This is the third book in the Tuva Moodyson series as she is again pulled back to Gavrik when she hears that her best friend Tammy Yamnim has gone missing. The place doesn’t have good memories for her but the loyalty she has to her friend make her overcome her fears. The sweltering heat and holiday season work against Tuva as the investigation seems to be quite low key with little urgency about it until a second young woman disappears. A young woman with celebrity status and a family with money to fund publicity. With Tammy always seeming like an afterthought, Tuva presses on with her own searches. Tuva knows that no-one will look for Tammy as keenly as her. Now I had already met some of the residents of Gavrik in a previous book, with some of them more than a little strange, well that was just the tip of the iceberg. The search reached out through the insect-infested woods and Snake River. Boy did I feel like I was there and the people who lived out there was a breed on their own. It was quite hypnotic, with the snakes and relationships that felt far from normal. Tuva is deaf without her hearing aids which can be greatly affected by the environments that she goes in but her mind stays as sharp as ever. There were so many suspects that I kept jumping to conclusions on. A brilliant edgy storyline that ensured that I read the book in one sitting. Very highly recommended. I wish to thank Aimee Oliver-Powell of Oneworld Publications for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Can this series get any better? Tuva Moodyson is BACK and even though she’s moved down to Malmö, she’s raced back to Gavrik to join the search for her missing friend Tammy. Gavrik has been through the seasons in this series and this time it’s the height of summer – Midsummar to be precise. That thick blanket of snow might have gone which muffled the entire town, but now the challenges of a hot and humid summer are upon us. This is not just any summer though; it’s one where bees, wasps, mosquitoes and all kinds of other creatures come out in force. The buzz in this town comes from the insects and….SNAKES! Oh my word, there are snakes in this novel and it doesn’t get much creepier than that. It also has more than its fair share of quirks and quirky characters (wait until you meet the man who works with said snakes!) Tuva is emotionally invested this case and that really brings out her character even more. I felt as close to her in this book as it’s possible to be with a fictional character. Just as well she’s there as she seems to be the only one who’s serious about finding the missing girls. Since it’s midsummer, it’s supposed to be a time of celebration, dancing, summer evenings….but then here we have the dark and foreboding Utgard Forest and Snake River….I swear I was scratching reading this. The guy from the shoe shop also make my skin crawl. This book gave me the shivers and then BANG towards the end, although I was already a nervous wreck, I was floored by developments. Aaargh! I yelled. Not a good idea when in a public place. I had a strong Swedish style coffee when I finished. Partly to recover and partly to toast another success in the Tuva series.I have learnt a lot about Swedish/forest habits in this book. Lots of fun snippets about language and forest environments. Might try and cook some roadkill with hog fat now. Never going to play snakes and ladders again though. Highly recommended book and series. Can’t wait to see this on the TV!

Once more more Will Dean has totally nailed it with this third book in the Tuva Moodyson series and I loved it. Tuva who has relocated to Malmo trying to clear her head and get her life in some kind of order returns to Gavrik when she gets the news that her best friend Tammy Yamnim is missing with no clues as to why or where she could have gone. Tuva is not convinced that Tammy would just leave with no word to anyone and is desperately trying to find out what has happened to her when another girl also goes missing and from then on in we are thrust headlong into a a gripping story that is an unputdownable read. As with all of the other books this is a read full of atmosphere and Tuva is such a brilliant character and so damn believable. I can’t fault the book I loved it and can’t wait for the next in this excellent series. 100% recommended and if you haven’t read the previous novels then do yourself a big favour and read them all !! My thanks to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications, Point Blank for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Black River, the third outing for Will Dean’s cast of unsettling outsiders and flawed heroes is steeped in Midsommar’s decay. The pace of this novel mirrors the sluggish heat and endless light of a Swedish summer, and though it feels less immediate than his previous books, there is nonetheless a relentlessness to the tension, making this a difficult book to put down. Add to this his habit of concluding most chapters with a ‘what the heck?!’ moment and it’s easy to see why the Tuva Moodyson books are as popular as they are. Again and again, I found myself like a fly trapped on the wrong side of the windowpane, buzzed in dizzying circles, only to be surprised every time I ricocheted against the glass. Will Dean takes his time here to carefully weave his web of suspicions, secrets, weirdness, and threat around his reader, and it’s perhaps easier to count the number of characters I didn’t suspect, rather than did… The clues he lays throughout the pages are numerous, and I imagine he would be very pleased at the number of red herrings I’d held on to. There’s enough background provided to make this a successful stand-alone read, but Tuva is one of my favourite characters (I especially love how her deafness is portrayed), so I’d urge anyone to seek out Dark Pines and Red Snow, too. Will Dean is a master of his craft. Of course, of all the herrings I was tripping over myself trying to carry as I came to the end of the book, the ‘whodunnit’ fish was one that I’d overlooked… No spoilers, of course, but I did NOT see that one coming. Got me again, Mr Dean. Three-nil.

Brilliantly written. This is a dark, gritty and gripping read. The setting and the characters are all really well described and easy to visualise. I hope there is more to come in this series. Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.