Viveca Sten

A young mother is on her way to a Swedish ski resort near the Norwegian border when her young son has to pee. It is -12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit). She pulls the car over and lets him out. A short time later he comes back and tells his mother there is a man lying on the ground. She gets out to investigate and finds a man lying in the snow, his hands bound behind him and his head bashed in. He is covered with snow.
This is the beginning of Hidden in Shadows. Detective Daniel Lindskog along with his temporary partner Hanna Alhander, both of whom we met in Hidden in Snow, investigate. The victim turns out to be Johan Anderssen, a former Olympic skier who met with injury and now runs a plumbing company with his partner. By all accounts, Johan was a cheerful man with a positive outlook on life so it is hard to understand why he was so brutally murdered.
After speaking to Anderssen’s wife, Marion, and his business partner, Linus Sundin, the investigation begins to focus on Sundin. He is an alcoholic, has financial issues and has been known to be violent. Upon Anderssen’s death, he inherits another 25% of their company, making him majority shareowner. The financial motive is strong.
However, as you and I know, that makes it too easy. Additionally, he appears to have an alibi. As the investigation continues, more suspects arise.
A secondary story revolves around Rebecka Ekvall whose family are members of the Light of Life church and who at the young age of 19 is betrothed to the engaging, heir apparent pastor, Ole Nordhammer. He is what every girl in the church dreams of marrying. However, the church’s view of women leaves something to be desired.
The manner in which Sten weaves the two stories together is perfect. Hanna, who previously worked in the domestic violence unit of the Stockholm police, is concerned about Rebecka’s safety once she enters the picture.
Hidden in Shadows is not just an excellent police procedural. Sten touches on many topics including cults and the treatment of women, spousal abuse, the stresses of a new baby especially when one parent, Daniel, is rarely home, homosexuality and family life in general.
Hidden in Shadows follows two time periods: February 2022 follows the daily police procedures as they investigate the murder and September 2012 through 2022 in which Rebecka marries Ole and how their marriage progresses, until the two stories merge into one. Detectives from Hidden in Snow reappear, bringing the police family back together.
One review stated Hidden in Shadows “…is a pulse-pounding, character-driven follow-up to 2020’s Hidden in Snow that once again sees the powder near idyllic Swedish ski resort Are stained red with blood.”
As I stated in Hidden in Snow, Hidden in Shadows has no happy ending. The case is solved but the impact will leave lasting scars. This is, again, one of the bleakest Scandinavian noir I’ve read. However, it is well worth the read for the suspense as well as the look into the lives of both Hanna and Daniel.… (més)

This story set in Sweden was originally written and published there and translated into English. I did assume from the constant Americanisms such as references to 'mom' etc that the translator was American but at the end of the book a note reveals that they live in the UK so that is odd.

The setting is the small skiing resort of Are and its neighbouring communities, and the description of the setting plus lifestyle - nearly everyone has snowmobiles for example - was quite interesting. However, I found the characters mostly irritating. Hanna, the lead female character, is a police officer who spoke out against a coverup of a murder by a fellow officer back in Stockholm. Her nasty boss gives her an ultimatum to move to another branch of the police force or be sacked, and she goes home to a second ultimatum - her boyfriend reveals his affair with another woman and she must move out of his flat.

Fortunately for Hanna, her wealthy and successful older sister Lydia has a luxury second home in Are and allows her to live there. Hanna spends the first part of the book in meltdown/self-pity mode (apart from some drastic action with her boyfriend's belongings as the reader learns later).

A young girl goes missing and Hanna drags herself out of her pit of misery to join in the search. Gradually she becomes interested and offers information to the police, gleaned from the sister of one of the policemen who doesn't want to pass on the information herself. As they are chronically understaffed with several vacancies, she eventually is offered a job. But for a while it looks as if she has self-sabotaged that option when she hears that her boyfriend has engaged a lawyer to sue her, making it highly likely she will lose the job.

Fortunately, sister Lydia is a fairy godmother, sorting out all Hanna's problems, which are often self-inflicted. It's handy that she's a top lawyer. She neatly resolves the problem with the ex-boyfriend off stage which I found rather unsatisfying. Why bother with that whole subplot if it is resolved with no real consequences?

The rest of the more developed characters are also deeply flawed. Without wishing to create spoilers, both parents who lose a child go into total meltdown and completely fail their remaining children. The man in charge of the local police department is constantly beating himself up because of failing to be home on time to look after his baby daughter and take some of the load off his partner, but this is the first time there has ever been a murder in the area and in theory the long hours would only be for a limited period, assuming the crime is solved. It's not as if she didn't know he was a policeman when she became involved with him.

One thing which should be flagged as a content warning for those who don't like reading about cruelty to animals, the story involves the death of a pet animal.

Altogether I found it a frustrating read. Hanna does gradually pull herself together and show herself a capable officer but she then self-sabotages that again by going off on a tangent without even calling in where she's going. And it gets tiring to have so many characters who are wallowing in self-pity etc. So I can only rate this as an OK 2 stars.… (més)