First published 2010
Nineteen people lie dead in a quiet Swedish village, victims of the country's most brutal massacre. The local police scramble under intense pressure to solve the unprecedented crime. Judge Birgitta Roslin learns of the killings through news reports and realizes she shares family ties with one of the murdered couples. When police rush to arrest a suspect, Roslin takes matters into her own hands. She focuses on two mysterious clues found at the scene: a diary from the 1800s and a red silk ribbon. Her investigation pulls her away from the courtroom and into dangerous territory. The evidence points beyond Sweden's borders to an intricate network of international corruption. What begins as a search for justice in a small town becomes something far larger. Roslin discovers that the motive for mass murder reaches back more than a century. Someone has waited generations to settle an old score.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, international-conspiracy
Setting: Beijing, Sweden
Period: 19th-Century, 21st-Century
367 pages · Hardcover · Alfred A. Knopf