1794

Starred review from December 19, 2022
Mysteries don’t come much rawer than Natt och Dag’s gut-wrenching and moving page-turner, his second featuring Stockholm watchman Jean Michael Cardell (after 2019’s The Wolf and the Watchman). Erik Three Roses, an 18th-century nobleman who’s hospitalized, believes himself a murderer. Flashbacks recount how Erik, a younger son with no prospects, fell in love with Linnea Colling, the daughter of one of his father’s tenants. His father strenuously opposed their marriage plans, and Erik was exiled to Saint Barthélemy, a Swedish colony dominated by the slave trade in the Caribbean. Unexpected developments enabled him to return home and wed, but his joy turned to despair when he awoke from his honeymoon night to find his bride torn apart and his own body soaked in her blood, leading to his hospitalization aimed at curing his mental illness believed responsible for the slaughter . In 1794, Linnea’s mother dismisses the theory that her child was mauled by wolves—and she also can’t credit that Erik killed Linnea. Cardell accepts her request to investigate and gets drawn into the heart of human darkness. Natt och Dag expertly combines fully realized, flawed characters with vivid period detail. This tale of the cruelties that people are capable of inflicting on each other will leave few readers unshaken. Agent: Federico Ambrosini, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).