Since I can't make up my mind whether to review this in Swedish or English, English wins despite the fact that I did read - well, listened to - this in Swedish. This book felt like an eternity project since I listened to it on audio. I'm a bit disappointed, I had hoped for a more riveting closure to the Öland quartet. Nonetheless, meeting good old Gerlof again was pleasant. There may or may not have been other familiar characters, I'm sorry to say I've forgotten most names from the previous books.

"Rörgast" moves between "present day" (end of the 90's) and the early 1930's, mostly. It is the story of an illegitimate boy, Aron, who moves to a "new country" with his step father. It is also the story of his return, and his vengeance against the family which would not recognize his existence. For all that he has lost.

A little boy, Jonas, a member of the rich family Kloss, gets in the way of Aron. One evening he drifts out to sea and boards a mystery vessel apparently loaded with zombies. When he hysterical arrives at shore, Gerlof's boathouse is the closest safe harbor. Gerlof tries to get Jonas to remember relevant details and to explain what the horrors he experienced really meant. Thus a friendship between Jonas and Gerlof arises. The latter tries to protect the boy from his own family, to no avail. They have their own secrets to keep, particularly about the lost ship.

The characters are wonderful, but the story is long-winded and quite far-fetched. I would have hoped for more. All in all I did enjoy it and I am sad that I will not be encounting Gerlof in any further books. It's quite rare to read books from the perspective of the very old - at least I encounter these quite seldom. Most such books look backward. Gerlof still lives, with his weaknesses and loss of social network.

If you've read the other books in this series, it's quite like you'll like this too, even if it isn't as good.

Back in the USSR...

Young Jonas is spending the summer on the island of Öland at the resort owned by his family, the Klosses. One night, he takes his dingy out onto the sea. Drifting in the darkness, a sudden shaft of moonlight shows a boat approaching and he doesn't have time to get out of the way. He manages to climb aboard the boat before his dingy is sunk, but what awaits him there is the stuff of nightmares – dying men (or are they already dead?) on the deck stalking towards him and calling out in a language he doesn't understand. Terrified, Jonas jumps overboard and manages eventually to swim to shore. He makes for the first lighted dwelling he sees – the boathouse of old Gerlof, who's back staying in Öland for the summer months. Something odd happened to Gerlof too when he was young, so despite the strangeness of Jonas' story, Gerlof believes him - and so is sucked into a mystery that will get darker as the summer wears on...

This will undoubtedly appear in my best of the year list this year. The first two chapters – the one on the boat, and the one about the spooky experience in Gerlof's youth – are brilliantly atmospheric, hooking the reader right from the beginning. And the rest of the book pretty much maintains that high standard all the way through. The next few chapters introduce the various characters, giving a bit of back-story for each and then bringing them all to the island in time for the Midsummer celebrations in 1999. At this point it can be a bit confusing as to how they will all fit into the story but Theorin gives just the right amount of information at each stage to keep the story flowing.

The characterisation is particularly strong. There are several main characters, and the chapters rotate amongst them, all in the third person – Gerlof, a life-long resident of the island, elderly now but still with a curiosity about life that means he gets himself involved in other people's problems; Jonas, visiting the island for the summer and feeling a bit isolated as his brother and cousins consider him to be too young to take along with them; Lisa – a musician and DJ who's working at the resort for the summer; and Aron, who left Öland for the 'new country' as a child and has now come home, though we don't learn why till later. Gerlof is both well drawn and likeable – as a man of 86, Theorin never makes the mistake of having him be some kind of physical hero. Rather he is someone who is good at listening and believing, and at persuading people to talk to him. Aron is enigmatic – it's clear from his first appearance that he's plotting something bad and has a grudge against the Kloss family, but as his story is gradually revealed, it's hard not to find some empathy or, at least, pity for him – some understanding of why he has become who he is.

The bulk of the book is set in the present day, but there's another strand that takes the reader back to time of the Great Terror in the Stalinist USSR, and it is this strand that lifts the book so far above average. I'm not going to say any more about this part of the plot, because the way that Theorin gradually reveals the story is the real strength of the book. But this time of horrors is brilliantly depicted – no punches are pulled, and there are some scenes that are grim and dark indeed. Theorin doesn't wallow, though, and at all times he puts a great deal of humanity into the story which, while it doesn't mitigate the horrors, softens the edges a little, making it very moving at times.

Back in the present, all the various strands are gradually pulled together in the lead up to an explosive thriller finish – well foreshadowed, but still surprising and shocking when it comes. And just to finish off one of the most perfect crime/thrillers I've read in a while, the epilogue is as compelling as the first couple of chapters were. Though this works perfectly well as a standalone, it's the fourth in Theorin's Öland Quartet, with Gerlof as the recurring character who links them. I shall promptly be seeking out the other three. Highly recommended.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Transworld.

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Sérii Ostrov Öland jsem si oblíbila. Stejně tak, jako i jednotlivé aktéry, kteří v ní vystupují. Bohužel to však nestačí k tomu, abych tento díl hodnotila lépe. Ne snad, že by byl napsaný hůř, než díly předchozí. Důvodem je jednoduše téma a příběh sám jako takový. Bohužel, mě prostě nezaujal. Svoji roli v tom také sehrál fakt, že v tomto případě chyběla i ona atmosféra tajemna, a ponurosti samotného ostrova.

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2020/09/22/review-1555-the-voices-beyond/

Probably the worst book of the quartet, but a must read for those who enjoyed the fantastic first three books. If it wasn't for the charming main character, Gerlof, I would even give it two stars. What a great idea to write 4 crime novels all set in the island of Öland in Sweden, one for each season in the year. Outstanding how the Island itself becomes a character more. It reminds me a lot about Peter Mayr's trilogy set in the island of Lewis in Scoltland, also a great read.

Oland is a sleepy island off the Baltic coast of Sweden. Most of the year the locals survive through agriculture and fishing but the island comes alive in the summer as the tourists invade. Eager to make the most of this bonanza the powerful Kloss family have developed a luxury resort on their land. Young Jonas Kloss is visiting his father on a working holiday and one evening he goes out in a small boat, however disaster strikes and his dinghy is mown down by a large ship that appears out of the gloom. The boat, its zombie-like crew and it's illegal cargo are linked to the Kloss family but also to the Homecomer, a man bent on revenge, and Gerlof, a retired seafarer who knows Oland and its people very well.

Starting off in simple and sleepy way, this book ratchets up the excitement and tension all the way to the excellent denouement and epilogue. Oland is old-fashioned and deceptively quiet and that's how the story starts, with an old tale about a burial and with the influx of people to the island for the summer. The backstories of the characters are beautifully handled, some are very explicit such as the Homecomer's life during his exile, some are merely hinted at such as the relationship between Gerlof and John or the reason that Lisa has to steal. By the time that Jonas has encountered the ghost ship, the reader is hooked and the strands begin to come together. This is a beautifully written book that also manages to offer an original take on Scandic-Noir.