As of: February 19, 2024, 9:43 a.m
By: Sylvia Staude
The Swedish crime writer Arne Dahl comes up with a new thriller that is dark and full of tricks: “Silent Scream”.
Note to our readers:
If you purchase via the links included, we receive a commission from partners.
This doesn't change anything for you.
While in real life the activists of Fridays for Future are expanding their portfolio, now also fighting against the right and for social cohesion, and demonstrating with Verdi, the Swedish crime writer Arne Dahl has come up with a case in which a "terror bomber" specifically seeks out victims who do not treat the environment with care.
First it hits the boss of a steel company - at first glance it appears to be a car accident.
But then a representative of the car lobby is killed by a bomb.
And the detective inspector Eva Nyman receives letters that say, for example: “Be careful, you descendants of Homo sapiens.
(...) The sun's rays will soon no longer penetrate the ruins of decay and will find their way to the soulless." That is just the beginning.
The forest is a good hiding place, and not just for those tired of civilization.
© Zoonar/Imago
What Nyman initially doesn't tell her investigation team: Some of the wording reminds her of her former boss Lukas Frisell.
He has retired from the service since his hesitation cost a woman her life. Nobody knows where he is now - but it will soon turn out that he is in the middle of the forest as a kind of prepper.
But has he also become someone who blows people up?
Stay up to date on new releases and book tips with our newsletter.
Arne Dahl is a prominent and successful representative of the police novel: one character is traditionally a bit more the same, here it is Eva Nyman.
But it's also about a carefully drawn team.
Sonja Ryd is not only Nyman's confidante, but also the interrogation specialist.
Annika Stolt, called Ankan, is an “impressive blonde” – and hands-on in every respect.
Shabir Sarwani (yes, Swedish crime novels are now diverse too) is one of them as a young technical specialist.
Finally, Anton Lindberg is a family man and is always surrounded by an atmospheric “storm cloud”.
At some point they are all convinced that a third attack that threatens many more people is imminent - and that they must prevent it at all costs.
The book
Arne Dahl: Silent scream.
Eva Nyman's first case.
A.d.
Swede
v.
Kerstin Schöps.
Piper, Munich 2024. 464 pages, 17 euros.
Order on eBay
So far, so not unusual for about every third thriller or TV crime drama.
But Arne Dahl, born Jan Lennart Arnald in 1963, masters the build-up of tension, allows insights to trickle in at exactly the right dosage between the team's deliberations and the action, weaving plot twists ever closer together until the final resolution dangles from just one thick braid.
also read
Thriller “Tower Shadow” by Peter Grandl is coming to Paramount+ as a series
READ
Book adaptation: “The Swarm” by Frank Schätzing is off to a phenomenal start as a series
READ
Jussi Adler Olsen thrillers are coming to Netflix as a new edition
READ
More than 100 million books sold: Lee Child is the master of thrillers and the man behind Jack Reacher
READ
The best thriller series by Andreas Gruber
READ
And he is also at the forefront when it comes to the climate issue, because individual activists could always slide into extremism, into a fanaticism that is no longer content with sticking things on the streets or putting tomato soup on painting chutes.
Here the search for the perpetrator also leads extensively into the deep Swedish forest, whose impenetrability in the truest sense of the word creates problems for the investigators.
They must search a certain area very thoroughly; under no circumstances should they get lost or lost.
Arne Dahl describes their marching, stumbling, and strained staring up into trees.
Of course, not everything works out as it should, that's part of this genre.
This forest is both a place of longing and a place of horror.
It can provide comfort and silence.
However, it can also take over (together with the animals that live in it) when all that remains of humans are the ruins of decay.