In a nutshell -- this was some crazy stuff here!
I'm a sucker for mysterious disappearances and unexplained abandonment so this book offered up a premise that drew me in. A documentary filmmaker embarks on a project that she's been obsessed with for most of her life. Alice Lindstedt's maternal grandmother's entire family vanished from an old mining town over 60 years ago. The little village of Silvertjarn in Norrland had stood empty and untouched since 1959 when "all 900 residents disappeared under mysterious circumstances." Alice and 4 colleagues trek there with enough supplies to last them 6 days while they explore the area, take film, and photographs, and figure out what secrets may be revealed for their documentary. They have no idea what is about to happen to them in that place as they are the only ones to explore the area after two policeman found the only two people who were left behind on that August day in 1959-- a woman who was stoned to death and a newborn baby girl. NO SPOILERS.
Told in a Then and Now style, the narrative is engaging and immediately absorbing as the point of view shifts between Alice and her great-grandmother, Elsa. The details about what was happening in the village are revealed as Alice and her friends examine the remnants of a once thriving town left to the ravages of time and the encroachment of the surrounding forest. The atmosphere is tense and the mood is foreboding giving it all a Gothic feel without the supernatural. I read this in one sitting this afternoon and definitely enjoyed it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - mystery thriller with a Gothic feel, not supernatural, not horror
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