YuleI Island by Johana Gustawsson

Book Blurb
Don’t

Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

Trust

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman’s tragic death somehow hold the key?

Anyone

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia’s deepest, darkest winter…

My Review

I have previously read The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson, and loved the darkness of it so was excited to be offered the opportunity to be part of the blog tour for her new book Yule Island. Set on the small Island Storholmen, where the wealthy Gussman family live and where nine years previously a young girl was murdered. Now with the death of another girl it seems the killer has returned, and Detective Karl Rosen is called back to investigate in this thrilling and compelling read.

There are three narrators of this story, Emma Lindhal who is sent to value the antiques and artefacts in the Gussman Mansion, Detective Karl Rosen who investigated the murder nine years previously and Viktoria the house keeper at the Mansion. Emma is uncomfortablle from the start taking the job at the Gussman Mansion, the family are illusive, keeping her to a strict timetable of which room she can enter and when. The quietness of the Island and house unnearves her, as does the fact that a young woman was murdered in the grounds of the mansion. I felt that this isolation and lack of human contact is what draws her to the cafe owner Anneli, whom she feels comfortable with.

Karl is theDetective in both the previous murder and the new one. He is haunted by the previous case, the scene of the hanging girl, so is determined to find the killer this time. Like Emma he has has secrets and demons of his own to confront. Viktoria is the housekeeper at the Mansion where she lives with her teenage daughter whose is friends with the Gussman’s son. Her chapters are the most haunting as we learn more about the family, who seem to also have secrets. The three different narrators, with their alternating chapters were engaging, and personable, keeping me invested in their stories.

Johana Gustawsson creates a hauntingly atmospheric setting on the Island with its silence and small, close community, almost making it a character in it’s own right. I loved the slow drip of clues, it had me gripped and at less that two hundred and fifty pages I was able to read it in one day. There were plenty of surprises and breathtaking moments along the way that I genuinely didn’t see coming, which I thought were brilliantly done. It was fascinating learning a bit of the history of Sweden and the Viking Rituals performed, and it added a new fascinating dynamic to the story.

Yule Island is everything I hoped it would be, deliciously dark, taught with tension and brilliantly plotted. The setting was perfect and the characters intriguing, with both the Island and characters slowly giving up their secrets. Johana Gustawson’s writing is atmospheric and haunting drawing the reader in and in my case had me completely hooked. This is perfect for the dark winter nights, a good book to curl up with, with a blanket and a beverage of your choice.

I would like to thank Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for my copy of this book in return for my honest review.