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Published Dec 2016
368 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Acclaimed Swedish author Camilla Grebe makes her solo American debut with a psychological thriller as cunning in its twists as it is captivating in its storytelling - for fans of the celebrated crime fiction of Camilla Läckberg, Jo Nesbø, Ruth Ware, and Fiona Barton.
Winter's chill has descended on Stockholm as police arrive at the scene of a shocking murder. An unidentified woman lies beheaded in a posh suburban home - a brutal crime made all the more disturbing by its uncanny resemblance to an unsolved killing ten years earlier. But this time there's a suspect: the charismatic and controversial chain-store CEO Jesper Orre, who owns the home but is nowhere to be found.
To homicide detectives Peter Lindgren and Manfred Olsson, nothing about the suave, high-profile businessman - including a playboy reputation and rumors of financial misdeeds - suggests he conceals the dark heart and twisted mind of a cold-blooded killer. In search of a motive, Lindgren and Olsson turn to the brilliant criminal profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön. Once a valued police asset, now marooned in unhappy retirement and a crumbling marriage, she's eager to exercise her keen skills again - and offer the detectives a window into the secret soul of Jesper Orre.
But they're not the only ones searching. Two months before, Emma Bohman, a young clerk at Orre's company, chanced to meet the charming chief executive, and romance swiftly bloomed. Almost as quickly as the passionate affair ignited, it was over when Orre inexplicably disappeared. Then one staggering misfortune after another followed, leaving Emma certain that her runaway lover was to blame and transforming her confusion and heartbreak into anger.
Now, pursuing the same mysterious man for different reasons, Emma and the police are destined to cross paths in a chilling dance of obsession, vengeance, madness, and love gone hellishly wrong.
"Starred Review. A tour de force that lifts its author to the front rank among the increasingly crowded field of Nordic noir." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. The decapitation of a young woman propels Grebe's exceptional solo debut, which examines three lives broken by failures to take responsibility in a Stockholm where 'even the sky is crying.'" - Publishers Weekly
"Fans of Scandinavian crime fiction, and crime fiction generally, will enjoy the understated, angsty drama created by Grebe; librarians who are desperate for Girl on the Train read-alikes can also turn to this for readers who enjoy an antiheroine." - Booklist
This information about The Ice Beneath Her was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Camilla Grebe was born in 1968 in Alvsjo, Sweden. She holds a degree from the Stockholm School of Economics and was a cofounder of audiobook publisher Storyside. Together with her sister Åsa Träff she has written five celebrated crime novels. The first two books in that series were nominated for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. Grebe has also co-written the popular Moscow Noir trilogy.
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