Echoes from the Dead: 1 (Oland Quartet) - Softcover

Theorin, Johan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385342217 ISBN 13: 9780385342216

Publisher: Delta, 2008

Synopsis

On a gray September day, on an island off the coast of Sweden, six -year -old Jens Davidsson ventured out of his backyard, walked out into a fog, and vanished....Now twenty years have passed, and in this magnificent debut novel of suspense--a runaway bestseller in Sweden--the boy's mother returns to the place where her son disappeared, drawn by a chilling package sent in the mail... In it, lovingly wrapped, is one of Jens' sandals--sandals Julia Davidsson put on her son's feet that very last morning.

Now, with only a handful of clues, Julia and her father are questioning islanders who were present the day Jens vanished--and making a shocking connection to Öland's most notorious murder case: the killing spree of a wealthy young man who fled the island and died years before Jens was even born. Suddenly the island that once seemed so achingly familiar turns strange and dangerous... Until Julia finds herself facing truths she never imagined--about what really happened on that September day twenty years ago, about who may have crossed paths with little Jens in the fog, and how a child could truly vanish without a trace...until now.

About this title

Review:

"Will remind many of Henning Mankell both in its thematic intensity and dark tone."--Publishers Weekly

"Intricacy and suspense... the ending caught me by surprise."--Kansas City Star

"A splashy debut ... with some mind-bending twists near the end."--Houston Chronicle

"The right measure of pathos, fear and suspense."--Rocky Mountain News

"Rich in characterization ... [and] the ending packs a stunning surprise."--Boston Globe

From the Publisher:

Echoes from the Dead is a really accomplished first novel set on an island on the outer reaches of the Swedish coast which is as chilling as it is mysterious. I acquired it because it is deceptively straightforward: not only do you think you know what happened and who abducted little Jens(believe me, you really don't), but because it is painted on a very broad canvas. Although the storyline is set in the present, you are taken back to the Nazi Occupation of the island, and as far afield as the Caribbean - but so gripping is the story that you don't really notice this. I also love the portrayal of loss suffered by Jens' mother, Julia, who, 20 years after Jens' disappearance still talks to him in her head, still expects him to walk through her front-door, still expects a phone call to say he's been found. So when his sandal is sent anonymously to her father, who's still living on the island - she knows she has to go back and find what really happened to him. I hope you love this book as much as I do, and agree that Johan Theorin is an author with a big future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delta
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0385342217
• ISBN 13: 9780385342216
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400