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Cover Reveal: The Weekenders – David F. Ross

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Glasgow, 1966: Stevie ‘Minto’ Milloy, former star footballer-turned-rookie reporter, finds himself trailing the story of a young Eastern European student whose body has been found on remote moorland outside the city. How did she get there from her hostel at the Sovereign Grace Mission, and why does Stevie find obstacles at every turn?

Italy, 1943: As the Allies fight Mussolini’s troops, a group of young soldiers are separated from their platoon, and Glaswegian Jamesie Campbell, his newfound friend Michael McTavish at his side, finds himself free to make his own rules…

Glasgow, 1969: Courtroom sketch artist Donald ‘Doodle’ Malpas is shocked to discover that his new case involves the murder of a teenage Lithuanian girl he knows from the Sovereign Grace Mission. Why hasn’t the girl’s death been reported? And why is a young police constable suddenly so keen to join the mission?

No one seems willing to join the dots between the two cases, and how they link to Raskine House, the stately home in the Scottish countryside with a dark history and even darker present – the venue for the debauched parties held there by the rich and powerful of the city who call themselves ‘The Weekenders’.

Painting a picture of a 1960s Glasgow in the throes of a permissive society, pulled apart by religion, corruption, and a murderous Bible John stalking the streets, The Weekenders is a snapshot of an era of turmoil – and a terrifying insight into the mind of a ruthless criminal…

Publishing 13th February 2025 by Orenda Books

Pre-order Print Ebook

Author curated playlist: ‎David F Ross Presents: The Weekenders (1969) by David Ross – Apple Music

David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and has lived in Kilmarnock for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, an architect by day, and a hilarious social-media commentator, author and enabler by night. His debut novel The Last Days of Disco was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and optioned for the stage by the Scottish National Theatre. All five of his novels have achieved notable critical acclaim and There’s Only One Danny Garvey, published in 2021 by Orenda Books, was shortlisted for the prestigious Saltire Society Prize for Scottish Fiction Book of the Year. David lives in Ayrshire.

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Blog Tour: Living is a Problem – Doug Johnstone

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The Skelf women are back on an even keel after everything they’ve been through. But when a funeral they’re conducting is attacked by a drone, Jenny fears they’re in the middle of an Edinburgh gangland vendetta.

At the same time, Yana, a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that plays with Dorothy’s band, has gone missing. Searching for her leads Dorothy into strange and ominous territory. And Brodie, the newest member of the extended Skelf family, comes to Hannah with a case: Something or someone has been disturbing the grave of his stillborn son.

Everything is changing for the Skelfs … Dorothy’s boyfriend Thomas is suffering PTSD after previous violent trauma, Jenny and Archie are becoming close, and Hannah’s case leads her to consider the curious concept of panpsychism, which brings new danger, while ghosts from the family’s past return to threaten their very lives…

Doug Johnstone is the author of seventeen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted for and The Big Chill was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year.

Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs!!

Yep, my favourite undertakers/PI family are back and they’ve got a few cases on their whiteboards. Jenny is following the drones that attack two of their funerals, Dorothy is looking for a missing member of her choir, a Ukrainian refugee, and Hannah is trying to help Brodie, whose infant son’s grave has been tampered with.

Then there’s the ongoing fallout of the previous violent case with Thomas’ former colleagues causing trouble. Could it be connected to any of these new cases?

The dead still need to be tended to, and the body of a homeless Biffy Clyro fan (tattoos that also give the book its title, help the team find some friends of the deceased), and a few more of the new methods they’re using, which I find endlessly fascinating as I agree that there has to be a more ecologically sound way to bury the dead. One of my friend’s is a funeral director for one of the big firms and I am keen to talk about this with him.

I love the Skelfs, I think they’re fantastic and the books are so full of little details and moments. I love the fact they have a wind phone in the garden so people can talk to their loved ones (it’s a genuinely lovely concept from Japan) and I was fascinated by the panpsychism that Hannah is exploring, something I’ve bookmarked to research later.

Doug Johnstone is one of the most interesting writers working at the moment between the Skelfs and the alien creatures of the Enceledon series. His books are enjoyable and sometimes funny but also full of ideas and concepts that make you think. Brilliant stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Prey – Vanda Symon

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On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin. The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.

With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder? But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent that someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey. But is it already too late…?

Vanda Symon is a crime writer from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the President of the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment, Bound and Expectant, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Bound and Expectant have been nominated for USA Barry Awards. All five books have been digital bestsellers, and are in production for the screen. She is also the author of the standalone thriller Faceless, and lives in Dunedin with her family.

My thoughts: I did a happy dance when the lovely Anne sent over my review copy of this book, I enjoy this series so much. Sam is a fantastic character and the crimes she investigates are so well plotted and just twisty enough.

She’s just back from maternity leave, worrying about not being with her daughter, navigating breast milk pumping in the office and getting into a schedule so someone always does the pick up from childcare.

Given a very personal cold case by her awful boss, one where the witnesses are few and far between, that has been open for a long time with no answers. That’s because Sam wasn’t the one on the case. Now she is, she’s a dedicated detective, but the things she uncovers might not be what her boss wanted to hear.

Dealing with the office politics on top of everything else is a lot and if it weren’t for her colleagues, I’m not sure Sam would stick it out. The case is just interesting enough though for her not to bail and run home to snuggle up with her baby.

It’s a doozy, a murdered vicar, his family the last to see him according to the reports from the time. No one left in the church and no obvious suspects. The victim was well liked by his community and no one appeared to have a motive. But as Sam digs, that turns out not to be quite the truth.

I really enjoyed this book, I was so pleased to have more Sam Shepherd in my reading life, Vanda Symons is such a good writer. The case was clever and with some excellent twists and turns. Really good stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Pursued by Death – Gunnar Staalesen, translated by Don Bartlett

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When Varg Veum reads the newspaper headline ’YOUNG MAN MISSING’, he realises he’s seen the youth just a few days earlier – at a crossroads in the countryside, with his two friends. It turns out that the three were on their way to a demonstration against a commercial fish-farming facility in the tiny village of Solvik, north of Bergen.

Varg heads to Solvik, initially out of curiosity, but when he chances upon a dead body in the sea, he’s pulled into a dark and complex web of secrets, feuds and jealousies. Is the body he’s found connected to the death of a journalist who was digging into the fish farm’s operations two years earlier? And does either incident have something to do with the competition between the two powerful families that dominate Solvik’s salmon-farming industry? Or are the deaths the actions of the ‘Village Beast’ – the brutal small-town justice meted out by rural communities in this part of the world.

Shocking, timely and full of breathtaking twists and turns, Pursued by Death reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s greatest crime writers.

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four countries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour). Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted for the award in 2019. He lives with his wife in Bergen.

My thoughts: Varg does manage to find quite a few dead bodies in this book, and annoy quite a few police officers too, as he pokes around a small town, ostensibly looking into the death of a writer two years before, but also the disappearance of a young man a few weeks ago. The missing student’s mother happens to have been the dead man’s partner, and she hires Varg to look into what was ruled an accident at the time.

Even after being warned off by the police multiple times, he can’t seem to leave the current investigation alone. He just can’t help himself, and he’s annoying even more people as he goes. I don’t think he’ll be holidaying in Solvik any time soon.

He’s digging around the local, somewhat controversial, fish farm, there seems to be a link there, but after a bomb goes off at a meeting, he focuses on the locals a little more – the police have got their man, or so they think.

Varg is an interesting character, he’s a natural loner but people are either drawn to him or find him so impossibly irritating. He’s incredibly good at what he does, but never seems to build connections in useful ways (annoying every police officer he meets doesn’t help) and seems to find trouble at every turn, but I really enjoy reading about him. The stories are always so clever and compelling, full of sudden twists.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: One Grand Summer – Ewald Arenz, translated by Rachel Ward

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Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. In order to move up to the next school year in the Autumn, he must resit his exams. So, instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents’ house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.

On the bright side, he’ll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…

The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.

Heartbreaking, poignant and warmly funny, One Grand Summer is an unforgettable, tender novel that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are.

Ewald Arenz, born in Nürnberg in 1965, studied English and American literature and history. He is a teacher at a secondary school in Nürnberg. His novels and plays have received many awards. Ewald lives near Fürth with his family.

My thoughts: Everything feels so much more when you’re young, for Freidrich, having to spend the summer with his grandparents and resit two exams in order to pass the school year seems like a terrible punishment. But instead he gets to know his grandparents better – his stern Grandfather turns out to be more interesting and funny than he thought and his Nana is a talented artist and shares the story of her life, fleeing to West Germany with her two children and mother, then meeting Grandfather.

He also spends time learning to dive, with his friend Johann, sister Alma, and first love Beate. They might go very far, mostly hanging around their home town, but the four form a bond. When tragedy strikes one of them, the other three rally to support them as they struggle.

It’s a bittersweet and evocative read, summoning up all the feelings and intensity of youth. Beautifully written and translated, it captures a summer that will stay with Freider his whole life.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Betrayal of Thomas True – A.J. West

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The only sin is betrayal…

It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses.

Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices.

Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love?

Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal…

A.J. West’s bestselling debut novel The Spirit Engineer won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award, gaining international praise for its telling of a long-forgotten true story. His second novel, The Betrayal of Thomas True, is published July 2024.

An award winning BBC newsreader and reporter, he has written for national newspapers and regularly appears on network television discussing his writing and the historical context of contemporary events.

A passionate historical researcher, he writes at The London Library and museum archives around the world.

My thoughts: set in the world of molly houses, secretive clubs where gay and bisexual men gathered when homosexuality was illegal and men could be hung for the crime of sodomy, The Betrayal of Thomas True relates in slightly Dickensian ways, the story of young Thomas True, who runs away to London from Highgate (then a village outside of London) to stay with his relatives, a macabre uncle and aunt and cousin Abigail, his pen pal. They run a chandlery – making candles, and Thomas asks to apprentice rather than return to his parents.

He meets The community of “mollies” that gather at Mother Clap’s, discovering his place and his true desires there. Unfortunately the men who congregate there are under threat and with a Rat passing their names to the authorities and their friends being killed.

There’s a playfulness to the language – and certainly in the nicknames the mollies use for themselves in their community, as well as in the characters’ daytime names. As Gabriel and Thomas hunt for this Rat, as their friends are arrested and prosecuted, executed and murdered, and as the two fall in love; they see horrors, confront assassins and venture into Bedlam to rescue one of their number.

Georgian London’s dank underworld, it’s sinister demi monde is explored in fascinating and intelligent detail. Despite the darkness of Thomas’ London life, there is some brightness and colour in his misadventures. I found the book thoroughly enjoyable and was sad to reach its end.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Beaver Theory – Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston

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To celebrate the paperback publication of the very funny The Beaver Theory, I am re-sharing my review from the hardback tour. If you’d like a copy, head over to Orenda Books.

Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventure-park entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…

As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…

Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.

In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher…

Warmly funny, quirky, touching, and a nail-biting triumph of a thriller, The Beaver Theory is the final instalment in the award-winning Rabbit Factor Trilogy, as Henri encounters the biggest challenge of his career, with hair-raising results…

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when we made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. In 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula,and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach, Finland (2018) was an immense success, with The Times calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’, and Little Siberia (2019) was shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the prequel to The Moose Paradox, will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios.

My thoughts: we return, for the final time, to the crazy world of adventure theme parks and Henri, the actuary who often seems to wind up solving crimes, instead of his actual job at YouMeFun.

Now living with girlfriend Laura and her daughter, you might think joining the dads club at the school and settling into domesticity, would mean less crime solving and fewer murders. But no, Henri’s ne rivals are a bunch of gangsters, who are attracting all the customers with free entry and free food, but Henri can’t see them lasting long in business. And then the owner is murdered. Which brings the cops to his door, again.

So, in between reassuring his staff and baking cakes to fundraise for the school trip to Paris, Henri sets out to solve a murder, or several, find out what the two dodgy cops are up to, and what this all has to do with horses, before he gets arrested or killed.

Written (and translated) with great wit, this delightfully funny black comedy of theme park shenanigans and espionage, is a wonderful high note for the highly entertaining trilogy to end up. Henri’s life is settled and happy, his crack team at the park are more committed than ever and things just might, finally, be ok.

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Blog Tour: Boys Who Hurt – Eva Björg Ægisdottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

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Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.

At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?

Once again, the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.

Tense, twisty and shocking, Boys Who Hurt is the next, addictive installment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series, as dark events from the past endanger everything…

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva moved to Trondheim, Norway to study for an MSc in Globalisation when she was 25. After moving back home having completed her MSc, she knew it was time to start working on her novel. Eva has wanted to write books since she was 15 years old, having won a short story contest in Iceland.

Eva worked as a stewardess to make ends meet while she wrote her first novel. The book went on to win the Blackbird Award and became an Icelandic bestseller. Eva now lives with her husband and three children in ReykjavÍk.

Victoria Cribb studied and worked in Iceland for many years. She has translated more than 25 novels from the Icelandic and, in 2017, she received the OrðstÍr honourary translation award for services to Icelandic literature.

My thoughts: returning to Iceland’s dark side as Elma returns to work after maternity leave, with a man’s body in a holiday cottage, a violent murder that at first seems to make no sense. The victim doesn’t have any enemies, or close friends. His mother happens to be Elma’s rather odd neighbour, and stuck on paternity leave Sævar has been watching her, curious about her behaviour.

A box found in the attic of Elma’s old place, that has moved with them, contains a diary from the 90s, and possibly an answer to Elma’s case.

I really like this series, the cases have been so clever and twisty  – and this is no different. Elma’s case is all about secrets and a terrible tragedy from years before, some people never forget and never forgive. The writing is so good, I was totally gripped and couldn’t put it down.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Fascination – Essie Fox

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The Fascination is now available in paperback, so to celebrate this excellent Gothic slice of historical fiction I am re-sharing my review from the hardback tour.

Orenda Books

Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘ Captain’ .
Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’ s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.
Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’ s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘ family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.
But it is Theo’ s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…
Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing.

After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then the book publishers George Allen & Unwin – before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.

Always an avid reader, Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club.

My thoughts: this is a dark and beautiful book about three young people facing adversity and danger, finding their family and happiness despite the odds. Keziah and Tilly are twins, but Tilly stopped growing as a child and their father sells them to a stranger – known as Captain.

Their paths cross with Theo, mistreated and abandoned by his miserable and cruel grandfather, dreaming of becoming a doctor.

It is only a few years later when the three meet again that their lives become entangled as Tilly is kidnapped. Together with the twins’ friends they set out to rescue her and discover the truth about Theo’s family and find a home, and a family of their own.

It’s beautiful as well as sinister, amongst the collections of Theo’s grandfather and then that of the doctor. There’s a lovely little twist right at the very end too. And romance blooms for some of the characters, the wicked are punished, people are reunited and wrongs are undone. It’s a bit Shakespearean as it ends with a wedding, as many of his comedies do, which is fitting for Tilly, playing a fairy queen on stage.

The author’s day job as a historian of the Victorian era means this is a well researched and intelligent story, beautifully brought to life, the characters mix with real life figures, and could themselves almost be real, they certainly feel it. Keziah steps out of the page in her chapters, with all the hopes and dreams of a young woman, even amid her reality. Theo too feels very alive, his struggles and desires to make a difference at odds with the rotten world of his grandfather. Magical and moving.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Toxic – Helga Flatland,  translated by Matt Bagguley

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When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.

Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.

But beneath the surface of the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral life of the farm, something darker and less harmonic starts to vibrate, and with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.

Helga Flatland is already one of Norway’s most awarded and widely read authors. Born in Telemark, Norway, in 1984, she made her literary debut in 2010 with the novel Stay If You Can, Leave If You Must, for which she was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Prize. She has written four novels and a children’s book and has won several other literary awards. Her fifth novel, A Modern Family (her first English translation), was published to wide acclaim in Norway in August 2017, and was a number-one bestseller. The rights have subsequently been sold across Europe and the novel has sold more than 100,000 copies. One Last Time was published in 2020 and is currently topping bestseller lists in Norway

Matt is a British, Norwegian-to-English translator, born in Coventry in 1971. I studied at Derby University, and spent several years as a musician and songwriter. In 2001 I moved to Norway, working with graphic design and music, while gradually developing an interest in translation. Now I work full-time with authors, publishers, literary agencies, and film producers – within fiction and non-fiction. From climate science or animal philosophy – to Roman history and Russian punk. I recently translated Simon Stranger’s acclaimed WW2 novel Keep Saying Their Names, and a movie script for the Oscar-nominated director Joachim Trier.

My thoughts: this reminded me a little of Notes on a Scandal, which also concerns an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and her student, but while Mathilde is let go from her job, she isn’t dragged through the press and doesn’t have her entire life destroyed. Instead she escapes to a farm run by brothers Andres and Johannes, where she causes trouble there too.

I found the dual narration of Mathilde and Johannes interesting, at first I couldn’t see how the two would connect, they were so different, Mathilde in Oslo, caring only about herself, Johs on the family farm, weighed down by family history and expectations. They are very different people, although both quite self centered.

Being a pandemic novel, I was worried that it would too much, bring back the collective stress and trauma of those days, but out in the countryside, there seems to be little to no worry about infection rates and social distancing. Except Andres the hypochondriac, a few masks and the cancellation of almost all of Johs’ fiddle lessons (I liked Viggo, he was an entertaining character, I also liked the cows named after film stars).

The ending left lots of unanswered questions and I wonder if the author chose to let us fill in the blanks depending on how morbid or twisted our minds are!

What started off as two separate stories of insular and prickly people, slowly became one narrative with very different perspectives, and was very enjoyable to read. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.