Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles — Fans of Nordic noir will be on the look out for The Living and the Dead by Swedish criminologist and author Christoffer Carlsson. Following on from Under the Storm and Blaze me a sun, it won Best Swedish Crime Novel in 2023 and the Glass Key Award for Scandinavian crime fiction in 2024.
The story begins on a snowy winter night in 1999 in the Halland region of Sweden. Following a party in the village of Skavböke, Mikael Söderström is found beaten to death in a car belonging to the mother of a local girl.
The police investigation focuses on the young men who attended the party, including 18-year-olds Sander and Killian. Both seem to be hiding information during interviews with Siri Bengtsson, a new officer who arrived at the Oskarström police station the morning after Mikael’s death.
Sander is a clever student aiming for university in Stockholm, while Killian is a friendlier, less capable figure who relies on Sander to fix his mistakes. Sander would give anything to escape from the small town and its inhabitants, especially when something happens that shakes him to his core. The two are inseparable, but both claim to have alibis. Why, then, does Killian have a gash on his nose and a bruised eye and Sander have scratches on his arms and hands?
Then there’s Jakob Lindell, who had an argument with Mikael at the party. Due to the looming paranoia surrounding the millennium bug, Jakob’s father took all his savings – over 50,000 kronor – out of the bank and hid the cash at home. Jakob mentioned this at the party and the same night, the money was stolen from his parents’ house.
As they progress, the police think they’ve found the culprit and close the case, but in a second timeline we move forward 20 years and in the current day another detective, Vidar Jörgensson, finds reason to reinvestigate. He approaches the now-retired Bengtsson, who does not want to get involved again. Then, another of the men who attended the party that night is found murdered and Vidar realises there was more to the case than initially suspected.
Carlsson spins an astoundingly intricate yarn and you won’t easily be able to predict what’s around the corner. He certainly keeps us guessing. Writing in a style reminiscent of Dennis Lehane, the work and carries the same authority. Like Lehane’s Mystic River, The Living and the Dead is a coming-of-age story centred on a murder. Both writers focus on the psychological burden of secrets and the social dynamics of small towns. There is an emphasis on moral ambiguity and the idea that guilt, grief and anger are often entwined.
The characters are convincing and authentic; we see them develop and change over the years. Mikael’s father, Karl-Hendrik, is depicted as a man losing his grip on reality as he patrols the town with a shotgun looking for his son’s killer. Bengtsson provides an outsider’s perspective on the village dynamics while faced with racial prejudice due to her Indonesian heritage. Filip Söderström, Mikael’s younger brother, remains in the village but never recovers from his brother’s death.
At its heart, The Living and the Dead is a detailed murder investigation that examines how one night of violence, one split-second decision, can have a lasting impact. What gives it strength is the depiction of the characters over a long time period as life in the town unravels. Carlsson has a way of immersing you into the lives of his characters while maintaining a complex and compelling plot.
Carlsson’s own expertise shows through in his writing – in terms of accuracy and thoroughness – yet it has an emotional heft that is far from clinical or academic. The subtitle, A Novel About a Crime, reminds me of another Swedish writer: Leif GW Persson and his The Story of a Crime series about the murder of Olof Palme. In the final months of 2025, The Living and the Dead sneaked into my list of firm favourite reads of the year and it proved to be a highlight of the year.
Also see our review of Leif GW Persson’s The Dying Detective.
Penguin
Print/Kindle/iBook
£7.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
