Under the Snow: A Novel [Paperback]

Kerstin Ekman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999

From the author of Blackwater comes this atmospheric and chilling tale of small-town secrets and jealousy set in the icy northern landscape of Lapland. When an artist named Matti is killed at a mah jongg party, Police Constable Torsson skis to the remote village of Rakisjok to investigate. Once there, witnesses evade the constable's questions and insist that Matti walked off into the wilderness and froze to death. With no clues to go on, Torsson closes his case. Then David, an old friend of Matti's, arrives in town and together with Torsson, he sets out to get at the truth about Matti's death.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From the author of Blackwater (LJ 1/96) comes another psychological thriller set in a small village in northern Sweden. It is the dead of winter when Police Constable Torsson receives a call from Rakisjokk that artist and teacher Matti Olsson has been killed, forcing Torsson into a 25-mile trek on skis across the frozen lake. When he arrives, however, the inhabitants are strangely reticent, stories do not match one another, unexplainable details appear, and Torsson is unable to blame anything except the fearful cold for Olsson's death. It is only by accident that the case is reopened when Olsson's unsuspecting friend David Malm makes a summer visit and encounters a girl who has hit a reindeer with her car. In the car, Malm discovers a knapsack containing a bloody noose covered with human hair, and he forces Torsson to return to the isolated community, now bathed in perpetual sunlight. Slowly and painfully, the two penetrate the peculiar psychology of people who live half their lives in darkness, cut off from the rest of the world. Ekman's brilliant evocation of a place and culture above the Arctic Circle is as compelling and mysterious as the crime itself. Highly recommended.?Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ekman's first novel to appear in English, Blackwater (1996), was greeted with widespread acclaim here. This much earlier work, originally published in Sweden in 1961, is less accomplished, though not without merit. A phone call from a remote north Sweden village sends police constable Thorsson on a journey across a frozen lake to investigate the death of an art teacher. The few inhabitants of the isolated village are closemouthed about what happened, leaving Thorsson to conclude that the death was accidental. Then a friend of the victim turns up, stirring the pot and forcing Thorsson to reopen the investigation. Landscape is the driving force here, as the endlessly dark winters and oppressively sunlit summers take their toll on fragile human emotions. If the plot seems oddly unformed, and the characters never quite lose their arctic chill, the vivid setting still holds one's interest. Watch for more Ekman; along with Henning Mankell, she brings the richness of the contemporary Swedish mystery to an English-speaking audience. Bill Ott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312200382
• ISBN-13: 978-0312200381
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read, June 7, 1999

By 

Leigh Munro - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under the Snow: A Novel (Paperback)

Having read Blackwater, I bought this book eagerly. I enjoyed it, but the fact that this is an early work shines through. Some of the plot structure seemed clumsy, although it was not clear to me whether this was the fault of the translation. I was not keen on Torsson's side-kick - he was a very immature character and deserved a good slap at times!!!

However, the north of Sweden and the land of the Arctic Circle is a fascinating location for a crime novel. The story is engrossing and different and I doubt any reader will be overly disappointed. If you are a fan of the author, you will find the development of her skills quite fascinating - nearly 30 years separates this novel and Blackwater. I for one am intrigued and want to read more of this author - let us hope she is translated more often.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mystery set in a Sami village during the Polar Night, December 14, 1998

By 

I. Brown "I.B." - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Under the Snow (Hardcover)

Ekman, a resident of Lappland, sets her story in a small Sami (Lapp) village. A murder occurs and a police team is despatched in the dead of winter; the Polar Night. The mystery develops as the murdered artist's friend starts asking questions of a deeply secretive community. Ekman transports the reader to the north of Sweden and hauntingly creates a scene of dark winter and a closed society. The mystery has unexpected twists and wonderful characters that enspire humour, sympathy and contempt; often together! The site of the tale is unusual and evocative. Reading this book in winter will draw shivers; in summer you can smell the birches. i read the book in the far north of Sweden during my first winter there and I can promise you I welcomed the lights of my home and the warmth of the heating during the winter passages. Ekman has created a tale more accessible than Blackwater was and one which I think evokes Lappland better. As a Swede she has also managed to convey the relationship between Swedes and Sami in a realistic manner- no mean feat.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying, well-written mystery, November 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Under the Snow (Hardcover)

Having previously enjoyed Kerstin Ekman's mystery Blackwater I was delighted when her most recent effort, Under the Snow, appeared on the shelves of our local library. Like her earlier book, Ekland (who writes in Sweedish) sets her story in the harsh world of the artic circle, and makes the climate and landscape central to her plot. This novel tells the mysterious death of a man named Matti, apparently killed in a brawl at a mah-jongg party turned sour. Initial police investigation revealed nothing, and it is only the arrival of Matti's inquisitive friend David the following summer which re-opens the case. I will not spoil the surprises -- and they are many -- by describing the plot. I will say that with this book, unlike many mysteries which seem (at least to me) to have all the writerly craft of a vacuum cleaner owner's manual, Ekman carries the reader along as much with her sly prose as with the plot. A particularly effective devise is writing the penultimate chapter in the first person of the villian, when the rest of the book is in the third person, generally from the viewpoint of David and the somewhat ineffective policeman, Torsson. The reader does have to pay close attention, though, or a key turn of events or clue will quietly slip by. Before Blackwater was translated to English, Ekman had written seventeen novels in Swedish. I, for one, hope that her publisher makes available to us these earlier works.