Sun and Shadow

Erik Winter is the youngest chief inspector in Sweden; he wears sharp suits, cooks gourmet meals, has a penchant for jazz, and is about to become a father. But he has his share of troubles too; a bloody double murder on his doorstep is only the beginning. As Sun and Shadow opens a couple entertains a stranger in their apartment in Göteborg, but this particular illicit rendezvous will prove to be their last.

What greets Chief Inspector Winter and his team when they arrive appears as a stage setting, grotesquely symbolic in its composition. While Winter trawls ads in men’s magazines in search of the missing party guest, a trail from the clues left by the killer leads into the cult world of the gothic—a riddle of nightmares, of good versus evil, of sun and shadow. When the investigation unearths a possible link between the murders and the police force, even friendly faces are not to be trusted. And when the killer strikes again, possibly closer to home, Winter is in a race against time before someone he loves gets hurt.

Like his fellow countryman Henning Mankell, Ake Edwardson is a brilliant discovery for lovers of intricate, psychologically charged and stylish crime novels, and Sun and Shadow promises to be the season’s most exciting crime debut.