The Midnight Sun — Cecilia Ekback

A chilling new historical crime novel from the author of the international bestseller Wolf Winter

An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far north.

Sweden, 1856. The minister of justice has received a disturbing message. There's been a massacre on one of Lapland's mountains: a priest, a law enforcement officer and a local settler have been slaughtered by one of the indigenous Sami people. The murderer is in custody, but he refuses to talk. The minister dispatches his geologist son-in-law, Magnus, to investigate, as there is another reason to visit Blackåsen: it is a mountain with many secrets, a mountain whose rich mineral deposits have never been exploited. But Magnus does not journey alone. The minister's daughter, Lovisa, in disgrace, is sent with him.

The two unlikely companions venture out of the sweltering city to the wild landscape of Sweden's far north under the strange, insomnia-inducing light of the midnight sun. There, the shocking truth they discover about the murders and what lies behind them will be matched only by what they discover about themselves. The Midnight Sun is a riveting story of the collision of worlds old and new, and cements Ekbäck's status as a master of Nordic noir.