MARKED BY SHADOWS
(AV SKUGGOR MÄRKT)

Anki is starting a new and peaceful life on Gotland, after her ailing husband passed away. At last, she shall do what she has longed for since she was a teenage girl, take up her former youth hobby and go back to the stable and the life with horses and riding. She leaves Stockholm, buys two Icelandic horses and moves to the countryside and the small charming village Mullvalds on Gotland. There, she plans to live a pleasant life as a pensioner, exploring the beautiful landscape while riding.

But she barely has time to unpack before the image of the idyll is bursting. Someone is vandalizing the church and the altar cloth is found with blood on. Shortly afterwards one of Anki’s horses is poisoned. And furthermore – they find a body buried in her garden! This throws suspicion against her and together with the retired and initially not so benevolent chief commissioner Tryggve, Anki does everything possible to find out who is behind the evil deeds. Who disturbs the peaceful life in Mullvalds?

Marked by Shadows is the first part of the Marianne Cedervall detective series about Anki Karlsson.

299 pages

RIGHTS

Czech Republic: Dobrovsky
Denmark: Cicero
Estonia: Eesti Raamat
Finland: Otava
Germany: Piper
Norway: Pangolin forlag
Sweden: Lind & Co

REVIEWS

“A cosy, yet suspenseful crime novel.”
WZ Westdeutsche Zeitung / DE

“Intense aura and well written – perfect reading for gloomy autumn evenings.”
Wiener Journal / DE

“An amusing crime novel with great investigations. One would like to read more about this modern Miss Marple.”
OÖ Nachrichten / DE

“A both cosy and horrifying feel good detective story with fun characters and exquisite descriptions of Gotland in autumn colours.”
Allers / SWE

“Marked by Shadows is written with a beautiful flow. Marianne Cedervall knows her Gotland, and is close to her characters. She is probably a great horse lover and is familiar to the horses’ temperaments. Very cleverly, she provides various clues, but I didn’t suspect the perpetrator until the end. For quite a while, I was sure that there was another person who did everything bad. I was wrong. Marianne Cedervall is a new acquaintance for me. In all probability, I will read the sequel to Marked by Shadows.”
Bokparet, blog / SWE

“I become so curious to find out how it is going to develop in Mullvalds. How long time will it take until Anki is accepted? Could we see a romance between the two seniors?”
DAST Magazine / SWE

“The countryside and the characters reminds of Maria Lang’s and The Midsomer murders. Anki is a lot like Agatha Christie’s Ms Marple. For those who love this type of traditional crime stories it’s marvelous to experience one again.”
Nisse Scherman (Member of the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy) / SWE

“In suspenseful crime stories, it is rare to find a woman of age as a heroine. And behind the cruel murders you find a trustworthy story about people who experienced things that could make them psychologically sick and even become murderers. This could happen anywhere in small places that are not as idyllic as they might seem.”
Kulturbloggen / SWE

“Lovely characters, beautiful country, this will be a really good series. A 4+ out of 5.”
Mias bokhörna / SWE