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Book Cover for: The Living and the Dead: A Novel about a Crime, Christoffer Carlsson

The Living and the Dead: A Novel about a Crime

Christoffer Carlsson

THE AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Two decades after a string of unsolved murders in a working-class town, another body turns up, ripping apart friendships and community--a captivating mystery and graceful investigation of brotherhood and family by a renowned criminologist

"Carlsson is far and away my favorite Scandinavian crime writer at the moment, and The Living and the Dead is among his very best."--Fredrik Backman

Winner of the three biggest prizes in Scandinavian crime writing: Best Swedish Crime Novel - The Glass Key Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel - Danish Rozenkrantz Prize for Best Translated Crime Novel

Small towns sometimes have a voice of their own.

In 1999 the Halland police discover a car crashed into a tree with a bloody steering wheel and the body of a teenage boy in the trunk. As the investigation unfolds, Officer Siri Bengtsson, a newcomer in town, keeps returning to two local boys, best friends whose stories she knows don't add up.

Twenty years later, a similar murder takes place, and seemingly resolved questions are reopened. Siri, who abruptly quit the force years before in frustration and despair, becomes the town's only hope to solve the killings and unpack a community's long-held secrets.

In The Living and the Dead, Christoffer Carlsson takes us to the fields and forests of Halland in Western Sweden, a region of farmers, mechanics, and truck drivers torn apart by economic injustice and self-deceit. Carlsson masterfully transports the reader to a world where the portal between the living and the dead is flung wide open, where no one is entirely innocent and decades-old crimes will not be forgotten.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Hogarth Press
  • Publish Date: Dec 2nd, 2025
  • Pages: 432
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 1.25lb
  • EAN: 9780593733059
  • Categories: Thrillers - SuspenseMystery & Detective - Police Procedural

About the Author

Christoffer Carlsson was born in 1986 in Marbäck, Sweden. He holds a PhD in criminology from Stockholm University, where he continues to teach, and is one of Sweden's leading crime experts. A recipient of the European Society of Criminology's Young Criminologist Award, Carlsson is the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, which he has won twice. The New York Times named his American debut, Blaze Me a Sun, one of the best crime novels of the year.

Rachel Willson-Broyles lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Praise for this book

"I just don't know anyone else who writes quite like this. All the makings of a page-turning thriller, but with an emotional depth that is truly rare. Carlsson is far and away my favorite Scandinavian crime writer at the moment, and The Living and the Dead is among his very best."--Fredrik Backman, #1 New York Times bestselling author