Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

 

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson.

Translated by David Warriner.

Published 23rd November 2023 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she's asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman's tragic death somehow hold the key?

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia's deepest, darkest winter…

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Art appraiser Emma Lindahl is sent by a prestigious auction house to value the rumoured treasure trove of antiques at the manor house of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, the Gussmans. She is anxious to live up to the responsibility placed upon her, but the location of the manor house on the island of Storholmen makes her feel uneasy, given the island's connection to the brutal murder of a young girl nine years ago.

When Emma arrives at the house, the sheer scale of the job ahead of her does nothing to alleviate her nerves, especially as the Gussman family seem almost hostile to her presence. Moving from room to room on the ridiculously strict timetable dictated by the family, the days begin to blur into one, despite the remarkable array of artefacts within them... until she makes a shocking discovery that could be a piece of the puzzle to the mystery of the murder that has made this island infamous.

Detective Karl Rosén is tortured by his inability to solve the murder of 'the hanging girl' on the island of Storholmen nine years ago. When the body of another young girl is found in the freezing waters off the island, bearing similar marks, he is hopeful that her death may unlock the answers to these bizarre ritualised killings. Emma's discovery brings her and Karl together, and they unexpectedly find themselves teaming up in an attempt to finally bring a murderer to justice, but they are unprepared for the secrets from the past that they uncover - secrets of Viking rites and dark deeds that touch upon their own tragedies...

Johana Gustawsson is the queen of the a gritty noir crime story threaded with the icy chill of horrors from your darkest nightmares, and in Yule Island she proves once again that she can do this with consummate skill. This novel is packed with troubled characters hiding secrets, including Emma and Karl our unlikely crime-busting pair, and the deeply unsettling location of Storholmen makes the ideal backdrop for Gustawsson to weave her spell-binding magic against.

In a masterclass of plotting and misdirection, the story unfurls in the past and present with elements of fast-paced, macabre treasure hunt, and slow-burn Gothic hair-raiser, which come together in a delicious whole. Gustawsson subtly seduces you into falling into all her well-laid traps, before flooring you with oh so beautifully contrived twists and turns - which I promise, you will not see coming - and to top it all, in a spark of absolute genius, she drops in a moment of exquisite clarity that only the very best writers can pull off.

Bursting with echoing themes of motherhood and madness, Viking rituals and intense relationships, this is a novel which completely consumes you and scares you witless. The unbearable tension, the claustrophobic atmosphere, the visceral chills, and the images Gustawsson conjures in your imagination... all this will linger long after you have closed the cover on this stonking thriller. I am so impressed with the work of translator David Warrinder here too, maintaining pace and spot on tone throughout.

Yule Island easily makes on to the list of my books of 2023, folks. It is, quite simply, sublime.

Yule Island is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats. You can support the best of indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of 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 – was 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.