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Jan 30, 2021wcbind421 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
All is not well in Sweden. It's beset by the same nativist, white supremacist hatreds as the U.S, even in Tilltorp, a dwindling small village where former Uppsala police detective Ann Lindell has moved for a bucolic life learning to make artisanal cheeses. A fatal New Year's Eve arson fire at the old school building in which some Afghan refugees were living remains open and unsolved. A suspicious second fire in which a woman dies brings the Uppsala detectives, Ann's former colleagues, back to investigate. Are the two fires related? Are the arsonists of the first fire also tied to a theft of explosives used in a terrorist bombing? Ann works her contacts and provides crucial information to her former colleagues. The cops doggedly tracking down the clues are Sammy Nilsson and his new partner Bodin. While there are plenty of characters who get killed, they happened "off-stage", so it's not shockingly violent like many Scandinavian murder mysteries. The author explores the lives and circumstances of several villagers, both elderly and marginalized, with insight and compassion.