When the ice breaks on the Ångermanland River in late April, a group of marine archaeologists take off from the dock in Lunde. Beneath the surface are remnants from the industrial era; ships and barges that went under or were sunken by force. On the bottom of the river lies also pieces of the Sandö Bridge with its dark history: eighteen people died when it collapsed during construction in 1939. So when the divers find a skeleton close by the bridge remnants, they first suspect it to be one of the unrecovered bodies from the accident. But soon they learn that the body is more recent…
Eira Sjödin is put in charge of what turns out to be a murder investigation, which traces back to the hot summer of 1968 and where she finds connections to her own mother. The body belonged to a deserter from the Vietnam war, from a time when Sweden was the only country outside of the Eastern Block that offered American deserters asylum.
As Eira start looking into the man’s past, she gets pulled into a story with tentacles tracing back to a secret CIA-operation, with suspected infiltrators on Swedish territory. Her mother Kerstin has lapsed further into her dementia but recalls brief fragments from the summer of 1968 and a handsome American she was in love with at the time. A few years later, she chose stability in the form of Eira’s father, Veine Sjödin. But what role did Veine play in the events leading up to one man’s death? Was he really the bastion of stability Eira’s mother had imagined?
While Eira is busy with the investigation, the day of her baby’s birth is coming up and she is still unsure of who the father is. Is it August, the younger polyamorous colleague from Stockholm; or is it Ricken, her high school sweetheart who lives on the wrong side of the law, in a house hidden behind rusty car wrecks? And who does she really want it to be?
Meanwhile, Lina Stavred – the disappeared and presumed murdered girl from We Know You Remember – is on the run, wanted for murder. She’s fleeing north to her home district in Ådalen and she is determined to find a specific person: Eira Sjödin…
The Deeper You Go is the third part in Tove Alsterdal’s bestselling High Coast Series. While Ådalen’s dark history casts long shadows over the present, the loose threads Eira Sjödin deliberately left unsolved in a previous investigation comes back to haunt her.
Author
Reviews
“The last and concluding part of her brilliant series about police officer Eira Sjödin in Ådalen. […] In The Deeper You Go, Tove Alsterdal ties together all the threads she so cleverly laid out in the previous books. And the result is not only a well-written, highly suspenseful crime novel, but also an insightful story about Sweden.”
Ingalill Mosander, Aftonbladet (SE)
“It is the last part of Tove Alsterdal’s High Coast Series, unfortunately! It could very well have been a long series, because Tove Alsterdal succeeds to weave together politics, history, Sweden’s development, and the beauty of Ådalen in her thrilling crime stories.”
Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter (SE)
“The small and the big world are so skillfully combined by Tove Alsterdal. It is also impressive how she moves between different milieus with such ease; she seems as familiar with Sundsvall as she does with Stockholm, Florida, and California. But it is the love for Ådalen that shines the brightest, and in The Deeper You Go it is primarily a kind of mental environmental depiction of Kramfors and its surrounding areas that dominates. […] Alsterdal also ties together people and events from the two previous parts of the trilogy, not just dutifully, but in a way that adds substance to the story. It is very skillfully done. You should never underestimate a solid literary craftsmanship. Tove Alsterdal has written a thrilling and entertaining crime novel, a real page-turner. But it is so much more than that. It is as much a reflection on the passing of time, on how the past and the present are connected, of how history affects those who live today. Not bad for a crime novel.”
Tidningen Ångermanland (SE)
“What is it that makes Tove Alsterdal’s crime novels so well worth reading? Well, it’s the fact that she so often writes at the intersection of crime story, historical novel, and relationship novel, and that she pays so much attention to her portrayals of characters and milieu. In the third and final installment of the series about police officer Eira Sjödin in Ådalen, two divers find the remains of a dead man at the bottom of the Ångerman River. It soon becomes clear that it is a cold case, the man was murdered sometime in the 1960s. The police management hands the case to the pregnant Eira in the belief that it will be easy enough to solve. But as her investigation progresses, the stronger the case seems to be connected to her own family. Solving it suddenly becomes a personal matter, with the birth of her baby fast approaching.”
Yukiko Duke, Vi Läser (SE)
“Not many crime writers in Sweden are accomplished stylists. If I had to name two men and two women, I would without hesitation choose Håkan Nesser, Christoffer Carlsson, Åsa Larsson, and Tove Alsterdal. The latter began with five fantastic stand-alone novels, all of which combined excellent character portrayals with historical events and well-constructed plots. […] Tove Alsterdal is not like others. She is better. Better because she manages to surprise and at the same time doesn’t compromise on quality. […] Since this is the conclusion of the trilogy, there are some threads to be concluded and unraveled. Tove Alsterdal does so brilliantly. Eira is expecting a child and her brother is innocently imprisoned. How will it all work out? It is, as usual, extremely well-written. Every single person in the book is given space and is portrayed with warmth and affection. As are their thoughts and feelings. Even though there is more action and more traditional suspense than usual, I read with great pleasure and a smile. The worst thing about this series is that it is now over.”
Dast Magazine (SE)
“Tove Alsterdal ties her story together in a great way and she is more than welcome to tell more stories about police life in Ådalen.”
Ölandsbladet (SE)
“Tove Alsterdal is good at creating suspense and has a fine sensibility for human relationships. She is a stylist with a sense of humor, the reader is aware of this after eight strong novels – but what a wonderfully infectious portrayal of Eira’s arousal and desire during an intimate encounter with an attractive man the reader blushingly gets to enjoy in this novel. Few authors can portray the joy of sex like Tove Alsterdal!”
Västerbottens-Kuriren (SE)
“The Deeper You Go is the final book about Eira Sjödin and as a whole it is a trilogy that stands out as one of the best that’s been written in the Swedish crime genre in recent years. What makes it a pure pleasure to read is how present history is, and Alsterdal’s ability to find the right language and words for each milieu and every character. At the same time, the suspense is always there, underneath the surface.”
Skånska Dagbladet (SE)
“Loose threads from the previous books are neatly tied together with new ones and Alsterdal leads us with a sure hand through the region of Ångermanland and the consciousness of its people. Eira’s mother has fallen into the fog of dementia and Eira herself is trying to decide who she wants to be the father of the child she is expecting. The police work goes on, but so does life, which Alsterdal captures with a presence that never leaves the reader. Eira lingers – along with the annual craving for the fantastic landscape of the High Coast.”
Göteborgs-Posten (SE)