Black River

A Tuva Moodyson Mystery

Will Dean

Intrepid reporter Tuva Moodyson has been living in southern Sweden for four months, far away from her dark past in the forests and secrets of northern Gavrik. Then she receives shocking news that shakes her new and tremulous foundation: her best friend Tammy is missing.

Tuva rushes back to the place she definitely doesn’t want to be — at the height of Midsommar celebrations — to help lead the search for her lost friend. But it seems that someone else doesn’t want Tammy to be found; the search effort is routinely, cruelly sabotaged. And thanks to the bright light of the longest day of the year, day and night blend into one long, surreal horror.

Tuva’s investigation takes her to Snake River, a sinister backwater surrounded by a deep woods that’s as foreboding as it is impenetrable. It’s a place of secrets and hidden desires and questions better left unasked, but Tuva is nothing if not relentless. As she gets closer to the truth of Tammy’s disappearance, she also circles closer to what could become her demise.

While Midsommar revelers celebrate around her — with food and maypoles and aquavit and life — Tuva is trapped in her feelings of fear and regret as Tammy’s whereabouts remain unknown. Tuva slowly realizes, perhaps too late, that the things she needs the most might have been in Gavrik all along.

Rich with atmosphere and a setting that’s a character in itself, this is a twisty, suspense novel that ratchets up the tension until its stunning, satisfying conclusion.

Utgard forest is overwhelming. Bigger than ever. Dark and summer-full; undergrowth exploding outward and upward, brambles and nettles creeping out from the forest fringes. I drive for fifteen minutes, and Utgard forest is the constant shade on the right-hand side of the road. I pass the narrow entrance to Mossen village — nothing good’s ever come out of that place — and I drive on. — Will Dean

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