Translated by David Warriner.
Published 20th November 2025 by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
Twenty-three years ago, a young woman was murdered on the Swedish island of Lidingö.The island has kept its silence.
Until now…
As autumn deepens into darkness in Lidingö, on the Stockholm archipelago, the island is plunged into chaos: in the space of a week, two teenaged boys are murdered. Their bodies are left deep in the forest, dressed in white tunics with crowns of candles on their heads, like offerings to Saint Lucia.
Maïa Rehn has fled Paris for Lidingö after a family tragedy. But when the murders shake the island community, the former police commissioner is drawn into the heart of the investigation, joining Commissioner Aleksander Storm to unravel a mystery as chilling as the Nordic winter.
As they dig deeper, it becomes clear that a wind of vengeance is blowing through the archipelago, unearthing secrets that are as scandalous as they are inhuman.
But what if the victims weren’t who they seemed? What if those long silenced have finally found a way to strike back?
How far would they go to make their tormentors pay?
And you – how far would you go?
***********
Autumn, 2023. The body of a teenage boy is found in the forest on the island of Lidingö, bearing all the hallmarks of the murder of a young girl twenty-three years ago - right down to the corpse being clothed in the white tunic and candle headdress associated with Saint Lucia.
Commissioner Aleksander Storm is given the unenviable task of trying to solve the horrifying murder, and he is struggling to see how this can possibly be related to the one so long ago. His job is made doubly difficult when another teenage boy is murdered soon after, his body also dressed up like St Lucia.
French detective Maïa Rehn has fled to Lidingö to leave family tragedy behind. At a literary event on the island she meets Sophia Ackerman, whose grandson Gustav was found guilty of the notorious rape and murder of his girlfriend, Jenny, twenty-three years ago. Gusav later committed suicide, followed by his mother taking her own life too. Sophia always considered him guilty of the crime, unlike his mother, but now she is questioning if he might have been innocent. She asks Maïa to investigate on her behalf.
As Aleks searches for a murderer in the here and now, Maïa begins to delve into the past. The threads of their separate endeavours start to crossover, and they decide to work together. They gradually realise that all the deaths are connected by someone's quest for revenge...
Johana Gustawsson is one of my favourite crime authors, cleverly blending French and Scandi noir elements in one delicious package. And this book, the second in the Lidingö Mysteries series (but can be read a standalone), contains everything I have come to know and love about her writing.
Lidingö is a small, and deliciously claustrophobic, island community haunted by the brutal murder of a young girl dressed as Saint Lucia twenty-three years ago. Every year, when the annual celebration of Lucia comes around again, they cannot help but be reminded of the tragedy. Although the crime was considered an open and shut case, there are people here that know more about past events than they have shared, and when more murders happen amongst them their silence is eventually shattered.
The secrets that lurk here are gradually uncovered through the mutual efforts of Aleks and Maïa, whose narratives drive the story in equal measure. Although Maïa is no longer a serving officer, her investigative contributions add beautifully to the police procedural work of Aleks. They make an impressive double act, caught between their determination to get to the truth of a complicated mess of dark deeds here in Lidingö, and their own shares of personal heartache.
Characteristically of Gustawsson it is not easy to see how all the threads of the story relate to each other at first, but as they weave together you find yourself immersed in a tale that bleeds effortlessly between past and present, and echoes with dark undercurrents of folklore - something she always does with aplomb. The twists and turns are divine, and the whole piece thrums with rich and heartrending themes around the many facets of silence and how their impact leaves scars. I am particularly impressed with the way Gustawsson explores conspiracies of silence and consent when it comes to victims of sexual assault. She uses loss, grief, shame and guilt to great effect too, and examines the complex feelings of parents with powerful insight.
This book is nothing short of a dark and chilling noir masterpiece, best consumed whole. I loved it!
Scars of Silence is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy 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 – 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.
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