Under The Snow is a unique mystery set in Norrbotten, the northern area where Sweden and Finland share a border. The languages of Swedish, Finnish and the local Sami blend together and the legacy of nomadic Sami ancestors and reindeer hunting is still palpable.
Constable Torsson is called up north to the small community of Rakisjokk - taking several hours to Orjas, and then a twenty-five km ski over the frozen Rakisuare lake in the deep winter where the sun does not rise. Enclosed by mountains, connected to civilization by a weather station, one of the community has frozen to death one late night; Matti was found the next day and stored in a shed. Torsson is told there was drinking, a fight, and Matti wandered out alone. The case is closed.
Summer arrives, with endless sun and long light-filled nights making it difficult to sleep. Although everyone has plans to leave this place, including Torsson, something holds them over Summer. David Malm arrives to visit his distant friend Matti, not knowing he passed, and makes a good team investigating with Torsson. They discover Matti died several days earlier than stated - more a murder than death by exposure - and the towns secrets reawaken. There is the mystery of Aili, a young girl who wandered into the mountains, never to be seen again. There is Per-Anders father who has renounced the village to live off the land in an ancestral hut, and there is Eric Sjogren, who believes he caused Matti's death. There are only a handful of residents to question, a tight knit group who try to obfuscate the investigation by speaking in Finnish or Sami - not knowing that Torsson can indeed understand all that is being said.
This has a great sense of place, a remote location, and buried secrets from years past. The combination of Torsson and David as the outsiders serves the reader well. They discover with us the history of the land, a far outpost where your eyes adjust to months of darkness, and your body to months of never-ending day. One criticism would be the names. Two women involved are both named Anna (Anna Ryd and Anna Salminen), and Per-Anders Jerf is referred to as Per-Anders, Jerf or Per-Anti - sometimes making it confusing. It was nevertheless interesting all the way, the solution rather common for the exotic locale - showing that human desires are the same the world over.
Kerstin Ekman is an eminent Swedish novelist, and this wintery mystery is recommended.
1997 / Tradeback / 164 pages
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