Set on an island in Sweden the residents are established old hands at island life. They are not happy with the newcomers who have built a monstrosity of a house on this island, ignoring local rules and regulations. There is a feeling of unrest running through the community at the brashness and overpowering aggression of the newcomers but notwithstanding that a house warming party ensures that everyone attends to gawp and look at how the other side lives.When on the opening day itself a fire brea...

Thank you NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for the eARC.Always looking forward to the new Sandhamn, I was delighted to read no. 7 in the series.Nora is back on Sandhamn with her partner and their daughter. Her boys are on vacation with their father. It's several years after the 6th in the series and a wealthy Swede is building an enormous mansion on the island and a lot of the population is unhappy because he's not adhering to the standards of the island, due to the size of of the house and its clos...

Carsten Jonsson builds a huge, showy house on Sandhamm Island, using his money and power to ignore local customs and property lines. After a party he throws to show off his home, a fire is set and a dead body is found that is beyond recognition. Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson with help from his friend, attorney Nora Linde, must determine if this was deliberate murder or a terrible accident. The dynamics in the Jonsson family, along with Carsten's reputation for shady business dealings, ma...

I always enjoy the Sandhamn Murders books, and this one, the seventh in the series, is no exception. As usual, it’s a well-plotted mystery populated with well-drawn characters. As a veteran reader of the series, I also feel that I keep learning more and more about Sandhamn Island in the Stockholm archipelago. (I’d like to visit someday, although there do seem to be a lot of murders there for such a small place!)The story is set in 2013, more than four years after the events in In Harm’s Way, the...

I've been a sucker for Nordic Noir literature for so long that when I discovered Viveca Sten's "Sandhamn Murders" series a year ago I was sooo excited. I devoured the first six books in the series, and when I saw book 7 on Netgalley I jumped at the chance to read it before publication. This time we meet Thomas and Nora several years after the end of book 6, and I think that was a total success on the part of the author, cause we can see how the main characters have evolved and how they manage th...

Slow start big finishJust love this series I look forward to each one. The question is,why? The main characters are very likeable but only partially intertwined. Each main character has his/her own story at some point they intermingled and it works. This particular story built ,ever so slowly which in the end climax with a page turn in g finish, well done.

This makes it 7/7 5* reads from this author, although I think this is the one I've probably least enjoyed, and in all fairness would've scored it 4.5* if I could. For starters, we appear to have jumped ahead by around 3 years since the last story with very little explanation of what had occurred in those intervening years, then there was no mention of Jonas' first daughter, who usually features so heavily in his life.....that didn't ring true to me cos' she's usually making a total nuisance of h...

This is the 7th book in this series and there is one more to go. I don't know if there are anymore in this series, but I hope so. I am enjoying these murder mysteries and I've come to enjoy the lives of the two main characters of Thomas and his best friend, Nora. The only thing that perplexed me was why the helicopter went down to the wrong house on Sandhamn?. We have a really nasty man in this episode who builds a beautiful large home on Sandhamn but is hated by almost all the residents who liv...

Fans have eagerly awaited this next story, the seventh, in the excellent Sandhamn mystery series. Set in the fascinating Stockholm archipelago, the charming island and its culture of Sandhamm are the stars of these mysteries involving lawyer Nora and her childhood friend police detective Thomas. It's really a perfect match of characters, every time. The story places Nora and Thomas a few years past the last installment. A Swedish expat millionaire is building a summer home on the island for his

It's always good news when one of my favorite Nordic Noir authors, Viveca Sten, has a book translated (by Marlaine Delargy) into English. Nora is back on the island of Sandhamn, where a wealthy venture capitalist has built a gigantic house which many of the locals consider an eyesore. He decides to throw a party to welcome himself and his family to the community--resentment is brewing, and there is a catastrophic fire and a death. Was the fire set by one of the angry locals, or is it somehow rel...

We're given the reason for all the fires and people killed in the first chapter. You only had to know who the people were and the name changes to figure this out. Fat chance in remembering. I like the way Viveca sets us up with this, it happens every book so far. We're given Carsten Jonsson and his wife Celia as the new kids on the block to make the story whole. Carsten is an investment banker who has made investments in Russia in the oil and gas industry. He has built his house before his inves...

well, I wasn't sure at all where this one was going. But entirely worth the read. Current mysteries always worth it when it involves Russians. And big money. And totally alienating neighbors on small islands.

416 pages4 and 1 / 2 starsOn a small island just off of Sandhamn, a construction crew is busy working. They come upon a skeleton. Detective Thomas Andreasson and his partner Aram are on the case. Together with the balance of the team, they determine that they have three potential identities: an elderly man, and two women. Astrid is a seventeen-year old and Siri is a married woman a bit older. Before long, Nora Linde, prosecutor, becomes deeply involved in the case. She can’t seem to help herself...

I really enjoy the mix of police procedural and amateur sleuth in the Sandhamm books. It's interesting to get both perspectives as police inspector Thomas collects all the facts, and his best friend Nora Linde, a banker and now a bank investigator, provides her personal insights based on her knowledge of the island and its people.It's Scandinavian but not noir, which makes it unique in the market. And though sometimes it takes too long to get to the case, the relationships are fascinating.

Amazing read!I came across this book via Ken, one of my Goodread's friends who highly recommended "In the shadow of power". I liked his review and his thoughts about the book.As usual in Nordic litterature, the novel starts slowly and the author takes all her time to set up the plot. The context is introduced and described thouroughly. "In the shadow of power" is brilliantly written, full of suspense and wonderful characters. I hope there is more to come soon from Viveca Sten.

In this installment, Thomas ponders his future--will he seize an opportunity or remain on the force? A man chooses Sandhamn to build his monstrosity home, infringing upon other people's right-of-ways. When a building which housed his construction workers goes up in flames and a charred corpse turns up in the ashes, the team including Thomas goes in to investigate. No persons matching the victim's description appear missing, but with so many persons apparently withholding information, the situati...

What a wonderful, well-plotted mystery. I did not realize that this was book #7 in the series; therefore, some of the characters are a little hard to follow since I don't have the history. (I think I'm going to try and read this series from the beginning). There is a lot that happens in each scene and you constantly learn something new. The book description gives a good overview but there are so many twists and turns and dark secrets that it doesn't even begin to describe this book. There is a l...

Reading a new installment of a favorite series is like visiting an old friend, or having a fond family reunion -- and Viveca Sten's Sandhamn books are no exception. Set in the Stockholm archipelago, these books carry a sort of English-village mood: a little bit Old World, and a bit of 21st-Century cosmopolitan vibe, thanks to the proximity of Stockholm by ferry. Readers who have been with this series from the beginning have grown to love the matchless setting, the loyal friendship between attorn...

An Intriguing Approach To A Murder MysteryThis is the second novel in a row that I have read that the murder does not start at or very near to the start of the novel. The murder doesn’t occur until 40% into the novel. By this time the reader has much information on the characters, their personalities, and the relationships between them. I rather enjoy this unusual approach.The novel opens in the past with the physical and verbal bullying of a student. This is the genesis of the events that unfol...