previous residents. Fans of dark Scandinavian crime fiction will welcome this new voice. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

One-hundred-and-fifty years of dark doings come to a head in a Christmas Eve whiteout on the Swedish island of land. For the first seven years of their marriage, Joakim and Katrine Westin have leapfrogged from one fixer-upper to the next, refurbishing each one before selling it and moving on to the next. But the manor house in magnificently desolate Eel Point feels as if it may be their final destination. And so it is for Katrine, who's drowned while Joakim is back in Stockholm packing up the last of their things. Rookie police officer Tilda Davidsson finds it hard to believe that Katrine went out in the cold after lunch and simply fell or jumped into the icy sea, but there's no evidence to support her suspicion of murder. A series of audiotaped interviews with her great-uncle Gerlof, however, adds further layers to the blasted history of Eel Point, which a series of flashbacks indicates has been cursed ever since the house was built from timbers salvaged from an 1846 shipwreck. Katrine's own family, including her painter mother and her famous painter grandmother, is particularly troubled. No wonder the place is home to a good deal of other suspicious behavior, from a series of wantonly destructive burglaries in the neighborhood to Katrine's spooky posthumous visitations to Joakim and their children. The Swedish landscape Theorin (Echoes from the Dead, 2008) presents as if in an endless single breath is as bleak as Henning Mankell's, but a lot more eventful. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Chapter One A high voice called through the dark rooms. "Mom-my?" The cry made him jump. Sleep was like a cave filled with strange echoes, warm and dark, and waking up quickly was painful. For a second his consciousness could not come up with a name or a place, just confused memories and thoughts. Ethel? No, not Ethel, but . . . Katrine, Katrine. And a pair of eyes blinking in bewilderment, seeking light in the blackness. A second later his own name suddenly floated up from his memory: Joakim Westin. And he was lying in the double bed in Eel Point manor house on northern Oland. Joakim was at home. He had been living here for one day. His wife, Katrine, and their two children had been living on the estate for two months, while he himself had only just arrived. 1:23. The red digits on the clock radio provided the only light in the windowless room. The sounds that had woken Joakim could no longer be heard, but he knew they were real. He had heard muffled complaints or whimpers from someone sleeping uneasily in another part of the house. A motionless body lay beside him in the double bed. It was Katrine; she was sleeping deeply and had crept toward the edge of the bed, taking her coverlet with her. She was lying with her back to him, but he could see the gentle contours of her body and he could feel her warmth. She had been sleeping alone in here for almost two months-Joakim had been living and working in Stockholm, coming to visit every other weekend. Neither of them had found it easy. He stretched a hand out toward Katrine's back, but then he heard the cry once again. "Mom-my?" This time he recognized Livia's high voice. It made him throw aside the cover and get out of bed. The tiled stove in one corner of the bedroom was still radiating heat, but the wooden floor was freezing cold as he put his feet on it. They needed to change things around and insulate the bedroom floor as they had done in the kitchen and the children's rooms, but that would have to be a project for the new year. They could get more rugs to see them through the winter. And wood. They needed to find a supply of cheap wood for the stoves, because there was no forest on the estate where they could go and cut their own. He and Katrine needed to buy a whole lot of things for the house before the real cold weather set in-tomorrow they would have to start making lists. Joakim held his breath and listened. Not a sound now. His dressing gown was hanging over a chair, and he put it on quietly over his pajama trousers, stepped between two boxes they hadn't unpacked yet, and crept out. He immediately went the wrong way in the darkness. In their house in Stockholm he always turned right to go to the children's rooms, but here they were to the left. Joakim and Katrine's bedroom was small, part of the manor house's enormous cave system. Outside was a corridor with several cardboard boxes stacked up against one wall, and it ended in a large hall with several windows. They faced onto the paved inner courtyard, which was flanked by the two wings of the house. The manor house at Eel Point was closed off to the land, but open toward the sea. Joakim went over to the windows in the hall and looked out toward the coast beyond the fence. A red light was flashing down there, coming from the twin lighthouses on their little islands out at sea. The beam of the southern lighthouse swept over piles of seaweed at the water's edge and far out into the Baltic, while the northern tower was completely dark. Katrine had told him that the northern lighthouse was never lit. He heard the wind howling around the house and saw restless shadows rising down by the lighthouses. Waves. They always made him think of Ethel, despite the fact that it wasn't the waves but the cold that had killed her. It was only ten months ago. Excerpted from The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.