The bachelorette party

A true-crime obsessive joins an old friend's bridal party with ulterior motives in this predictable thriller from Swedish suspense novelist Sten (The Resting Place). In 2012, four young women arrived on Isle Blind, a sliver of land in the Baltic Sea, for their annual get-together. They never returned home. Authorities concluded that the women died in a boating accident, but speculation about the "Nacka Four"--so named for their Swedish hometown--ran high among island residents and internet sleuths. Ten years later, Isle Blind is the site of a luxe new yoga resort complete with sunrise sessions and vegan catering. Tessa, a recently disgraced crime podcaster who has long been obsessed with the Nacka Four, is intrigued to be invited to the resort for her friend Anneliese's bachelorette party. Though Tessa feels like "a fuckup" compared to Anneliese's other bridesmaids, she accepts the invitation, hoping she might resurrect her career by cracking the case of the Nacka Four. Instead, more bodies pile up. Sten fashions a promising setup, but the narrative meanders on its way to an obvious yet overheated conclusion. This is nothing special. (June)

Sten's first English-language thriller, following two novels translated from Swedish, takes a bride and her wedding attendants on a yoga-themed trip to a deserted island. Guess what happens. Isle Blind, a scrap of land accessible only by boat, is home to Baltic Vinyasa, whose owner, Irene Sperling, is happy to welcome family therapist Anneliese and five of her buddies to the new mini-resort before it opens to the public. It would be the perfect venue if only four women hadn't gone missing from the island 10 years ago under mysterious circumstances during their own annual get-together--and if Carl von Thurn, the husband of one of them, hadn't vanished himself eight years later, leaving behind what sounds a lot like a suicide note. But there's a silver lining to every cloud. Tessa Nilsson, one of Anneliese's guests, hopes against hope that she can revive her career as a true-crime podcaster, which was tanked when an interview concerning another cold case ended up having a devastating impact by digging up more information about the earlier disappearance and taking it public. Her preliminary inquiries of Adam, Baltic Vinyasa's chef, lead only to his warning not to bring the subject up to Irene, whose sister, Matilda, was one of the four women who vanished back in 2012. It's only a matter of hours before the string of disappearances extends to the present, this time with an unmistakably violent edge. The events that follow are just as harrowing as in Sten's two Swedish novels but a lot faster-paced. A fairy tale for grown-ups that's wildly implausible at every stage, and just plain wild. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.