‘How can a dog possibly scream like that?’

The story opens in northern Sweden with a hunt for a wounded bear: a bear that has killed Samuel Johansson's dog. The bear is tracked, and then killed. Human remains are found in its stomach. In the nearby town of Kiruna, Sol-Britt Uusitalo has been brutally murdered, and her seven year old grandson Marcus is missing. What is the connection between these events?

Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson is initially assigned to the murder investigation, until one of her colleagues (Carl von Post) contrives to have her removed. He takes over the investigation and Martinsson takes leave. But she doesn't stop thinking about the case, or looking into it.

There's a second older story woven through the novel. One hundred years earlier when Kiruna was a new town, Elina Pettersson, a young school teacher arrives determined to make a new life for herself. She falls in love, is betrayed and then brutally murdered. The story of who betrayed Elina and who murdered her and why makes sad reading.

The story moves between the contemporary investigations into Sol-Britt Uusitalo's murder, the fate of her grandson Marcus, and the story of Elina Pettersson. The connections between the stories gradually become clearer as does the motive for murder. Rebecka Martinsson has to make a number of choices, and one of them tore at her heart (and mine).

This is my first Åsa Larsson novel, and I'll be looking to read the others. Rebecka Martinsson is an intriguing character, as are some of the others who people the novel. Dogs are also important in this story, with one in particular being a hero. It's black and bleak, but there's hope as well - for some. I found this novel challenging and while I recommend it, it's not for the squeamish.

`The moon is like a cold white goddess in the black sky.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith