Pernilla Ericson "On Fire": The start of the series about Lilly Hed
Created: 04.10.2022, 18:00
By: Sven Trautwein
Pernilla Ericson starts with the new series about Lilly Hed and takes up the heat of summer right away.
Does the title make you want to read?
My book tip.
Nynäshamn is a small, sleepy town about 60 kilometers south of Stockholm.
Lilly Hed has been transferred here to escape from her past and Stockholm.
But around the idyll, the climate crisis has allowed the soil to dry out and fires that flare up again and again endanger the people and animals living there.
When the first victims are recovered, one question remains: Was it an accident?
Pernilla Ericson "In the Fire": About the Book
Crime "In the Fire" by Pernilla Ericson © Scherz
Sweden is experiencing a record summer, the risk of fire is high.
The young investigator Lilly Hed has been transferred from Stockholm to idyllic Nynäshamn on the skerry coast.
But she can neither escape her troubled past nor the fires that soon threaten the whole town.
People die in the flames - was it an accident?
Lilly gets caught up in a feverish investigation while Fire Chief Jesper and his men battle the unrelenting fires.
But what do you do when all tracks literally go up in smoke?
joke
The climate crisis is increasingly finding its way into current novels.
She doesn't stop at thrillers either.
Jen Liljestrand addresses the subject entirely in The Beginning of Tomorrow.
And in the current Thomas Lynley thriller by Elizabeth George, the hot summer comes up again and again in the chapters in "What is hidden is resting".
Pernilla Ericson also uses this as a hook for an exciting thriller.
Lilly Hed's move out into the country is similar to Kristina Ohlsson's Die Tote im Sturm.
As the character puts it in the book, Lilly Hed is trying to escape "her own demons."
It remains to be seen whether she will be able to do this immediately.
After all, she can't really rest in her first case.
Having just moved into an old lighthouse, she wants to rearrange her life.
But the fires in the area provide work.
An exciting and puzzling criminal case makes it hard for her to think.
Pernilla Ericson has managed a balancing act: How do I combine an exciting thriller with current environmental events that don't stop at the cooler north?
In any case, the mix of environmental catastrophe and criminal case was a success.
If you want to deal more with the topic of climate change, I recommend "3 degrees more" at non-fiction level.
In it, scientists describe what will happen if the world warms up by three degrees or more.
The question of how we can counteract this in a timely manner is also being investigated.
Pernilla Ericson "On Fire": My Conclusion
Pernilla Ericson succeeds in making an exciting start to the series.
The investigator Lilly Hed is convincing and I'm excited to see how the plot develops around her.
The second volume has already been announced by the publisher.
In short: a clear reading recommendation for all fans of Swedish crime fiction.
Pernilla Ericson "On Fire" - Lilly Hed Volume 1
Translated from the Swedish by Friederike Buchinger
2022, Fischer Scherz, ISBN-13 978-3-651-00109-1
Price: Paperback €16, e-book €12.99, 397 pages (different format) – Order now (promotional link)
Perilla Ericson
Pernilla Ericson
is
a successful crime writer and journalist.
In her work for newspapers and TV, she deals a lot with climate change and social justice.
She also incorporates these themes into her suspense novels: her new series about the policewoman Lilly Hed conquered the bestseller lists in Sweden and also helped her make her breakthrough internationally.
Pernilla Ericson lives in Stockholm.
