A shocking abduction rocks idyllic Sandhamn Island in an enthralling novel of suspense by Viveca Sten, bestselling author of In the Heat of the Moment.With the summer season on Sandhamn comes an unsettling mystery for Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson. A bullied young boy has vanished from a sailing camp on neighboring Lökholmen Island. Has the terrorized eleven-year-old run away? Or, in this … eleven-year-old run away? Or, in this isolated vacation spot where strangers lurk, is it something more ominous?
The disappearance has also captured the interest of Thomas’s longtime friend, attorney Nora Linde. The missing child happens to be the son of her latest client, Christian Dufva. He is a key witness against his partner in a high-profile embezzlement trial, and Dufva’s testimony could be devastating. It’ll also be Nora’s biggest win—the next step toward a position as chief prosecutor. But with every anonymous threat against Dufva, the stakes get higher.
When new evidence surfaces in their respective cases, new questions and fears arise for Thomas and Nora. Time is running out to resolve them. So is hope of finding the boy alive. Because on Sandhamn Island, the truth is buried as deep as the secrets.
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459 pages
5 stars
A very unhappy eleven-year old boy named Benjamin, small for his age and introverted, is sent of to a week of sailing camp by his divorced father. There, he is bullied. At the same time, his father Christian Dufva is due to testify in a case in court against his former business partner. Prosecutor Nora Linde is handling the case.
The defendant Mr. Winnerman is a man with a bad drinking and gambling partner who is also in hock to some very bad guys.
Meanwhile Thomas Andreasson is becoming very unhappy with his marriage and changes at work have him doubting that re-joining the police was a good move.
Benjamin goes missing from sailing camp. In court, Christian Dufva retracts the statements he previously gave Nora about Winnerman’s behavior.
Thomas and his team determine that Benjamin has been kidnapped. They have an unknown suspect, and a great many questions. Poor Isak, Benjamin’s camp counselor, is tortured by his own behavior. Did he assist in the kidnapping?
This is a very exciting and compulsive read. I just had to find out what happened. I read the book in one sitting. I have read all of Ms. Sten’s Nora and Thomas novels, and this one rates as one of the best. Perhaps even the best so far. Marlaine Delargy did an absolutely wonderful job of translating the text as well.
The book is very well written and plotted. It is relatively fast moving and Ms. Sten has captured her characters’ emotions exactly. The reader is right there witnessing the whole drama in the first person. There are some big surprises in store for any excitement junkie.
I can hardly wait for the next installment in this wonderful series.
In the Name of Truth was written by Viveca Sten and translated from Swedish to English by Marlaine Delargy. This is the eighth book in the Sandhamn crime and legal thriller series. The main characters are Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson and prosecuting attorney Nora Linde. I believe this series would be best if it was read in series order. This would provide additional background and show character growth over time.
Thomas and Nora are strong main characters with some depth and someone you can root for. Their goals were clear and definitely influenced the plot with believable motivations. The prose was well-written and thought-provoking. Summer season has reached Sweden and with that comes sailing camps for children as well as a high-profile trial. The plot was complex with many sub-plots and red herrings. The reader not only gets insight into the criminal and trial aspects of the plot, but learns about the private lives of Thomas, Nora, and several of the secondary characters.
The subject matter of this novel is dark and includes themes such as family relationships, divorce, bullying, mental illness, gambling additions and much more. This is not a light read, but it is well done once you get used to the pacing of switching back and forth between several characters.
Overall, this book keeps the reader engaged and guessing. The tension escalates as the story line progresses and the reveal was impactful. I look forward to reading more books in this series.
I won a digital copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks go to Goodreads, Amazon Crossing, Viveca Sten and Marlaine Delargy for the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
Midsummer excitement to the extreme!
My first time reading a Viveca Sten Swedish thriller will definitely have me coming back! In the Name of Truth, even in English translation, is a well-written story with a great mixture of accelerating mayhem, criminal justice procedural and the complex, often frustrating, lives of its main characters. It’s also whet my appetite to go back to earlier books in the series and learn more about policeman Thomas and prosecutor Nora.
But the heart of this story is a young boy, Benjamin, small for his age, who gets hustled off to a sailing camp by his dad and his nightmare begins from the moment he arrives. He’s got problems on all sides, except for a few girls who befriend him. Benjamin’s desperate plight is what drives the urgency and action of the story. There are a number of villains in Benjamin’s story and the young staff running the sailing camp certainly don’t exert themselves to protect him! The climax is a nail-biter and the story packs a few shocking twists: both important to me in a quality thriller.
To top off the pluses for me, the book takes place in parts of Sweden I can easily visualize after having lived in Stockholm for a few years. The bustle of Stockholm and its urban suburbs comes through, as does the calm beauty of the island archipelago around Sandhamn. Nora’s planned wedding on the islands at Midsommer, Sweden’s bucolic holiday celebration of the Midnight Sun, reads like a dream despite her stress-fraught week leading up to it.
Thanks to publisher Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review and the opinions expressed are my own.
An Captivating Novel of Deceit and Greed
The children were asleep. A pedophile was searching for his next victim. This main story thread is joined by two other threads. These new threads both involve Christian Dufva. Christian is a partner in the now defunct Alliance Construction. He is the chief witness in the case against his partner, Niklas Winnerman, for the company’s collapse. Nora Linde, a reoccurring character, is prosecuting. The pressure on Nora for a successful prosecution was high because of a number of well-publicized setbacks for her Economic Crimes Authority. Christian is a major character in the third main thread. Christian’s son, Benjamin, by a previous marriage, is a small-for-his-age and introvertish 11 year-old. Christian wants him to attend a summer sailing camp as he did and to meet and make new friends. Benjamin does not want to go. After the day’s sailing, a girl goes missing. Thomas Andreasson, who recently returned to his detective position, was sent to investigate the missing girl.
These three main story threads are interwoven into plot that has many twists, turns and misdirections. As with the previous novels in this series, Each chapter is in a different voice of a main character. I quickly was captured. I just wanted to continue to read and finished this novel faster than usual.
There are two major B-storylines. First is centered on Nora and her significant other, Jonas. They finally decided to marry in a week and right after the prosecution. Jonas is an airline pilot and asked to fly at the last minute to Bangkok and back. He would return on Wednesday. Things do not go as planned. Much insight into the Nora is seen how she handles this adversity with a major prosecution. The second thread involves Thomas and his spouse, Pernilla. She has a job that requires much travel and after-hour commitments, which is exactly the same requirement for a policeman. Much insight to the Thomas’s character is provided by how he reacts to deteriorating home life, child care, the sailing camp’s missing children, and a possible pedophile near the sailing camp. These B-storylines added poignancy and enriched the novel, and my enjoyment in reading it.
This novel is definitely for adults. While there are not any intimate scenes, the language is consistent with the adult characters. While there aren’t any direct descriptions of violence, there are scenes of a child’s confinement.
The novel is a translation. In the first novel, I discovered the use many British informal words. That was not the case with this translation. The read was a very smooth for me.
My final observations start with this is the eighth novel in the series, and the third that I have read. I didn’t feel anything was missing anything because I hadn’t read the previous novels. Also, all of the various main and B-storyline threads were tied up by the end of the novel. Some not in ways I expected.
Based upon my enjoyment in reading this novel and exhibiting all the requirements for a high star rating, I rate this novel with five stars. If this storyline intrigues you, do give it a read. By the way, I recently purchased the five novels that I haven’t read yet.
I have received a free e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from Amazon Crossing with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Amazon Crossing for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.