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"Erdschwarz" (Erdblack): sequel to Tove Alsterdal's Nordic Noir

2023-01-06T17:12:04.211Z


"Erdschwarz" (Erdblack): sequel to Tove Alsterdal's Nordic Noir Created: 06/01/2023, 18:00 By: Sven Trautwein Tove Alsterdal continues the series about Eira Sjödin with "Erdschwarz". Can the tension from the first volume be maintained? My book tip. Note to our readers:  If you make a purchase via the links included, we receive a commission from partners. This changes nothing for you. The priv


"Erdschwarz" (Erdblack): sequel to Tove Alsterdal's Nordic Noir

Created: 06/01/2023, 18:00

By: Sven Trautwein

Tove Alsterdal continues the series about Eira Sjödin with "Erdschwarz".

Can the tension from the first volume be maintained?

My book tip.

Note to our readers:

 If you make a purchase via the links included, we receive a commission from partners.

This changes nothing for you.

The private problems for the young policewoman Eira Sjödin do not abate.

Even though her mother, who has dementia, now lives in a home, the situation with her brother is an obstacle. In the past few years, she had taken care of her mother a lot.

Now there is silence that has to be dealt with first.

But after finding two dead bodies, Sjödin's instincts are awakened.

Tove Alsterdal "Earth Black": About the book

Tove Alsterdal "Earth Black" © Rowohlt

After the start of the series "Sturmrot" about the investigator Eira Sjödin, I couldn't wait to hold the second volume "Erdschwarz" in my hands and start with it.

The series opener won numerous awards, including the Swedish Crime Prize 2020. The second volume's plot developed more slowly than the first.

The two bodies, found independently, appear to have nothing in common.

The cases look like they don't belong together.

A man is found dead in an abandoned house in the forests of Ångermanland.

He's starving.

Two fingers are severed from his left hand.

Further north, in the small mining community of Malmberget, a man was also locked in a cellar and left to die.

The young policewoman Eira Sjödin is called in to the investigation because no one knows the area and the people there better than she does.

When another man goes missing, it hits Eira personally.

She is willing to risk everything to find him.

blurb / Rowohlt

The investigative work is described in detail.

This runs through the good first third of the thriller until the story picks up speed.

Unlike in Malin Stehn's "Happy New Year", Tove describes Alsterdal very calmly and in detail.

The plot moves along somewhat confusingly.

This changes about halfway through the book when Sjödin's chief investigator, Georg Georgsson, disappears.

The question of why her brother is being arrested also increases the tension.

In order to get into the plot better, it is advisable to have read the first volume.

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Tove Alsterdal "Earth Black": My conclusion

"Erdschwarz" is not a bloodthirsty fast thriller from the far north, but a quiet Nordic noir that needs time from the reader to take effect.

Perhaps as readers we are often no longer used to it.

The book decelerates, like so many things in Scandinavia, and is therefore something for fans of solid crime stories.

In spring 2023 the third volume "Fogblue" will be published.

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Tove Alsterdal "Earth Black"

Translated by Hanna Granz

2022 Rowohlt, ISBN-13 978-3-499-00779-8

Price: Paperback €17, e-book €9.99, 400 pages (varies in format)

Order here!

Tove Alsterdal

Tove Alsterdal, born in Malmö in 1960, is one of Sweden's most renowned suspense writers. Her novels have been published in 25 countries and have received numerous awards.

The film rights for the series around Eira Sjödin have now also been sold.

Source: merkur

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