Recommended - Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson

Until Thy Wrath Be Past
by Asa Larsson
November 2011

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson was made available through LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Asa Larsson's fourth book in the Rebecka Martinsson series, Until Thy Wrath be Past, will surprise you. Yes, it is another skillfully written Scandinavian crime novel. Yes, it is set in the landscape of the far north where cold and snow are a constant companion and isolation is a given. And yes, the crimes are brutal. The unexpected part is the compassion.

This psychological crime novel is infused with a bit of the supernatural and is told from multiple perspectives including the observations of the victim, a local girl found drowned in the spring thaw. This seems like it wouldn't work but the small community of Karuna, in the far north of Sweden, is so dependent on each other for survival and so tightly wrapped together in their secrets, myths, and superstitions that the connection between the dead and the living is imaginable. Visited by the murdered girl in her dreams Rebecka Martinsson, the prosecutor of Karuna, is drawn into the investigation calling on Inspector Anna-Maria Mella for help and risking more than her life in tracking down the communities secrets.

Expect to cringe involuntarily and for the hair to raise on the back of your neck - Recommended

From the publisher - 
"A vivid tale of suspense from one of Sweden's finest crime writers.

As spring arrives in the far north of Sweden, a young woman's body surfaces through the breaking ice of the River Thorne. At the same time, visions of a shadowy figure haunt the dreams of Rebecka Martinsson, a prosecutor in nearby Karuna. Could the body belong to the ghost in her dreams? And where is the dead girl's boyfriend?

Joining forces once again with Police Inspector Anna-Maria Mella, Rebecka finds herself drawn into an investigation that stirs up long-dormant rumors of a German supply plane that went missing in 1943--and of Nazi collaborators in the town, where shame and secrecy shroud the locals' memories of the war.

And on the windswept shore of a frozen lake lurks a murderer who will kill again to keep the past buried forever beneath half a century's silent ice and snow."

Asa Larsson bibliography - 
Rebecka Martinsson series: 
Solstorm (2003) - Sun Storm (2006),  Det blod som spillts (2005) - The Blood Spilt (2007), Svart stig (2006) - The Black Path (2008), Till dess din vrede upphör (2008) - Until Thy Wrath Be Past (2011),
Guds starka arm (2009)