Spring Tide

On a remote island in northern Sweden a woman is buried on the beach up to her neck. A young boy watches as the water threatens her and when those responsible for her condition disappear he runs home. A couple of decades later police trainee Olivia Rönning chooses the unsolved cold case of the purposefully drowned woman as her summer project. At the same time an alarmingly brutal series of attacks on homeless people is being investigated.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given they’ve been responsible for televising both the Martin Beck novels and Arne Dahl’s A-Unit series, the husband and wife writing team behind SPRING TIDE have produced a novel with a strong ensemble cast for their debut. Although there is not a single team responsible show more for either investigation Olivia is never a lone investigator, instead joined by current and former officers so that the story can unfold far more credibly than it could if left in the hands of a student. One of the few upsides to long books (this one is nearly 500 pages) is that good authors at least use the extra words at their disposal to develop their characters well and the Börjlind’s have definitely done that here. Olivia is surprisingly engaging for a 20-something (yes my prejudice is showing through there) and the depiction of her learning the tips and tools of her future trade is a good one. She is in danger though of being overshadowed by former policeman Tom Stilton whose back story is simply fascinating but I shall say no more on that issue for fear of spoilers.

There’s no getting away from the fact that the story here is pretty complicated – there are threads within threads and all manner of crossovers – but I didn’t find it difficult to follow and everything that needs to be is resolved credibly. There probably could have been one or two fewer dead ends without impacting the whole too much (except reducing the page count a bit) but I have to admit that even for someone endlessly griping about books that are too long this one doesn’t actually fit that category in that there are not huge chunks I could identify for the red pen. And it must be said that the story is totally compelling (nails may have been bitten) and the authors kept me guessing on several fronts right to the end.

Again following the tradition of the best Swedish crime novels SPRING TIDE does explore some social themes, though perhaps not with quite the same depth of Mankell, Sjöwall and Wahlöö or even Liza Marklund. Nevertheless the treatment of homeless people in modern Sweden is certainly front and centre and there are some not so subtle digs at the wealthy and their behaviour.

Not that I need another one but I’ll definitely be adding this series to my must follow list after this excellent first instalment from the writing duo. Actually it’s a trio if you consider as I do that their translator Rod Bradbury has played an equally important role in bringing the book to life for English-speaking readers. I’m always particularly impressed when even humour flows well, as evidenced by this passage in which Olivia is talking to one of the local women who was interviewed at the time of the murder

‘And then they interrogated everybody on the island and you can be sure I told them what I thought had happened.’
‘And what did you think?”
‘Satanists. Racists. Some sort of -ists that was fur sure, that’s what I told them.’
‘Cyclists?’

Translating linguistic humour from one language to another must surely garner extra credit.

If you’re after an intelligent, fast-paced procedural with loads of twists and terrific characters then you really ought not go past SPRING TIDE. show less

Spring Tide is a gripping, cinematic crime thriller from Cilla and Rolf Börjlind, the scriptwriters behind Arne Dahl and the Swedish Wallander TV series.

The spring tides are the highest of the year in Nordkoster; the beach will be covered in particularly deep water tonight. Three men on the beach are digging a hole, covertly watched by a young boy. His intrigue turns to horror as he makes out a fourth figure - the woman for whom the hole is intended. Buried up to her neck in the sand, the high tide is rapidly approaching. Still screaming in terror, the victim takes her last breath as water fills her nose and mouth - in her stomach, she feels her baby kick. And her waters break.

Twenty-four years later, the abhorrent crime remains show more unsolved; gruesome violence however is still prevalent after all those years. A gang has been beating up and killing homeless people in parks - worse still, they are filming their attacks and broadcasting them on the internet. The police have their work cut out trying to keep abreast of the crime wave. Olivia Ronning hopes to follow in her father's footsteps and join their ranks in the next few months after she completes her training; she has only one last hurdle to overcome over the summer break, a challenge from her professor to pick a cold case and solve it. Should be simple, she thinks. Little does she know the world she is getting involved in, the danger she faces and the ugly truths she risks uncovering.

A welcome addition to the crowded stage of Nordic Noir.

You can tell the authors have a TV/film background from the tight plotting, myriad characters and short cinematic set pieces in this gripping novel.

Filled with interesting characters; young police trainee Olivia Rönning is a brilliant creation; believable and likeable.

A thrilling story full of twists and turns (pay off was jaw-dropping) but with social issues at its heart I was sorry to finish it but thank goodness the second book, Third Voice, is about to published...yay! show less

I really enjoyed this book. It starts out with a rather horrific murder and then wends it's way through several plot lines, but has some really engaging, and yes, flawed characters as protagonists. There are folks with mystery in their backgrounds, corporate greed, youthful naivete , human kindness and suspense enough to go around, but most of all a good murder mystery. A very good read.

Skriven för tv, det märks. Lite rörig med 3 parallella handlingar som vävs samman. Bra och spännande läsning om än något seg i starten.

A very good book. Reads fast, reads good, despite the many story lines that and characters who, at first sight, do not have anything in common.
It took me some time to get used to the Stilton-character. It struck me as rather odd, that a homeless, completely detached former police officer gets involved in a murder investigation again. Let alone that that one has connections to the one he was part of many years ago.

The end was very surprising, I didn't see it coming :-)

Ooops, where did that night go? I couldn't put this book down. Fast paced and lovely twists