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Echoes from the Dead [Paperback]

Johan Theorin (Author), Marlaine Delargy (Translator)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 25, 2008
On a gray September day, on an island off the coast of Sweden, six -year -old Jens Davidsson ventured out of his backyard, walked out into a fog, and vanished….Now twenty years have passed, and in this magnificent debut novel of suspense—a runaway bestseller in Sweden—the boy’s mother returns to the place where her son disappeared, drawn by a chilling package sent in the mail… In it, lovingly wrapped, is one of Jens’ sandals—sandals Julia Davidsson put on her son’s feet that very last morning.

Now, with only a handful of clues, Julia and her father are questioning islanders who were present the day Jens vanished—and making a shocking connection to Öland’s most notorious murder case: the killing spree of a wealthy young man who fled the island and died years before Jens was even born. Suddenly the island that once seemed so achingly familiar turns strange and dangerous… Until Julia finds herself facing truths she never imagined—about what really happened on that September day twenty years ago, about who may have crossed paths with little Jens in the fog, and how a child could truly vanish without a trace…until now.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set predominantly on the Baltic island of Öland, Theorin's deeply disturbing debut will remind many of Henning Mankell both in its thematic intensity and dark tone. Two decades after the unsolved disappearance of a young boy, Jens Davidsson, who vanished one foggy autumn afternoon in 1972 and was presumed to have drowned, Jens's grandfather, Gerlof, a retired sea captain, receives one of Jens's sandals in the mail. Gerlof enlists his alcoholic daughter, Julia, who's still struggling to come to grips with the loss of her only child, to help solve the mystery. All leads point to infamous thug Nils Kant, who was rumored to have killed numerous people. But Kant allegedly died years before the fateful day that Jens disappeared, so who could've killed the boy? And why? Further investigation leads the unlikely sleuths to some startling revelations about their isolated island community and its much-storied history. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Another winner of Sweden’s Best First Crime Novel Award, and another excellent crime novel. In the 1970s, on the island of Oland, a small boy disappears in the fog. For 20 years, his mother puts her life on hold until her father calls and says he has a clue. Returning to the island is hard for Julia, and she packs two bottles of red wine for assistance. Arriving at her childhood village, she is quickly drawn into her father’s circle of elderly friends, all interested in helping solve her son’s disappearance, but the solitary (and somewhat endearing) pensioners are not always willing to share clues. Julia’s modern-day search alternates with historical scenes from the life of Nils Kant, the village scapegoat and a suspect in the disappearance. This narrative strategy for drawing in the reader and advancing the story is reminiscent of Jo Nesbo’s outstanding Redbreast (2007), and it works equally well here. Julia finally faces her grief and begins to heal even as she begins to understand the many mysteries buried in the island’s history, giving the novel a hopeful and uplifting ending. The island, though vividly rendered, will not seem particularly foreign to American readers, and the fully fleshed characters and excellent plot should appeal to all crime and thriller readers. Essential for all crime collections. --Jessica Moyer

Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Delta (November 25, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385342217
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385342216
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Throughout his life, Johan Theorin has been a regular visitor to the Baltic island of Oland, where his books are set. His mother's family - sailors, fishermen and farmers - have lived there for centuries, nurturing the island's rich legacy of strange tales and folklore. A journalist by profession, Johan lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.

 

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Echoes from the Dead" by Johan Theorin, November 30, 2008
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
Echoes from the Dead

Review is of a prepublication copy furnished for review through librarything.com by The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, A Division of Random House.

Twenty years ago Julia Davidsson's 5-year-old son Jens disappeared into the fog on the remote Swedish island of Öland and was never found. Everyone except Julia believes Jens wandered down to the shore and drowned. Unable to accept that her son is dead, Julia withdraws from her family and stumbles through life using alcohol and medication to deaden the pain of not knowing. Then, after all these years, her father Gerlof calls to tell her that someone has sent him one of Jens's sandals in the mail; so Julia returns to Öland to try, once again, to find her son.

Johan Theorin's "Echoes from the Dead" is an absorbing mystery that works on several levels: as a classic whodunit that keeps the reader guessing up to the last few pages, as a horror story with scenes that slowly pull the reader reluctantly forward, and as a family story that examines how tragedy cuts at the ties that bind and leaves them hanging by fragile threads. It is a story that unfolds across and between time periods starting with the day Jens disppears, then flowing back and forth between present and past: from Gerlof at the nursing home holding Jens sandal in his hand to before World War II where we pick up the life of Nils Kant, who supposedly died and was buried long before Jens disappeared but who Gerlof suspects is somehow involved in his grandson's disappearance. Above all, the novel is the story of a landscape, the island of Öland, that Theorin presents as a central character with a life and history of its own--a landscape that interacts with all its human inhabitants and drives their behaviors.

"Echoes from the Dead" is, on every level, an immensely satisfying experience no matter how you want to approach it.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Worthwhile Read; Fascinating Swedish Setting, July 13, 2009
By 
zorba (Bala Cynwyd, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
After reading "Echoes From the Dead", one feels he has lived his life on the once-remote island of Oland, off the east coast of Sweden. Through the eyes of the mostly elderly residents of the foggy, rainy (at least in winter) island, a riveting tale emerges. It starts off simply -- the death of a boy -- but the plot soon twists and turns and becomes more and more complex by the page. In like fashion, the suspense increases exponentially and by the end of the book, the surprises come rolling in like waves off the Baltic Sea. As others have pointed out, this book succeeds on several levels: a whodunit, a travelogue of a mysterious, almost mystical place; and a compelling novel about a community, its people and their blood-deep relationships with each other. The characters are well-drawn and memorable. The plot is (mostly) believeable and not too reliant on coincidence. All in all, a very good book by a promising author.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very satisfying, January 12, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
I can't add much to Librarian's insightful review, except "Ditto". What I liked best about the book was the realism of the relationships. Nothing was forced. I also appreciated that the somewhat convoluted mystery actually made sense. That doesn't always happen with a twisty plot.
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