This is a well written Nordic crime book. There are some good twists and turns. The characterisation is excellent. The characters are well developed and believable. The pace was quite slow

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

When the body of a young man washes ashore in Stockholm's southern archipelago, Manfred Olsson is called in to investigate. But with his daughter, Nadja, in a coma, it is with some reluctance that he leaves his wife alone by their child's bedside.


Elsewhere, eighteen-year-old Samuel lives with his hard-working single mother, Pernilla. His charm has always been able to get him out of trouble, but when he finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, he is forced to make a run for it.

throughly enjoyed the characters and the premise and can highly recommend this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed this one. It felt like Grebe had gone in a slightly different direction to usual, it didn't sound like her at all to me.

Of course the usual Nordic nuances were there, but it seems more modern and new. It's hard to explain.

I loved Manfred's chapters and really liked getting to know him through his reluctance to take a case that would remove him from his family situation.

A solid read, just one I wasn't expecting!

The Hideout is the gripping new crime thriller by acclaimed Swedish author Camilla Grebe. Well paced and full of suspense, it is very much a character driven story with short, punchy chapters that keep you reading long into the night. With plenty of twists, turns and surprises along the way, this is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end.

The story has three distinct character voices. First there’s Manfred who has been called in to investigate after the body of a young man washes up on the shore. Reluctant to leave his wife and young daughter, Manfred is eager to resolve the case as quickly as he can, but soon comes to realise that things may not be quite as straightforward as they seem.With the case hotting up, Manfred and his team now find themselves on the hunt for a killer.

Then there’s eighteen year old Samuel who suddenly gets caught up in the middle of a drug deal that’s gone wrong. Forced to make a run for it and with nowhere to go, he seeks refuge in a small town where he takes a job as assistant to the son of a wealthy family. But things are not quite as they seem and Samuel may have just jumped straight out of the frying pan and into the fire.

And finally we have Pernilla, Samuel’s hardworking single mum who has always tried to please everyone. Brought up by a strict religious father, Pernilla feels guilt and shame for letting him down when she became pregnant with Samuel. And now, with Samuel missing, she doesn’t know which way to turn. Where is he? And why has he not been in touch to let her know where he is?

Full of intrigue, mystery and suspense, Camilla Grebe has written a stylish crime thriller that kept me guessing throughout. With a strong and varied cast of characters, a vividly imagined setting and a murder to solve, The Hideout is Scandi Noir at its very best.

Highly recommended.

This is an absolutely blinding novel, it is dark, shot through with strong characters and a driving plot which is underpinned with a Nordic sensibility. The sparseness of the text , when combined with the internal, first person dialogue creates a dark, almost claustrophobic atmosphere that hits the reader right from the very start. Plunging you into an emotionally taught situation, before you realise that the lead character, Manfred, is also the investigative police detective, has you seeing him as a man, a father, a husband first. This adds layers of pathos to a highly dramatic, and distressing scene, where his infant daughter falls from the window of his flat.

Whilst she is placed in a coma, to allow her brain injuries time to heal, the stasis which Manfred and wife, Afsaneh are thrust into, is broken by the heralding of a series of deaths which need Manfred's assistance in deciphering. It is typically dark, that something worse than a child in a coma-the bloated remains of young men washing up in Stockholm-can be used as a distraction from the never ending watching of Nadja's vital signs.

The flip side to Manfred's narration is that of Samuel, a young boy who has fallen in with a crowd who make easy money from drug running. However, nothing this easy and 'fun' to arrange, drug runs and the lifestyle which accompanies it comes easily. Luxury comes at a price, and this case, Gucci trainers are absolutely not worth what Samuel paid for them.

His guilt riddled mother, traumatised by her own mother's abandonment, has missed what has gone on under her nose, and, as a single, deprived woman herself, her acceptance back into her father's life, and that of her local congregation, comes with much soul searching, blame and anguish.

The need to do 'the right thing', has resulted in catastrophic consequences-abandonment, poor parenting, passing down of the burden of guilt wrapped up in religious idolatry- and Her, Pernilla's actions, whilst not intentional comic, have deadly consequences.

With Samuel on the run from losing a valuable package, thanks to his mother, and Manfred hot on his heels, it is a race against time to find somewhere safe to go to ground.

But what of the place you think you can settle in, turns out to be the most dangerous place of all?

The stark realism is reflected in the brutal nature of the landscape ,'The Hideout' is  an Iceland set drama which is a moral tale with a slow burn aesthetic which I would highly recommend to any fan of Nordic Noir!

Not what I was expecting of a Scandi-noir book and it took me a while to link the characters. Probably not my favourite read but if you like something a bit different this might just be what you’re looking for.

I love Nordic noir. The stories seem darker, more intense & the characters multi-layered - both reflecting the settings.
The Hideout is very well-written & is a truly twisty psychological thriller. However, I did find it very slow & quite difficult to get in to, the pace only quickening towards the conclusion.
The characters are expertly written & very believable, which is just as well as this book is character driven.
If you like Nordic backgrounds, then this is the book for you. I may have been a tad harsh with my stars as perhaps the book has lost some of its force in translation. I would still recommend it & I will read more by this author.

This is my first read by this author and I’ll be honest that I’d never heard of her until the cover and title hooked me into this book. However, a little background research clearly showed me that she is a prolific and popular writer of Swedish noir and crime fiction.

I was definitely hooked into the story and shocked from the very beginning. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, the descriptions are raw, and sometimes horrifying in their detail and realism. There are a couple of different strands to the story, in that you have the professional and personal life of investigator Manfred Olsson at the fore-front of this story. This, and the use of multiple perspectives, makes this a very well written and believable character driven story.

This is a twisty and gripping book, and Camilla also deals with some very emotive themes, including death, parenting, crime and religion. I was definitely eager to find out the outcome, though I can’t say I particularly took to Samuel as a character.

I have always been a fan of crime thrillers, police procedurals, and books that focus on a missing person’s case, and this book provides a good mix of all three, whilst the fact that it is set in Sweden, as well as some of the plot twists, give it an original and fresh feel. I would recommend this to crime fiction fans looking for something dark but different.

This is Stockholm based Grebe’s third novel that she has solely written after co-authoring some other books earlier in her career. It is the first story that I have read by Grebe and I was very impressed by the unpredictable nature of the storylines which interweave between the principle characters who each follow some intriguing developments through the novel. The book also tackles a range of sensitive issues such as the care of sick or disabled children and the related online communities used by their parents in a very adept manner. This could have been clumsily handed in the hands of a different author. This is one example within the story where Grebe meticulously challenges herself and indeed the reader by placing her key protagonists in a range of precarious situations which forces us to reflect on how we would react in such instances, buying into our sympathy and pity. Great credit is due also to translator Sarah Clyne Sundberg who conveys this very effectively.
The story is principally taken from the point of view of three characters – 18 year old Samuel has been brought up by his religious mother Pernille with his father believed to be dead. He has gradually rebelled more against her time after time, from petty crimes to getting himself involved with drug collection work with the shady Malte on behalf of dangerous and violent dealer Igor. We follow his trials and tribulations in first person narrative as he gets himself deeper entrenched with organised crime until a fateful showdown. His mother Pernille also receives our attention as she faces the distress of not knowing her son’s whereabouts and activities, in addition to the impending death of her terminally ill father; plus the smothering preoccupations of a local church minister who she feels indebted to. When Samuel finds himself on the run, his story relocates from the city to a remote location where the few dwellings are largely holiday homes. There is some running commentary about the facilities catered to that community which is quite amusing. Samuel is looking to hide out there until the heat has blown over. In desperation he answers an online advert and gets a job as a live in assistant to a handicapped teenager.
The third leading character is Manfred. He is a middle aged police detective within the Stockholm police force. What he lacks in looks and slim figure he makes up with charisma and a snappy dress sense. Recently life has taken a good turn for him with a much younger wife and daughter but a lack of care and twist of fate looks like he could lose it all. Taking him away from his home issues, Manfred is tasked with investigating the body of a young man who has washed up in Stockholm’s southern archipelago. Manfred’s investigation runs very much separately to those of Samuel and Pernille until gradually the links between them are established.

There are some distinctive aspects to this story which set it apart from the numerous Scandi noir stories set in remote locations. The blend between history and the contemporary is one factor to this book which at times can give it quite a timeless yet relevant feel. Some of the clues in the story refer hark back to the Old Testament of the Bible while there is the appearance of implicit and explicit evil. The second of which becomes considerably more dangerous…

There is one particularly interesting conversion where one of the characters makes a comparison between how he perceives Tolstoy and Dostoevsky would differ in their use of social media - which one would post about the quotidian, everyday lifestyle and the other would be more extreme in his attention grabbing storytelling. I will allow you to deduce further on this… but it’s yet another reason to read this book. This interaction is mentioned during as part of one of the the key issues that the story revolves around - the obsessively narcissistic tendencies displayed in by some people in their social media and online profiles. Driven to an extreme, Grebe demonstrates, this could have fatal consequences. I am wholly not certain if The Hideout is a standalone novel, or tied into her two previous novels as there did appear to be some backstory to some of the police officers. However having enjoyed it, I’m definitely keen to explore more of Camilla Grebe’s work. This includes The Ice Beneath Us which has been sold in 22 countries and After She’s Gone which won Swedish Crime Novel of the year.

Well written and deeply layered, The Hideout is a tense Nordic crime story with strong characters and a brilliantly original concept.

It's certainly a slow-burning story and it did take me a good while to get into it, which is my only negative as I did enjoy what unfolded when it finally got there. But with a lot going on at the start and with many unconnected characters, it took so long for me to feel engaged that I would have enjoyed it much more if it were 100 pages shorter.

But in the end, that all adds to the Nordic atmosphere. I usually prefer my thrillers more psychological rather than crime-related, but the balance works really well here. It's a great crime story that oozes with its Swedish setting and intense characters, and I could definitely see this being made into a TV series.

Although it took a while to get there, I really loved the concept and the characters are so well developed that you do feel invested by the end. If you like a slow-paced Nordic crime story then this is definitely worth picking up!

An engaging, engrossing Swedish noir read. I was hooked with this story from start to finish. Told from three points of view Samuel, Pernilla and Manfred. The chapters are short and sharp each of them from the perspective of one-off the three characters. But it’s not just these characters that bring the book to life it’s also the full team of detectives which I really liked and hope the author is planning on doing more stories with them in. Manfred is in charge of the team having been called in when a young makes body is washed up on the rocky shoreline. Almost every bone in the body of this young man is broken, how? What could have caused that? But not only is Manfred wrapped up in the case he also has his young daughter lying in a coma in hospital.

Samuel is an eighteen year old young man, he has been raised by his young hard working single mum Pernilla, she has devoted her life to raising Samuel and trying to make up the shame she feels she has brought on her family by having a child when she was young and unmarried, her father is a religious man, when Samuel gets in with the wrong crowd, Pernilla throws him out. But when she hasn’t heard from him for a few days she regrets it and worries somethings seriously wrong but both her father and her pastor tell her to not contact him. That it’s time Samuel started to act his age and take some responsibility for his actions.

Samuel is in trouble after being caught in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong he knows he needs to disappear, but with no money or any belongings where can he go. He then sees a job advertised, as a live in carer. He meets the beautiful Rachel who has a severely disabled son Jonas and it’s not long before Samuel is working for Rachel, the pay isn’t great but the job isn’t that hard, all he has to do is read to Jonas and sit with him. But it’s not long before Samuel starts to think that there is more to Rachel than he first thought. What is she hiding?

If you like a good character based book then I definitely recommend this, all of the characters are believable, relatable you could picture them. I loved the team of detectives they work well together. The story has plenty of twists and turns and a few red herrings thrown in to keep the reader guessing. Even at almost 500 pages I found it a fairly quick read. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Thank you to #netgalley and #Bonnierbooks for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair unbiased review.

Slower than most Scandi Noir but this is a good read. More character based than some of the others in the genre but this makes it unique. The novel takes you out of stockholm and to the islands which I found interesting as not many novels do that. Gritty and quietly chilling

⭐️ 3 ⭐️

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Hideout is a well-written, enjoyable Nordic crime/psychological thriller. The twists, turns and red herrings are deftly woven into the fabric of the story and I was left guessing right until the end.

Camilla Grebe’s characterisation is excellent; her characters are well-rounded and believable.

Unfortunately I did find the pace quite slow, it’s certainly more of a character driven thriller, only in the last few chapters did it really pick up pace.

If you enjoy your Scandi-Noir, then this is definitely the book for you.

The Hideout by Camilla Grebe.
When 18-year old Samuel finds himself at the centre of a drug deal gone wrong, he is forced to go underground to escape the police and an infamous drug lord. Seeking refuge in a sleepy town in the Stockholm archipelago, he takes a job as a personal assistant to a disabled boy. But when Samuel moves in with the beautiful Rachel and her son Jonas in the remote house by the sea, he soon realizes that nothing is quite what it seems .
This is an eerie psychological thriller.
An ok read with ok characters. I did find this slow but readable. 3*.