It’s the Midsommer Festival on Sandhamn Island. Tourists have flocked to the island. For the teens and college agers, it’s the biggest party of the year. The well-to-do have borrowed their parents’ million dollar yachts and sailboats. Alcohol and drugs abound, not only on the high—priced sailing vessels, but also on the beaches.

The local police force work double and triple time to keep it in bounds. But the next morning, the body of a rich young man is found, partially hidden, making murder a certainty.

Of course Thomas, with his knowledge of Sandham investigates.

After a cliff hanger of an ending in the previous book, we have jumped ahead in time and at the beginning of the story, Thomas has remarried his ex-wife Pernilla and is enjoying being a father to baby Elin.

Nora has also found love with her tenant, Jonas. But Jonas’s daughter Wilma resents Nora, and Wilma is also missing the night after the Midsommer Party.

This is a thriller within a mystery as the father of the murdered boy is told that his son’s best friend is the suspect. Frustrated by the slowness of the police investigation, the father decides to take justice into his own hands.

As usual, there were some good twists and turns to the tale. The characters are engaging, and Nora and Thomas continue to evolve and grow.

Definitely a series that I’ll continue reading. ( )

Midsummer weekend on Sandhamn includes a lot of teenage partying. Jonas' daughter stays out past her curfew, and he spends the entire night searching for her. One girl loses the rest of her party and is finally joined by one in the shelter to wait until parents can come. But worst of all, one boy is found dead with a head wound caused by the repeated bashing of a stone against his head. The deceased's father vows revenge on the person who killed his son. Thomas and Margit investigate along with the help of other team members. The author seems to be using similar elements to previous books in this book. Unfortunately it makes the plot seem a little stale. ( )

It’s a crowded midsummer weekend on Sandhamn as partygoers flock from the city to Stockholm’s archipelago. A teenage boy is found dead, and the investigation focuses on the friends who were with him that weekend, many of whom were too drunk to have even been aware of what was happening around them. It’s a challenge for the investigative team, and made more difficult when it looks like a member of law enforcement may have been involved in some way.

This was a solid entry in the Sandhamn murder series featuring investigators Thomas Andreasson and Margit Grankvist, and Thomas’ friend, Nora Linde. Nora’s involvement in the investigation is minimal and even her personal storyline takes a back seat in this novel, but there were still some interesting developments in her life as well as Thomas’, which I’m sure will continue to evolve in the next book. ( )

When several teenagers go missing in a vacation town, with one eventually turning up dead, it’s up to Detective Thomas and his fellow police officers to piece together what happened. Viveca Sten crafts an interesting crime drama where the pieces don’t fall into place until the very end.

It took me about ten chapters until I felt truly pulled in (they’re short chapters) but once I was, I couldn’t put it down. The pacing was quick, switching from character to character and scene to scene, and I enjoyed the buildup to who was dead. A lot of authors don’t allow for that. This way you actually get to know the other characters and build a level of connection to them so when it’s revealed that their loved one is dead, there’s more weight and substance there.

I have one minor gripe and it may be more a pet peeve than anything negative. There are very few things, in real life and in books, that annoy me more than people jumping to conclusions. Watching the police and the victim’s father do just that, I couldn’t help but get a little detached from the story. I ultimately got my satisfying ending though so I didn’t let it bother me too much.

Overall an enjoyable summer read, and I have to give props to the translator as well. I don’t speak Swedish so I can’t compare the English to the original, but everything felt cohesive and of the same voice throughout the story.

3.5-4 stars ( )