Drowned

March 19, 2012
A summer visit to a remote Swedish country house sends dangerous ripples through seemingly perfect lives in Bohman's unsettling debut. Academic burnout Marina leaves art history behind and travels to rural SkÃ¥ne to stay with her older sister, Stella, and Stella's much older boyfriend, well-known writer Gabriel. Despite the oppressive heat, all seems lovely at first; Marina enjoys walking the grounds and discussing art with Gabriel. Unsurprisingly, all is not well between the couple, which Marina gathers piecemeal from her sisterâthey've never been close and Stella's job keeps her awayâand from the increasingly amorous Gabriel. Nature is a constant presence, particularly the lifeâand deathâcycle of the cottage's impressive gardens. Bohman delicately pulls apart the seams of Stella and Gabriel's relationship and lays an almost undetectable layer of menace around the increasingly interwoven trio. Alliances continually, and subtly, shift: from united sisters to established couple against the interloper to secret lovers against an unwitting third wheel. The seasonal and structural changes are deliberately understated and carry emotional weight into the climax, which Bohman deftly makes both foregone and suspenseful, leaving the reader wondering if everyone was doomed from the start.

Starred review from April 15, 2012
A tale of identity and tense personal relationships, one that as a film property would have appealed to Hitchcock or de Palma. In the first part of the story Marina, the narrator, is drowning in all kinds of ways, for her life is marred by inconsequence. Her relationship with her boyfriend is desultory, and she's supposedly working on an art history paper on Dante Gabriel Rossetti but has little commitment to the task. At this point in her life she visits her sister Stella and Stella's husband Gabriel, a volatile novelist. Immediately, an edgy attraction develops between Marina and her brother-in-law. Stella works her job as a landscapist in the small Swedish town near which they live, so she's away from home much of the time, leaving Gabriel to work on his latest novel and Marina to feel the magnetic pull of his personality. On the surface, Gabriel seems kind and attentive, but Marina senses a deeper friction--hints of physical abuse, for example, and anger out of proportion to the events that gave rise to it. Ultimately, however, Marina willingly gives in to the passion she feels for him, a passion fed by the languorous and oppressive heat of the Swedish summer. The second part of the story skips ahead several months, for the weather, the cold rain of November, is now oppressive in a different way. Marina has returned to the house after Stella's death by drowning. She had slipped on a rock by a lake and supposedly hit her head, but Marina eventually finds herself open to the possibility that Gabriel had something to do with the "accident"--and she fears that Gabriel's novel based on Ophelia might have adumbrated his wife's death. A slim novel with a taut narrative line and a sense of impending disaster.

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May 1, 2012
In a horrifyingly compelling psychological thriller set in modern-day Sweden, directionless college student Marina travels to Skane for a lengthy visit with her sister, whom she has not been in touch with in several years. She's happy about the reunion, but her sister's boyfriend, Gabriel, much older and a famous author, is a bit strange. Something about the relationship makes Marina uneasy. Yet she's also strangely attracted to Gabriel and can't resist his advances. Bohman manages to flesh out characters, setting, and plot in just over 200 pages, a feat that makes for a highly engaging and fast-paced read, yet one with great depth. Highly recommended for all crime collections; try suggesting this different take on Scandinavian crime fiction to fans of Karin Alvtegen or readers who enjoyed Kaaberbol and Friis' The Boy in the Suitcase (2008).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)