Swedish Lappland, 1717: The two daughters of Maija stumble upon the body of a killed man on the Blackåsen mountain. Everyone thinks that the killed man has been mauled by a wolf, but Maija believes that he has died by the hand of a man. One of the few settlers on the mountain has to be the murderer and whilst she is struggling with the abscence of her husband, the numerous secrets of her neighbours and the superstitions about the mountain, her life and the lives of her loved ones are threatened by an incredibly harsh winter.
I was about to quit this book on page 60. I really struggled with Camilla Ekbäcks writing style. She uses a lot of short sentences and I had the hardest time to get into the story. But at some point I became totally immersed in the book and I got used to the writing. From this point on I enjoyed this book immensely. The descriptions of the gruesome winter and the mountain are great and the way Ekbäck develops her characters with all their secrets is done really well. I just had to know what would happen next.
The only thing that fell short for me was the ending. It felt like Ekbäck didn´t know how to end her story in a satisfying way.
A weak beginning and a weak end, but the part in the middle I thoroughly enjoyed.
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 7 Saint Lucia´s Day: Read a book set in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden - and Finland for the purposes of this game) or a book where ice and snow are an important feature.
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