Under the Storm is a rural Swedish police procedural. A woman is killed and her house burned to the ground. A bloody man is found wandering in a nearby forest. The man is arrested for the woman’s death. But a local policeman doubts his guilt. As the years pass, the now former policeman is still trying to find the woman’s murderer so the man can be released from prison. Is the policeman irrationally obsessed? Could the murderer just be the man convicted so long ago? Or is the murderer hiding in plain sight within the crime’s small rural town?
All Scandinavian mysteries have a certain cold lonely vibe to them. Under the Storm is no exception. You can cut the atmosphere with a knife. That is my favorite part of this book. No matter what the weather is where you are reading this book, you will be craving a hot chocolate and a warm blanket. Other than the atmosphere, the book is a standard procedural. It goes from point A to point B with no twists at all. Its characters are not very memorable. Despite that, I still enjoyed the atmosphere enough to give the book 4 stars.
Thanks to Hogarth Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.