The end of August is drawing near when detectives Hanna Duncker and Erik Lindgren are called over to Öland to investigate the disappearance of 43 year-old real estate agent Thomas Ahlström. He had just begun his parental leave when his wife returned after a weekend away to find both her husband and toddler Hugo missing. Soon the whole island becomes involved in the case. Search parties of volunteers canvas the narrow island while Hanna and Erik dig through the victim’s background to find clues to why he’s gone missing. They soon learn that he had an estranged adult daughter from a previous relationship, who happens to have spent the summer on the island and recently tried to reconnect with her father. Could she be responsible for what has happened to her father and half-brother?
When Thomas Ahlström is found murdered inside a house that had recently been sold by the firm he was working for, not only do Hanna and Erik have a murder investigation on their hands, they must still find his son Hugo – and the clock is ticking. In the heat of the investigation, Hanna takes the first trembling steps into what could be a new romantic relationship. But she finds it hard to focus on her burgeoning feelings as long as Hugo is missing and a killer roams free. The pressure from the victim’s family, from the media, and from the public increases and Hanna, Erik, and their team are working around the clock to solve the case.
In a parallel storyline, Hanna’s rogue investigation into what happened to her father all those year ago has intensified. She soon realizes that her father may have tried to protect someone and she can only think of one person save herself he would do that for: her brother Kristoffer. Was he somehow involved in the horrible arson and murder for which her father was convicted? Reluctantly, she realizes she must reach out to her brother and confront him. But when she begins to dig further a number of unpleasant things happen to her, and she starts to feel like she has a target on her back. Someone doesn’t want her to find out the truth…
The Shadow Lily is the second book in Johanna Mo’s bestselling Island Murders Series about police detectives Hanna Duncker and Erik Lindgren. In this sequel to The Night Singer, relationships between the characters we’ve gotten to know and care for in the first book deepen, while Hanna’s present makes it hard for her to ignore the past, no matter how much she would like to. In yet another page-turning crime novel, Mo puts the spotlight on what lengths people are willing to go in order to protect their family.
Extra Materials
Croatia, Fraktura
Denmark, Lindhardt og Ringhof
Finland, Like
Germany, Random House / Heyne
Hungary, Animus
Italy, Neri Pozza
Netherlands, HarperCollins Holland
Norway, Aschehoug
Portugal, Porto
Sweden, Romanus & Selling
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
UK, Headline
![TSL_3.1-birds[7]](https://ahlanderagency.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TSL_3.1-birds7.jpg)
US, Penguin Books
Author
Reviews
“Johanna Mo’s new novel, The Shadow Lily, is a solid police procedural that brims with twists, turns and surprising revelations.”
Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review (US)
“A cliffhanger that leaves you longing for more. […] Johanna Mo continues with her lauded Island Murders series. The second installment The Shadow Lily is just as thrilling as The Night Singer.”
Borås Tidning (SE)
“A handful of suspects are introduced through thrilling flashbacks from the victim’s last day alive – the same reliable way to keep your curiosity on alert as in The Night Singer. […] This is the same kind of clever suspense as that of a wickedly good tv series with fast-paced scene changes, yet with a brilliant emphasis on the internal monologue.”
Kristianstadsbladet (SE)
“It’s gruesome, dark and fearsome.”
Femina (SE)
“It’s both well written and thrilling. […] The Island Murders is so far a perfect example of how to build a series, it’s impressively constructed […] [Johanna Mo] is really good.”
Kapprakt (SE)
“This time around I’m again deeply invested in Hanna Duncker’s private history that began in the last book. Was her dad really guilty of the murder he was imprisoned for that made Hanna leave Öland so young? And who is threatening Hanna when she starts digging through her father’s past? […] Johanna Mo really knows how to enrich her books with people you care for, and she captures difficult and vivid emotions just as well as the Öland milieus. […] I already long for the next book.”
Norra Skåne (SE)
“The Shadow Lily is the second stand-alone book in the Island Murders series. Johanna Mo is an established suspense writer who has been praised by both critics and readers. […] The author is stylistically excellent and precise as she constructs her narrative. Every sentence seems well thought-ought. The character portrayals and milieus feel authentic. With meticulously chosen words and an effortlessly constructed narrative she succeeds in making the reader experience grand imagery through small means.”
BTJ (SE)
“…Johanna Mo really knows how to populate her books with people you come to care about, and she captures both strong and difficult emotions as well as she does the Öland milieu.”
Skånskan (SE)
“The second installment of ’The Island Murders’ is a rapidly told crime story with a dark family secret that adds melancholy.”
Smålandsposten (SE)
“The author manages to keep the reader hooked in the second installment of the Island Murder series. She successfully creates suspense through complicated family relationships and the tension between people who live in small communities. It’s splendidly done.”
Stavanger Aftenblad (NO)
“Johanna Mo has yet again given us a well-written crime novel, with strong characters and a splendid portrayal of life on the island.”
Tine Sundal (NO)
“Johanna Mo has a secure grip on a crime novel that both offers a finished story, as well as a part of a longer narrative arc, and it holds much of the private lives of her characters.”
Jyllands-Posten (DK)
“The Shadow Lily is a crime novel that feels believable, it doesn’t try to be more than it is. It doesn’t overplay the drama, and neither does it underplay the coincidences and dilemmas of reality, and therefore the underlying horrors are all the more present. […] The Shadow Lily is a perfect crime novel for rainy days, one of those books that does well together with a cup of tea, a blanket and lazy days in the summer house. […] It may storm and rain heavily but you will survive by reading this excellent murder mystery that is filled with riddles and cliffhangers, and then wait patiently and with growing excitement for the sequel.”
Berlingske (DK)
“Elegant, gripping, and intricate, The Shadow Lily is a mystery the way P.D. James wrote mysteries: with depth and real humanity. I loved spending time with Detective Hanna Duncker on an island off the coast of Sweden—Oland is as chilling and atmospheric as Ann Cleeves’s Shetland.”
—Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy
“This beautifully written story about a small-town detective who becomes entangled in the mystery that trapped her father for over a decade drew me in with its authentic voice. While Hanna and her partner Erik are tasked with investigating the death of a teenager, she begins to piece together a puzzle that hits close to home in haunting scenes of loss and grief. If you love Tana French, then The Shadow Lily is for you. Highly recommended.”
—Alice Blanchard, author of Trace of Evil