Tuva Moodyson Mystery Series 3 Books Collection Set By Will Dean (Dark Pines, Red Snow, Black River)

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I liked this, how could you not like something so atmospheric and that takes you to the wilderness of Sweden forests? Tuva is a journalist which is always a nice change of pace in a crime novel, I like the uniqueness of having someone other than a police officer investigating a case. She was really intriguing, she’s deaf and not your typical lead, she’s not overly brave or tough, in fact she’s actually terrified of the woods and the combination of her fear and not being able to hear made for some great, eerie situations. She’s an outsider in her small town having only been living there for two years and the oddball group of locals don’t know what to make of her. These characters were really great, they were all SO weird and had so many off the wall quirks, you never knew quite what would happen with them next and it made it all the more difficult to figure out whodunnit. Tuva is an astute journalist, dedicated to the Gavrik Posten. She gains unique access to the residents and of course soon finds herself in danger as she tries to expose the truth and identify the culprit with the sometimes reluctant help of the local police. This is my first Tuva Moodyson (I hadn't realised it was a series) although I've read Will Dean's excellent work previously. I have to say it's not essential that you read the earlier ones but I always like to start at the beginning. I think in this case it might help.

The murders happen close to Mossen Village, an out-of-the-way very small community of houses in Utgard forest. Along the way of Tuva's investigation, she meets a plethora of characters from this village, all very bizarre in their own individual way. Charlotte Jones said: “ Will’s Tuva Moodyson mysteries are a delicious combination of darkly comic characters, heart-pounding tension and thrillingly unexpected outcomes. What drew me to them above all was the thoroughly modern character of Tuva herself. Not since Saga in The Bridge has there been such a compelling and unique heroine. I’m delighted that the bold and brilliant Rose Ayling-Ellis has agreed to bring Tuva to life in all her spiky, funny, messy glory.” I just love that Will Dean can write a thriller, a PROPER whodunnit, a pacey & gory mystery...... that folds into its mix: pear flavoured wine gums, bouts of hayfever in MacDonalds, the rigmorale of changing out of layers of clothing & how a Hillux handles. Will Dean puts the REAL in surreal. With a wonderful main character, Tuva Moodyson, a deaf, bi-sexual reporter who has found herself relocated from London to Gavrik (Toytown) to be near her dying mother and working on a small local newspaper when a body is discovered deep in the forest in the middle of hunting season with the same signature as a serial killer from the 90’s. Determined to solve the crime herself, Tuva decides to investigate despite hating nature, elks, the forest, the dark, insects and small towns.

The deal was negotiated for Will Dean by Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. Rose Ayling-Ellis is represented by The Artists Partnership.

A young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her story? Dark Pines by Will Dean is a pretty good thriller and whodunnit. You know one of those stories where you’re thinking about who the culprit is while you’re doing other things. The only other Will Dean book I’ve read is The Last Thing to Burn, which was good too – I gave that one 4 stars. I really like this series, like the quirkiness of it and the tension which flows through every book. It is not a fast paced series, nor should it be as that would not fit the setting. It is atmospheric, the author using the landscape and, in this case, the seasons to full effect. The book is set towards the end of the really cold season, but there is still that sense of the darkness that envelops everything, setting a kind a of moody and eerie tone that when coupled with a community of people who can hunt and shoot with a stealth that cannot be matched, it really sets you on edge, not sure what to expect or when. There are certainly a lot of surprises in the book, as well as some elements which seem almost inevitable, and be prepared to be caught unaware when the truth of what happens is revealed as, in true Will Dean style, he takes us right to the edge with a high stakes, jeopardy laden ending that really gets the pulse pumping. Rather cleverly, the author confronts the risk of being accused of writing in the voice of a character he cannot possibly know by having one of the characters say to Tuva after a simple observation the latter makes on the former’s relationship: I really hope you don’t mind me saying, but you can’t really know about these things until you’ve been married yourself.

An elk emerges from the overgrown pines and it is monstrous – and, together with the cover and title, we are, we realise, in the familiar genre world of Scandinavian Noir, as well as a first person, present tense narration Slow start, adequate prose, nice characters and descriptive passages. Improves as the author gains confidence. Tuva has had her fair share of tragedy and is still reeling from the incident that almost killed her lover and put her in a coma. She now feels like she has little to lose, which is perhaps the reason she throws herself headlong into trying to solve another mystery, consequences be damned. A young woman has gone missing up near the mysterious Rose Farm, and no one is talking. It’s the sort of challenge Tuva cannot resist, even if it puts herself in danger.

While this book can definitely be read as a standalone do be aware that it references a lot of content from the previous books, but it doesn’t name any names in terms of who did what. And this probably gets to my biggest issue with the book – it was a book I did not want to end, but not (as is sometimes the case) because the book was so enjoyable I wanted to carry on reading it, but simply because I knew that the conventions of the genre would take over and that the story would have to be resolved, probably with some form of rather implausible explanation. Similarly although I enjoyed both the main character and a number of the side characters, I would prefer if the author moved on to something different and allowed the future of characters to remain in my imagination – but inevitably within the genre this is likely to be the first in a series of appearances by Tuva who will presumably stumble across other small town murders in future. From the blurb one would assume that Dark Pines is a typical Scandinavian thriller - a chilly tale of murder set in a small town, deep in the forests of rural Sweden. To me this series is less about the “crimes” and more about the characters and the tiny Toytown in Sweden that Will Dean brings to life. I feel that I know Gavrik so well that I don’t even need a SatNav to get from the The Grimberg Liquorice Factory to Snake River.

I loved every moment of this one. Every word. It was just blinking brilliant. This is DEFINITELY one to watch in 2018 and has pretty much guaranteed itself a place in my top ten reads for this year – Dark Pines is a novel to watch and Will Dean is an author to watch. I sense great things ahead.

Tuva is a deaf journalist, able to hear with a hearing aid, she likes turning it off and disconnecting herself from the world. She lives in northern Sweden which is a tight community- not seemingly welcoming change, or open minds. Detached from her dying mother, she is a lone soul with a will to make the career move to move away from the area. I'm not adverse to the occasional bleak Scandinavian murder novel, though in all honesty, I do feel they are becoming a little formulaic. However, this one had enough 'new' elements to keep me reading on.Bad Apples is a chilling outing for Tuva Moodyson – unsettling from beginning to the very end, but leavened with dark humour. A compelling thriller that devoted fans and new readers will adore.’ Having grown up in the East Midlands, Dean depicts the huge skies and endless flats of the region through the eyes of Thanh Dao, to whom it is a “flatland hell”. “I do love it. I find it quite eerie and bleak, but it is quite beautiful,” he says. “I like bad weather and bleak landscapes. Where I am in the forest, the sun won’t rise above the treetops for the next two or three months. My friends freak out, and think that sounds awful, but I quite like it.” And across both are laid a local strip club (and former brothel) and rumours of the activities of a high-stakes poker group – all of which emerge to Tuva and the reader as possible clues to the resolution of the new series of murders that are striking the town – all it seems of family-men hunters and all mutilated for their eyes. Now the opening to this book may seem familiar (although I can hear the outcry now given I now where it is going to lead), but given where Tuva lives, in Northern Sweden, her driving alone through a remote area is not really a surprise. What is more of a surprise is where this particular journey is going to lead her - to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who was last seen working at a farm which has a very particular reputation around the area. And it's not unfair to say that to gain a reputation around places like Gavrik and Visberg is no mean feat! These are communities that seem to specialise in weird and unusual, so to be singled out in any way takes some doing.