Wow. Dark Pines is not what I expected. Atmospheric, haunting, and beautifully written, I was drawn in from the first pages. There are some cracking characters in this novel - all different, all unusual but all utterly believable, and the protagonist, Tuva, wormed her way into my heart from the start. The setting adds another layer to the creeping sense of mystery that cloaks the story, and a sinister ribbon of suspense ensures the reader is kept on the edge of their seat throughout. Brilliant.

Wow - what a great read! I really loved this book and it had everything I want in a good thriller - an enigmatic interesting heroine, a terrifying murder, a rich cast of strange and creepy characters and a remote setting in a dark broody forest. Even just the promise of such a story makes me want to snuggle up somewhere warm and cosy and settle in for a few hours of reading. Dark Pines was one of those hidden gems you stumble upon accidentally, that end up making their way onto your favourite list. I loved every creepy minute of it!
 
Tuva is an interesting, multi-dimensional character who I like straight from the start. Being deaf from childhood, life has not always been easy for her, but she is never bitter of bemoaning her fate, determined not to let her disability stop her from achieving her goals. Wanting to be near her dying mother sees Tuva give up her career as a journalist in London and move to the small town of Gavrik in a remote region in the Swedish countryside, where she finds work writing small features for the local paper. Her job suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when a man is found murdered in a gruesome fashion in the forest, mutilated in ways that link him to other killings twenty years ago. 

The more Tuva starts investigating the town's dark secrets, the creepier the book becomes. There were some truly terrifying characters there - those woodcarver sisters will give me nightmares for some time to come I think! Everyone seems to have a motive for murder, and most of the characters are - for lack of a better word –odd, yet strangely compelling. There were so many interesting side stories here that would make for whole books just on their own, and I could have kept reading on long after the mystery had been solved just to find out more about this unusual cast of characters. Dean portrays small town mentality perfectly, with all its prejudice, allgiances and narrow-mindedness, Tuva always remaining the outsider. Her friendship with Tammy was portrayed beautifully, and I was glad that at least she had someone fighting in her corner!
 
I am always a sucker for a creepy remote setting, and the author certainly knows how to set the atmosphere: the dark, sinister woods Tuva is so afraid of take on a life of their own, closing in tighter and tighter around the small town the more people fear for their lives with a serial killer on the loose. Dean does a brilliant job in ratcheting up the tension by including small, seemingly insignificant details that add to the general undercurrent of danger, like the plague of insects that attack Tuva every time she goes into the woods, or the pile of rotting mouse carcasses she finds piled up against a stonewall near one of her suspect's homes. With its air of menace, the forest becomes almost like another character Tuva is up against in her quest to find out the truth.

Dark Pines is one of those dark, atmospheric and haunting thrillers that contains everything I look for in a good mystery, and I was instantly hooked. If you are looking for a sympathetic gutsy heroine, a rich cast of unusual characters, a creepy claustrophobic setting and a chilling murder mystery, you can’t go wrong with this one!  It definitely earned itself a spot on my favourites list for the year and I look forward to reading more from the author in future. Very highly recommended.

I read this book at the perfect time of year - Autumn is upon us and it's starting to get colder and darker with each passing day. At times I felt like I was standing in the forest with Tuva, feeling as cold as she did, and as nervous about her surroundings as she was. Dean's writing was such that my belly was warmed by Frida's stew in exactly the same way Tuva's was, and I could smell the same wondrous things in the kitchen as she could. The whole thing was so evocative, it added to the experience tenfold and I can't wait to read more!

This book is very atmospheric and creepy throughout, it's not the usual type of crime mystery. Very enjoyable and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

Set in a small, claustrophobic town on the edge of the woods, Dark Pines skillfully builds tension throughout the narrative as a journalist hunts the Medusa murderer. In a refreshing twist, the killer's victims are all middle aged men. But that doesn't mean our heroine, Tuva Moodyson, is safe. As she delves deeper into her story, she encounters hostility from the town and strange, unsettling trolls keep appearing on her doorstep... This was an enjoyable book with a great heroine. Although Tuva refuses to be held back by her fear of nature and her hearing disability, these touches made her feel more vulnerable and escalated the tension. The twists were spoiled for me somewhat because I guessed the murderer very early on, but it was still fun to watch it all unfold.

This is a bit of a genre jump for me, a crime thriller, not one I read a lot of. And I'm glad I gave this a go, it was a really absorbing, enjoyable and entertaining read. And no, I didn't guess the killer. 

What initially got my attention, along with the interesting and atmospheric front cover, was the setting of this thriller set in a deep, dark and menacing forest from Sweden. Nordic thrillers are a bit of a trend at the moment I believe, with a few TV shows being set there recently, and the one's I've seen have been vaguely interesting. So what does this book offer? Does it match these shows.

Yes. Yes it did. The main character, Tuva, isn't your standard reporter running around trying to solve the crime. No, and this is one of the aspects I enjoyed and enjoy in other books, is that the main character here is a little different. Tuva is deaf, with hearing aids that often play up. She's from the small town in Sweden, but has been and prefers to live in the big cities, definitely not a fan of nature and the big outdoors. She's a little fed up with her small town life eating rubbish food, writing about town fairs and looking after her ill mother. And then suddenly the story explodes, with Tuva trying to solve/report on an apparent return of a serial killer that once terrorised the town some twenty years ago, with once again bodies of hunters appearing with the same modus operandi. This is her big break. 

And what I'd like to add here, is that the huge selling point for this book, the main driver for me is the writing. The style. The author has done a great job. The scene setting, detail and the pace is perfect and you always know what the characters are thinking and feeling, the descriptions of the various environments makes you feel you are really there with some good suspenseful moments sprinkled throughout which had me rushing my reading or holding my breath. Ha ha, reading this review back to myself makes me realise how much I did get into this book.

So yes, highly recommend crime thriller readers read this. If not for the story but the writing.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for an advance copy of Dark Pines, a novel set in rural Sweden featuring local reporter Tuva Moodyson.

Tuva, deaf since childhood, has moved to the small town of Gavrik to be near her dying mother. She works on the local weekly where it's all about the people and things that affect their lives as circulation is always an issue. All this changes when a man is found murdered in the woods and Tuva is put on the case. It changes even more when the murder is found to resemble three unsolved murders in the area from the 90s.

I enjoyed Dark Pines after a slow start. It is probably more literary than I am used to or prefer but it's always good to ring the changes and try something different. As a crime novel it is acceptable but not brilliant as I guessed the perpetrator almost immediately and had a good idea of the motive from about half way through as Tuva stumbled around in the dark, both literally and metaphorically.

I think, however, that the crime is not the be all and end all of the novel as it has a couple of obvious themes running through it and probably more that I didn't pick up on. Firstly there is the outsider theme. Tuva is much more cosmopolitan than most of the residents, having lived and worked in London, and her deafness sets her apart, not in her mind but in others' perception of her. I don't think it is any coincidence that her two closest friends whilst Swedish are not ethnically white. To be blunt none of them really fit in and are viewed with some suspicion as outsiders. Mr Dean has the small town mentality to a T. The dark undercurrents, rumours and prejudices are all very well done. The other theme is Tuva coming to terms with the past and trying to fit it into her life. She obviously has problems as she avoids alcohol and consumes junk food like it's going out of fashion. She also has a difficult relationship with her mother and a morbid fear of the forest. It's all eventually explained but it takes a while.

What I really liked about the novel is its brooding sense of place. The murder victim is found in the forest and Tuva's attention is focused on a small hamlet in it so she spends a lot of time there. Mr Dean does an excellent job of portraying Tuva's fear and panic and the menace of the great outdoors. I really felt it but I'm like Tuva - a townie through and through.

Dark Pines is different to my normal fare but it's very readable so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Dark Pines is one of those books where I look up from the pages after finishing it, slightly dazed, going Yep THAT is what I am looking for.

Beautiful beautiful writing, totally immersive from the very first page with a main protagonist that you just fall in love with and an atmospheric, haunting sense of things that will linger for a long time. Will Dean’s intuitive prose just sends you to Gavrik, a small town, a tight knit community, people just looking for a quiet life, but there is a dangerous underbelly to it all that you just feel throughout the reading. Tuva is truly intriguing, living and working in Gavrik to be close to her unwell Mother, just waiting to escape but somehow so very much a part of it all anyway. Her so called “disability” is just part of her, she works around it with no sense of being different to anyone else and I loved that about her.

The scene setting is a huge part of what makes this so very very excellent though. The “Dark Pines” of the title, that brooding, beautifully threatening forest is a character in its own right – making you want to visit and want to hide from it – always in the background, a definable, vivid environment that ingrains itself into the wider story with a truly imaginative intensity.

Then you have the quirky, odd and realistic characters that live in and around Gavrik – from the sisters (my favourites!) with their extremely strange creative profession and their lilting way of talking to Tuva herself, everyone you meet in Dark Pines will give you a different emotional response. The mystery element is so so SO well done, I don’t even want to say anything about it, you should just read it and live in it and wait for that downright eerie ending that is elegantly achieved.

I loved every moment of this one. Every word. It was just blinking brilliant. This is DEFINITELY one to watch in 2018 and has pretty much guaranteed itself a place in my top ten reads for this year – Dark Pines is a novel to watch and Will Dean is an author to watch. I sense great things ahead.

Highly HIGHLY recommended.