Tuva Moodyson has returned to Gavrick as a deputy editor of the paper. She is happy to be near friends & the woman she loves. Tuva stops on the road through the forest when she sees an accident, she finds a woman covered in blood a short while later. She is beside a headless corpse. The victim lives in Visberg- a very strange local village! Following the story of the murder she finds herself spending time there & experiences Pan night. A very odd festival that is decidedly creepy! As Tuva investigates further she leads herself into danger. It's hard to say much more without giving away secrets. However this is one of the most atmospheric & creepy books I've read in a while- perfect for a winter's read. I read the first in this series & loved it but seem to have missed out on Books 2 & 3. However I'll be looking out for the next one. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

#TeamTuva all the way! Seriously though this series of books just keep getting better and better. I read a lot of books during the year but the Tuva series is one of the very few series that I read because it is just so good. This book is definitely dark, and uses the remote landscape to perfect effect, balanced with great characters that we get to know that little bit better with each read. Tuva is a truly unique character surrounded by a host of other complex characters shaped by the small community they live in.

When she pulls over at the side of the road she hears a woman screaming and goes to investigate, she soon stumbles across the cause of the scream and the reason behind it… a dead body, only this one is missing it’s head! And believe it or not this is just the start of her troubles. Probably the best one yet, with an ending which just leaves you wanting the next instalment straight away!

Bad Apples is the fourth book in the Tuva Moodyson series from the pen of Will Dean. If you thought Gavrik, the town where journalist Tuva Moodyson has been promoted to deputy editor of the newspaper Gavrik Posten, was creepy, you clearly haven’t been to Visberg, a neighbouring town that takes creepy to a whole new level. When a headless body is found in the forest outside Visberg by Tuva after she hears the screams of a woman deep in the forest, it is identified as Arne Gustav Persson, a plumber from Visberg. As the investigation progresses, Tuva finds herself in Visberg as the locals celebrate Pan Night, an ancient, sexually charged adult celebration shortly before Halloween, and filled with debauchery and menace. The titular apples have fallen from the trees in the town square, with the smell of rotten and decomposing apples pervading through the town of Visberg. I loved the moments Tuva spent with Noor, and I loved her connection with her young neighbour Dan, who was a new addition in Tuva’s world. This was a spooky addition to the series with very dark, intense moments, and the return of the troll-making sisters Cornelia and Alice, whose trolls are popular in Visberg so they open a pop-up shop in the town square for Halloween. Will Dean’s talent is to keep you on edge the entire time you are reading, and Bad Apples will definitely do that, with some heart in mouth moments that will have you gasping. It is next level creepy, and I think I won’t want to store any of my belongings in a storage unit any time soon! If you haven’t read any of the series yet, make it a priority, you won’t regret it!

My goodness. Where to start?! I have read two other of Will Dean's books this year (Dark Pines and Last Thing to Burn, both excellent) and he is fast becoming a favourite. This book brilliantly treads the line between psychological thriller and horror, with a quiet sense of ominous threat building throughout. Some of the more disturbing imagery will certainly stay with me for a long, long time... I'm not going to say anything about the plot but will say that the setting is brilliantly described and I almost felt I could see the town of Visberg laid out before me. Perfect for this spooky time of year too. As the second Tuva Moodyson series book I've read (wrist duly slapped for reading books out of order) I feel I am getting to know the character better, and I like her. She's not a perfect person but rather more real than many lead characters - with frustrations, flaws and weaknesses. Having read this before Red Snow and Black River, I can assure other readers that there aren't significant spoilers for those books in Bad Apples - although at least one plot point is revealed no details are provided, and I am certainly still looking forward to reading those soon.