MAELSTROM (MALSTRÖM)
Charlotte Al-Khalili
On a cold January night, Adam Gärde is stabbed and bleeds to death at a bus stop in Stockholm. A messy guy with addiction problems – but the murder is more complicated than it seems and affects everyone in its vicinity: the victim’s mother and girlfriend, friends, the police, the killer. All grasping after truths, secrets and lies.
In her suspenseful debut, Charlotte Al-Khalili portrays with great credibility how several people each carry a piece of the puzzle to the crime. But who will see the big picture? Who will arrive at the final answer? And who will solve the murder mystery and understand the inevitable consequences?
421 pages
Rights
Denmark: Lindhardt & Ringhof
Finland: Docendo
Sweden: Norstedts
Film rights
Nevis
REVIEWS
“(…) Maelstrom is a gripping read with a narrative technique that shows different perspectives of a murder case. From a variety of peoples points of view we follow the development of the murder investigation and piece by piece the puzzle is put together to show how Adam Gärde lost his life at a bus stop on Södermalm a winter’s night in January. In a captivating way, the reader gets to know new characters that helps closing in on the solution (…) Maelstrom is clearly an (…) exciting book that is hard to put down.” Rating: 4
BTJ / SWE
“Debut author Charlotte Al-Khalili constructs a convincing plot that changes perspective with each chapter: everyone has their own story and gradually a clearer picture of what has happened emerges.
Social misery and exclusion are credibly portrayed all the way through, with people that manages to survive only by taking advantage of each other. Nominated for Crime Debut Writer of the Year.”
Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter / SWE
“By writing from the points of view of so many different people, Al-Khalili also manages to paint a picture of contemporary society in her novel, which includes important issues such as gender, class and ethnicity (…). Some of the phrasing and dialogue is also extremely accurate: it feels like this is an author who is having fun when she writes.”
Torun Börtz, Borås Tidning / SWE