HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART (MÄNNISKOROV)

The former Gotland police officer Fredrik Broman has moved back to Stockholm since a couple of years. He lives and works on Kungsholmen, his adult children rarely come to visit and work is his best friend. Out of the blue comes a call from Visby and Broman is ordered to return to Gotland to investigate a disappearance that seems to have turned into murder.

Five weeks ago the student Emma Alvin disappeared. The search was intense, but as the weeks pass by the search is called off.  A bag is found on a traditional pile of stones in the Gotland forest, as if on a pedestal. The bag contains parts of a dismembered woman. When Fredrik Broman and his new colleague Yasmin van Dijk arrives at the harbour in Visby, another bag has been found and they both realize that they not only have to solve a crime that was committed – but one that is still in progress.

High School Sweetheart could be read as a stand-alone thriller, with excitement and drive and the typical Östlundh quirky humor and skillfully composed dialogue. Parallel to the work of the police, we follow two locked up women. Who are they, how did they get there and who holds them hostage in a cruel way while he is not touching them. This someone is one whose plan has been brewing for over a year and is now finally about to become a reality.

456 pages

Rights

Denmark: Cicero
Finland: WAPI
Norway: Cappelen Damm
Poland: WAPI
Sverige: WAPI

REVIEWS

“I get helplessly caught up in Håkan Östlundh’s impressive ability to escalate both tension and tempo so you breathless need to continue reading.”
Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter / SWE

“Östlundh has written a well-constructed Nordic noir on international level and where plot, characters, environments and dialogue are handled with a safe hand. It’s a novel that’s hard to put down once you start reading.”
BTJ / SWE