The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson (Paperback Release)

 

The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson.

Translated by David Warner.

Published in paperback 6th July 2023.

From the cover of the book:

Three women

Three eras

One extraordinary mystery…

1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them.

1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s life in the darkest way imaginable.

2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation.

Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism … and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love…

***********

1899, Paris: Canadian Lucienne, brought to Paris to marry into a society family, is caught up in horrifying situation when her daughters are believed to have perished in a fire that has burned their mansion to the ground. Lucienne is sure that they are still alive, even if no one believes her, and she is consumed by the need to find them through the budding spiritualist community in the city. It is a need that draws her into dark and dangerous deeds.

1949, Quebec: Troubled teenager Lina struggles to fit in in the close knit community of her small Canadian town, where her mother is raising her alone after the death of her husband in World War II. However, her life changes when she strikes up a friendship with an elderly woman who lives in the asylum where her mother works. Lina's eyes are opened to a dark path that might just get her everything she desires.

2002, Quebec: Detective Maxine Grant, reeling from the recent death of her husband and struggling to adjust to life as a solo parent to a teenage girl and a new baby, is called to a shocking crime scene. A former school teacher appears to have brutally stabbed her famous professor husband, but no one can believe that she has committed such a crime... until grisly finds around their rural home begin to paint a very different picture about this apparently respectable couple.

There are secrets here waiting to be uncovered, and it is Maxine's job to delve into the past to establish the how black magic, murder, spiritualism, and women seeking power have resulted in the bloody scene she must decipher.

The Bleeding is the first book in a new series by Queen of French noir, Johana Gustawsson, and it draws you ever so gradually into a world of dark and wicked deeds that chill you to the very core. The story follows three timelines, flipping back and forth between the lives of Lucienne in Belle Époque Paris, where the popularity of spiritualism is really taking hold; of young Lina in 1949, as she tries to navigate the difficulties of growing up in a town where she feels powerless; and 2002, where Maxine Grant is given the unenviable job of trying to solve a crime that becomes ever more bizarre as the threads of the investigation proceed.

At first it is not clear how the stories of these women relate to each other, but as Gustawsson weaves her dark magic, it emerges that there is a complex network of events that have led to the shocking crime scene that Grant is presented with at the beginning of the story. As the plot twists and turns in each timeline, becoming ever darker as threads of witchcraft, satanic rituals, secret societies, and blood magic burgeon, Gustawsson drops her reveals with perfect precision to open your eyes to the shocking truth of how the legacy of Lucienne's history ripples through time... and she saves her most delicious surprises for last! 

This book held me fast from beginning to chilling end, taking the story in directions that completely floored me. Gustawsson's storytelling is superb, blending the horrifying occult elements of this mystery with a cracking crime plot, and contemporary themes of domestic suspense that bring the story very much up to date, at the same time as she immerses you in bloody deeds of the past - and she pulls of this tricky mix with aplomb.

There are some lovely themes running through this book, reflected beautifully in the storylines of the three women. Gustawsson explores motherhood and marriage; the desire for women to be heard and have agency in their lives; and how the role of women has been subverted, especially in religion; throwing up some very thought provoking ideas amongst the more sinister shenanigans, and I have found myself pondering on many of them since reading this book. Lots to talk about here!

This book is stunning in every single way, from concept to cover, and the way in which the little pieces of the puzzle come together is just bewitching. I cannot wait to see how this series develops. 

The Bleeding is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Random Things Tours for inviting me to join this blog tour.

About the author:

Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and television. Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently underway in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding – a number one bestseller in France and the first in a new series – will be published in 2022. Johana lives in London with her Swedish husband and their three sons.

About the translator:

David Warner translates from French and nurtures a healthy passion for Franco, Nordic and British crime fiction. Growing up in deepest Yorkshire, he developed incurable Francophilia at an early age. Emerging from Oxford with a Modern Languages degree he narrowly escaped the graduate rat race by hopping on a plane to Canada – and never looked back. More than a decade into a high-powered commercial translation career, he listened to his heart and turned his hand to the delicate art of literary translation. David has lived in France and Quebec, and now calls beautiful British Columbia home.