A chilling new historical crime novel from the author of the international bestseller Wolf Winter

An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far north.

Sweden, 1856. The minister of justice has received a disturbing message. There’s been a massacre on one of Lapland’s mountains: a priest, a law enforcement officer and a local settler have been slaughtered by one of the indigenous Sami people. The murderer is in custody, but he refuses to talk. The minister dispatches his geologist son-in-law, Magnus, to investigate, as there is another reason to visit Blackåsen: it is a mountain with many secrets, a mountain whose rich mineral deposits have never been exploited. But Magnus does not journey alone. The minister’s daughter, Lovisa, in disgrace, is sent with him.

The two unlikely companions venture out of the sweltering city to the wild landscape of Sweden’s far north under the strange, insomnia-inducing light of the midnight sun. There, the shocking truth they discover about the murders and what lies behind them will be matched only by what they discover about themselves. The Midnight Sun is a riveting story of the collision of worlds old and new, and cements Ekbäck’s status as a master of Nordic noir.

CECILIA EKBÄCK is the author of Wolf Winter, which won the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown and the High Plains Book Award. Her second novel, The Midnight Sun, was published to wide acclaim. Originally from a small town in northern Sweden, Ekbäck now lives in Canmore, Alberta, with her husband and twin daughters.

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“[Ekbäck] has a tremendous sense of place. Vividly conveying the desolation of the landscape in this haunting novel.” — Sunday Times (London)

“Ekback is a talented writer. . . . This book is never less than absorbing.” — The Times (UK)

“With The Midnight Sun, we’re given more ambitious, literate Nordic Noir from Swede Cecilia Ekbäck . . . . As in Wolf Winter, Ekbäck once again proves that she is in the very front rank of Scandinavian crime writers.” — Independent (UK)