Dark Pines by Will Dean

Book Review

"Something just died. I don't know how I know this but I do. The air has changed around me."

Dark Pines will be released in the UK on 4th January 2018. It is written by Will Dean and published by Point Blank.

I really enjoy thrillers that are reliant on their setting. I recently read The Dry (review to come) and the harsh and arid landscape is integral to the plot. Dark Pines is the same, but with a completely different environment. A small Swedish town on the edge of a mighty pine forest, where stepping off the path can be deadly, yet most of the inhabitants' livelihoods depend on the forest.

It's an ideal place to set a murder mystery and Will Dean does this brilliantly in Dark Pines (which is also a perfect name for the book). You really feel the forest setting the whole way through, and it just wouldn't be the same if it was set somewhere else. It's intensely claustrophobic yet there is a power and energy both in the setting and the story.

BLURB

An isolated Swedish town. A deaf reporter terrified of nature. A dense spruce forest overdue for harvest. A pair of eyeless hunters found murdered in the woods.

It’s week one of the Swedish elk hunt and the sound of gunfire is everywhere. When Tuva Moodyson investigates the story that could make her career she stumbles on a web of secrets that knit Gavrik town together. Are the latest murders connected to the Medusa killings twenty years ago? Is someone following her? Why take the eyes? Tuva must face her demons and venture deep into the woods to stop the killer and write the story. And then get the hell out of Gavrik.

I think the wild setting in Dark Pines is so pronounced because of the feelings of protagonist and city girl Tuva Moodyson. She doesn't want to be in Gavrik and hates the forest, yet as a reporter she has to investigate the murders, which means entering the woods everyday.

I think Moodyson is a great invention. She stands out, not just because she is deaf, though this is unique in my reading, but because she is funny, independent and determined. She's got her own demons but she's not the usual grissled detective that we usually follow in thrillers.

The cast of characters on the whole is excellent, including a varied and believable cast, though some are downright bizarre, like the Sørlie sisters, who are disgustingly wonderful and original. I would love to know if they were drawn from real life.

The story itself is a little slow moving and doesn't roll along as easily as some thrillers I've read, but it was still page turning.

However, that's a little niggle, overall I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Pines and felt it was atmospheric and thrilling.

My Rating: 4 Stars

I received a copy of Dark Pines, via NetGalley, in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

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