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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Finished reading: August 2nd 2020
“Details are important, they can have consequences.”
I've rediscovered my love for the Nordic noir genre in recent years, and I've been meaning to meet up with Tuva Moodyson for quite some time now. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy my time with this series, and my instincts hit the nail on the head. Dark Pines turned out to be an excellent start of a series I will be continuing very soon! I've followed the author on Twitter for a while now, and I love how he uses his experience living in Sweden to give us a thorough and realistic description of the Swedish setting. It really made the small town of Gavrik come alive for me, and set the right atmosphere for this Nordic noir gem. The writing drew me right in, and Tuva makes for a fascinating main character. The fact that she is deaf (although she can hear with hearing aids) is something you don't see every day, and I really liked the journalism angle of the story. Dark Pines is part cold case and part active murder investigation set in the middle of the Swedish forrest. Through Tuva, we get to know the different characters and possible suspects in play, and it is without doubt an interesting cast. The plot has its twists and turns, and while there was some repetition and I saw some twists coming, overall Dark Pines was a solid start of a series I can't wait to continue.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder
I started this thinking I was not going to engage with this male journalist in the middle of nowhere. Then discovered that he was in fact a she...a deaf woman and gradually I was pulled in. A male writer with a female protagonist became compulsive and quickly immersive
Set in a small very northern Swedish hamlet in the middle of a huge forest, there are eccentrics galore who fill the plot brilliantly. Cracking pace, chilling, compelling.
I didn't even mind that I guessed "whodunnit" long before the end, it was just such a good read!
Set in a small very northern Swedish hamlet in the middle of a huge forest, there are eccentrics galore who fill the plot brilliantly. Cracking pace, chilling, compelling.
I didn't even mind that I guessed "whodunnit" long before the end, it was just such a good read!
Visit the locations in the book
Interview with the author - Interview with Will Dean
I am a HUGE fan of Dark Pines. This book is everything I hoped it would be and more. It’s a very unique read with a setting and lead character which are just so different to what I’ve read before. First of all, we’re thrust deep into the dark forests of sweden in the middle of elk season.Now I was lucky enough to attend a gathering where people were out shooting in the woods and the noises, the feeling, the excitement and fear are brilliantly evoked here. The sense of darkness and claustrophobia tingles your senses and the book just gets better from here.
A great newness to this novel is the man character who is deaf and uses hearing aids. Again, more claustrophobia but this was more than that – I really got to feel part of her world and experience her world of silence and sounds – so through the ears of a character this time as well as her eyes. She is very much her own person – her disability is not her weakness. You don’t mess with this lady.
The mystery which takes place initially off the page with that gunshot in the woods ramps up big style and the ending is just perfect for the story.But oh my,what a journey it takes you on first. Through those dark unforgiving woods, the eerie shades of the dark pines cast shadows on the actions being played out below. It’s a backdrop to a theatre show where the actors are mere silhouettes – the forest rules here.
Brilliant in every way. I loved the little touches of Swedish humour and history – the ICA supermarket, the Prins Polo chocolate…I hugged the book when I’d finished it.
Highly recommended. Will Dean I need book two NOW!
I did not like this at all. The plot and characters were not engaging, I struggled to continue through to the end, and despite loving all things crime related, I cannot recommend this bland book.
Dark Pines was originally published about this time last year and just prior to publication, I remember the huge buzz about it from some of my fellow bloggers. Rave reviews began pouring out of the blogosphere and I completely bought into the hype, desperate to figure out why they were all shouting from the rooftops about it. Then I did what I so often do - purchased the book and let it sit on my shelves for months, gathering dust. Well, thank goodness for the second book in the series, Red Snow, which has just been released from Point Blank, Oneworld Publications because I was invited to be on the blog tour for it (check out my post tomorrow!) and it gave me the kick up the butt that I sorely needed to read the first in the series. I'm a bit of a stickler for reading things in order, which you might know if you're a regular reader but I'm really glad I did with this series. I'll talk about that a bit more in my review for Red Snow but for now, if I could choose three words to describe Dark Pines? Atmospheric, intricate and chilling - and that's the story I'm talking about, not just our freezing, Swedish wintry setting!
The author, Will Dean, is actually British by birth but now lives in rural Sweden in the midst of a huge forest within a house that he built himself. This gives him the perfect licence to become a giant within the field of Scandinavian crime fiction and he does an excellent job, fitting admirably within that tight little niche. As a Swedish resident, he has obviously put the work in when creating a cast of Swedish characters in a small town with all the tiny quirks and oddities that come with living in such a remote location. It feels like he has drawn heavily and been inspired by his own experience and expertly describes the isolating quality of such a difficult place to live in, especially when you throw in the inclement weather, dangerous animals and indeed for the world of Dark Pines.....dangerous people.
Dark Pines boasts some absolutely terrific characterisation - authentic characters that jump off the page and stay with you long after you finish the novel. I was particularly impressed with our lead female protagonist, journalist Tuva Moodyson who has been deaf since a young age and requires hearing aids but her slight disability does not affect in any way her ability to do her job or impacts the way she interacts with other characters in the story. She encounters prejudice, misunderstanding and plain ignorance along the way but I adored the way she didn't let it defeat her and counteracted the minority of doubters with intelligent and inoffensive remarks of her own. It was wonderful to see Will Dean bringing the outsiders like Tuva and her friend Tammy, who runs a Thai food van and giving them the starring roles and kick-ass personalities that they deserve in an otherwise homogeneously white Swedish town.
As I may have already alluded to, the setting of this novel was superb. I read it recently on a short break away in a cottage and it was the ideal time to enjoy it as the temperature was freezing outside and Mr B and I had a roaring fire to curl up by. On every page I read of Dark Pines, I could feel the snow, the ice, the wind and more specifically, the quiet, secluded tension of it all. In fact, the solitary nature of our setting combined with a dark and eerie forest, the potential that you could always get lost just added to the thrill of the narrative without even mentioning that there's a killer out there with a shotgun that may be replicating heinous murders of the past and removing the eyeballs of the dead!
As the first novel in a series with such a fantastic and inspirational female lead, there wasn't much not to like about Dark Pines. My only slight disappointment was that I had figured out who the murderer was fairly early on. I do like to be surprised in novels like this so I was hoping that I was wrong but unfortunately, I was right. However, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story in general, particularly with such a strong cast and setting and it did make me eagerly anticipate the next outing for Tuva Moodyson.
For my full review and many more, please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
The author, Will Dean, is actually British by birth but now lives in rural Sweden in the midst of a huge forest within a house that he built himself. This gives him the perfect licence to become a giant within the field of Scandinavian crime fiction and he does an excellent job, fitting admirably within that tight little niche. As a Swedish resident, he has obviously put the work in when creating a cast of Swedish characters in a small town with all the tiny quirks and oddities that come with living in such a remote location. It feels like he has drawn heavily and been inspired by his own experience and expertly describes the isolating quality of such a difficult place to live in, especially when you throw in the inclement weather, dangerous animals and indeed for the world of Dark Pines.....dangerous people.
Dark Pines boasts some absolutely terrific characterisation - authentic characters that jump off the page and stay with you long after you finish the novel. I was particularly impressed with our lead female protagonist, journalist Tuva Moodyson who has been deaf since a young age and requires hearing aids but her slight disability does not affect in any way her ability to do her job or impacts the way she interacts with other characters in the story. She encounters prejudice, misunderstanding and plain ignorance along the way but I adored the way she didn't let it defeat her and counteracted the minority of doubters with intelligent and inoffensive remarks of her own. It was wonderful to see Will Dean bringing the outsiders like Tuva and her friend Tammy, who runs a Thai food van and giving them the starring roles and kick-ass personalities that they deserve in an otherwise homogeneously white Swedish town.
As I may have already alluded to, the setting of this novel was superb. I read it recently on a short break away in a cottage and it was the ideal time to enjoy it as the temperature was freezing outside and Mr B and I had a roaring fire to curl up by. On every page I read of Dark Pines, I could feel the snow, the ice, the wind and more specifically, the quiet, secluded tension of it all. In fact, the solitary nature of our setting combined with a dark and eerie forest, the potential that you could always get lost just added to the thrill of the narrative without even mentioning that there's a killer out there with a shotgun that may be replicating heinous murders of the past and removing the eyeballs of the dead!
As the first novel in a series with such a fantastic and inspirational female lead, there wasn't much not to like about Dark Pines. My only slight disappointment was that I had figured out who the murderer was fairly early on. I do like to be surprised in novels like this so I was hoping that I was wrong but unfortunately, I was right. However, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story in general, particularly with such a strong cast and setting and it did make me eagerly anticipate the next outing for Tuva Moodyson.
For my full review and many more, please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
A body has been found in the Swedish forest, a man shot dead with his eyes gouged out - not unlike the unsolved Medusa murders from 20 years ago. Tuva is a reporter for the local newspaper and she wants to find out who is responsible and whether the cases are linked, but writing for a local paper when you’re not local yourself isn’t without its challenges.
Tuva is a really interesting character, she’s been used to working on much bigger stories at national newspapers such as the Guardian in London but has taken the job in Gavrik to be closer to her mum who is terminally ill and living in a care home. She’s ambitious, brave and determined but there are also hints of past trauma that she’s still learning to live with. Dark Pines is the first in a series of books and I’m really looking forward to getting to know her better.
The characters are what really made the book for me from the strange sisters crafting trolls from their workshop, the local taxi driver and his young son, a ghostwriter and a wealthy couple who head up the local hunting group. Everyone has their secrets and you’re kept guessing right up until the end of the book before the big reveal! The town and forest feel like characters in themselves and Dean’s wonderfully descriptive writing completely immersed me in the setting and I could really picture all of the different locations in the book.
Tuva is a really interesting character, she’s been used to working on much bigger stories at national newspapers such as the Guardian in London but has taken the job in Gavrik to be closer to her mum who is terminally ill and living in a care home. She’s ambitious, brave and determined but there are also hints of past trauma that she’s still learning to live with. Dark Pines is the first in a series of books and I’m really looking forward to getting to know her better.
The characters are what really made the book for me from the strange sisters crafting trolls from their workshop, the local taxi driver and his young son, a ghostwriter and a wealthy couple who head up the local hunting group. Everyone has their secrets and you’re kept guessing right up until the end of the book before the big reveal! The town and forest feel like characters in themselves and Dean’s wonderfully descriptive writing completely immersed me in the setting and I could really picture all of the different locations in the book.
Een leuk boek maar niet echt een spannende thriller, simpele moorden en steeds terugkomende ervaringen over haar gehoorapparaat - net wat te vaak. De locatie waar het verhaal zich afspeelt is wel geweldig en het einde was een einde wat ik niet aan zag komen.
After reading a number of books with long chapters that felt like a slog, or that I needed to set aside some time to get through, it’s was thoroughly refreshing to find that this has lots of short chapters. It fits the narrative well - the sentences and chapters are punchy and breathless, adding to the tense atmosphere.
I also thought it refreshing for a male author to create such a complex and fully formed, well written female character, let alone a protagonist - and a deaf one, at that! I struggle to think of another recent example. Her deafness aids (!) the plot without being a gimmick, her frequent mentions of the batteries beeping or feeling the key fob with the spares in it really made her feel fully imagined as a character.
I imagine this will be a series, and look forward to reading more from the author.
I also thought it refreshing for a male author to create such a complex and fully formed, well written female character, let alone a protagonist - and a deaf one, at that! I struggle to think of another recent example. Her deafness aids (!) the plot without being a gimmick, her frequent mentions of the batteries beeping or feeling the key fob with the spares in it really made her feel fully imagined as a character.
I imagine this will be a series, and look forward to reading more from the author.