Åsa Avdic

“Resembling Agatha Christie at her zaniest, this fascinating, ever-changing scenario is deftly and grippingly handled.”
The Sunday Times (UK)

“The Dying Game is a well-constructed paranoid thriller […] Full of unexpected twists and turns, power games, and realizations that no one is to be trusted. With a prose so effective that it’s capable of evoking the concrete gray atmosphere of totalitarism, Avdic stays on point from beginning to end. This is exceedingly skillful craftsmanship. […] The pages rush past – I can’t seem to be able to put the book down.”
Sydsvenskan (SE)

“Agatha Christie meets George Orwell in journalist Avdic’s unsettling first novel, set in Sweden in 2037. A coup has led to a state of martial law and the country’s transformation into a protectorate under the aegis of an international entity known as the Union of Friendship. Anna Francis, a bureaucrat, is estranged from her family and tempted by an unusual job offer from a high official called the Chairman. The Chairman explains that the secret RAN Project is short-handed and that a psychological exercise has been devised to identify a suitable new member of the team: prospective candidates are to be transported to a remote island, along with Anna, who will pretend to have been murdered, so that she can covertly observe their reactions to the unexpected trauma. Things don’t go as planned, and Anna soon has a real murder to deal with. Avdic not only constructs a fascinating and original plot but makes her imagined reality chillingly plausible.”
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review (US)

“The Dying Game is an excellent Shutter Island vs. The Hunger Games lovechild. […] A riveting and an excellent read for those who enjoy entering a world where psychological torture is but a game.”
W24 (UK)

“A captivating thought-experiment. A dystopia so credible it provokes chills, and a world that fits the psychological thriller like a glove.”
Borås Tidning (SE)

“An Orwellian debut novel that never lets up.”
Booklist (US)

“The Dying Game portrays a society characterized by informing and tacit extortion. The author quickly establishes a Kafkaesque atmosphere with interrogations and protocols. […] The Dying Game is an accomplished literary composition, an impressive debut.”
Arbetarbladet (SE)

“Dense, unpredictable, and with a perfectly composed intrigue. The dystopian elements, that portray the kind of mechanization of society and instrumentalization of humanity that characterizes authoritarian societies, retain a vagueness which, paradoxically enough, makes it so much more credible.”
Expressen (SE)

“The Dying Game manages to feel both classic and futuristic at the same time. […] an intriguing mix of the old and the new. Its isolated setting and limited cast of characters are reminiscent of classic ‘looked room’ mysteries by writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James. But its near-future setting and Orwellian setup make it feel almost chillingly forward-looking as well. […] Unlike the locked room mysteries of yore, The Dying Game does not tie up every loose end with a tidy bow. Instead, the conclusion, while satisfying from a mystery perspective, leaves open several moral questions and encourages readers to continue musing about potential motivations.”
Bookreporter (US)

“With a scary dystopia core and a foreboding that lurks on every page, this is terrifying stuff.”
Heat (UK)

“Fans of mysteries set in confined environments will tear through this dark thriller debut novel.”
Library Journal (US)

“This chilling debut psychological thriller is a deft Orwellian twist on the locked-room mystery tradition.”
Stop, You’re Killing Me (UK)

“Åsa creates an unpleasant atmosphere, a future scenario, which in the moment doesn’t feel impossible (and therefore even scarier), uses a fantastic language, combined with a skillfully created plot. Good debut novel!”
The Crime House (UK)

“A different and haunting suspense novel, one of the most interesting of late. […] The ending is remarkable […] This is a novel which successfully combines the suspense, psychological elements and a slightly sinister dystopic twist, in which the past and the future are both re-created.”
Mediafax (RO)

“Well-written and thrilling!”
Dzika Banda (PL)

“Åsa Avdic uses different narrative perspectives to widen the lens, her prose is straightforward and efficient. It doesn’t just takes a suspenseful story for a thriller to truly engage the reader, you need credible characters to care for – and she has that, too. Anna Francis is a complex character who evokes compassion, and even the people of power have been given simple yet functional traits, making them flesh and blood persons. […] The Dying Game is in some ways like a Swedish Hunger Games for adults. The dystopian thriller is a rewarding yet precarious genre. Avdic skillfully navigates around the pitfalls. […] A  very promising debut.”
Skaraborgs Länstidning (SE)

“Åsa Avdic’s literary debut The Dying Game is entertainment from the first to the last page.”
Bokfloden, Blog (SE)