The Silver Road by Stina Jackson

Read March 2019. Published 7th March 2019.

Three years ago, Lelle's seventeen year old daughter, Lina, went missing after he dropped her off at a bus stop on the Silver Road, in northern Sweden. Three years, with no news, is a long time and the police seem to be at a complete loss.

Lelle spends the long, light summer nights driving up and down the Silver Road, searching the deep forest for signs of his daughter. He is desperate and slowing losing his grip on reality. His need to find Lina consumes him.

Almost exactly three years after Lina's disappearance, another young girl goes missing from a camping site, off the Silver Road. She looks uncannily like Lina and Lelle is convinced that the two cases are connected. He will not rest until he knows the truth.

Meanwhile, seventeen year old Meja arrives in town with her unstable mother, looking for a new start. Meja is skeptical that this latest move, in a long line of many, will bring about any great change in her life. Her mother, Silje, is a hopeless drunk, with underlying mental problems, who is always convinced that each "new man" will be the answer. Meja has seen it all before, and she is not encouraged by the sight of the latest "new man", or where he lives. It is not until she finds a "new man" of her own, the mysterious Carl-Johan, that she thinks she may have a future here - a future that promises the kind of family life she has never had. However, appearances can be deceptive.

They do not know it, but Lelle's and Meja's fates are about to become intertwined.

There is something about the Scandinavian landscape that has an affinity with a dark thriller, spawning the Scandi-noir genre, and this book exploits that feeling from the start.

Although it seems counter-intuitive that the perpetual light of the summer nights could breed darkness and claustrophia, there is something about the closeness of the forest and the psychological effect of the light that speak of madness.

Lelle is all consumed with his need to find out what has happened to Lina. His desperation is palpable, and is reflected in the brooding landscape around him, but it also drives the story. He cannot allow himself to believe that Lina is dead, because if he does, what will become of him. His search keeps both of them alive.

This is one of the best Scandi-noir thrillers I have read for a long time, and even though this is a translation from the Swedish, none of the intensity seems to have been lost in the process. There are a few red herrings along the way, and although you do start to suspect who is responsible for Lina's disappearance near the end of the book, there are still some surprises to come. The ending itself is pretty bitter-sweet and it made me shed a tear or two. Highly recommended.