The Ice Beneath Her: A Novel (Hanne Lagerlind-Schon) Hardcover – December 27, 2016

4 Star thriller!SYNOPSISEmma has found the love of her life. She is in love and engaged to the CEO of the chain store where she works as a sales clerk. In order to avoid accusations of impropriety, they have to keep their relationship a secret. The night after they become engaged, he doesn't show up for their celebration dinner. Over the next several days, he doesn't call or text or return her calls or texts. He seems to have disappeared from her life. Then even stranger things begin happening; money is missing, a painting disappears... could he be a viscous psychopath?In the meantime, police officer Peter and psychologist Hanne are working together again (after a 10 year break) to solve a very disturbing murder which resembles a decade old unsolved case. Is this murder some how connected to Emma and her fiancee??WHAT I LOVEDGreat plot. I didn't see the end coming. I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong.Loved Stockholm as the back drop for this story. It snowed and rained at all the right times and I love stories set in Europe.Emma was an interesting character, watching her react to the situation with her fiancee was quite a journey. I also liked the family history with her parents and her Aunts.WHAT I DIDN'T LOVEThere wasn't much I didn't love. The only complaint I have is the I didn't buy the relationship between Peter and Hanne. I just didn't feel it. I can't say much more without creating a spoiler but I'm wondering if others found it as hard to believe as I did. I also just plain didn't like Peter as a character at all.OVERALLThis is a super readable book with nonstop action and a some great twists.

If you like dark Scandinavian police procedurals with unhappy protagonists, you will like "The Ice Beneath Her". I do, so I enjoyed the book. The narrative structure is complex, with three first-person narrators, but after the first few transitions it flowed smoothly. The level of suspense is high -- who was murdered is as compelling a question as who did the murdering, and the side plots have substantial suspense as well. The central characters are interesting if not exactly sympathetic, and the writing is fluent. It isn't as good as some other Scandie crime novels, but it keeps the pages turning, which is after all the acid test for a thriller.

What a fascinating story. Dysfunctional main characters. A brilliant woman w early onset Alzheimer's. A woman who grew up w alcoholic parents who can't relate to the works. A policeman who cannot accept responsibility in his life. And a wealthy CEO w a reputation as a playboy. When their lives intersect it creates a fascinating story. Well done!

''The Ice Beneath Her'' is the first novel of Camilla Grebe that I've read and though not disappointing in broad terms, it certainly lacks in freshness and innovation as far as the plot is concerned. The story is narrated through three different viewpoints, that correspond to the leading characters of the novel, that is Peter, Hanne, and the mysterious Emma. The book begins with the Swedish police finding a decapitated body in an apartment belonging to an infamous CEO of a clothing company, Jesper Orre, mainly known to the public through the tabloid frontpages where he is described as a tough boss with no respect for his employees. Orre becomes the prime suspect but he is missing for a while and nobody seems to know about his whereabouts. Peter, a cynic, antisocial cop who also has a son from his previous -broken- marriage is put in charge of the investigation and soon Hanna, a psychologist who also works as a police consultant when a criminal profiler is needed, joins the team in order to offer new insights to this gruesome homicide.Peter and Hanne share a common history as they were lovers in the past, an affair which ended disastrously for Hanne who also battles with dementia at an early stage.''The Ice Beneath Her'' is a more character-oriented crime novel and the author emphasizes on the protagonists' thoughts, emotions and motives. The result is a book that has some very well-written internal monologues where Camilla Grebe dives into the characters psyches, all the way to their secret and innermost feelings and thoughts. Unfortunately the plot aspect of the novel is not strong enough to fully engage the reader and after the first half you know for sure where the story is heading. The final ''twist'' is not a real one as the reader can see it coming from the first 100 pages.Nevertheless, if you like crime novels where the author cares more about the character development than the actual story, then this is definitely a book that will appeal to you. The more seasoned Scandi-crime fans though will not find something new here.

This book is like two books: one good and one bad. On the good side is a clever and sophiscated plot with a surprising conclusion. On the other hand, the characters are boring and unable to confront any new problem without thinking about their unhappy pasts. One character is facing the terror of encroaching dementia which does not advance the action in anyway, but does make for depressing reading. Be warned: there is a good book to be read here, but at the price of reading a bad one.

While there is no dispute that Grebe’s writing is eloquent and even poetic at times, this was an extremely tedious read for me and a disappointing book overall. Each chapter reads like a blow by blow account of the characters’ daily hum drum lives and their internal woe, which slows the pace down and does not compel you to keep reading. I persevered through 60% of this book, but it didn’t improve and I lost interest.

I’m not a big fan of books narrated in the first person and wasn’t thrilled to have three different narrators. This is personal to me and not intended to bash the author or the storyline. The writing is good and the characters are believable. In the end, the book had interesting twists and turns that made it a somewhat satisfying read.

I don't think I've read such a captivating book in a long time. Well done Grebe for writing such an intense and exciting mystery/thriller.I loved how it switched between the 3 narrators, Emma, Hanne and Peter. All three were deeply interesting and each had their own personal problems as well as the actual crime at hand. I probably loved Hanne's chapters the most, with her disease and control freak husband, it someone was more satisfying reading her chapters. Emma's was deeply disturbing which I like, her story kept me constantly guessing. Peter seemed just plain pathetic, I struggled to muster up any empathy for him but he still had an interesting story.This book was just so atmospheric, it was dark and disturbing, mixed with 'edge of your seat' chapters. It was well paced, I can't say any chapters left me bored or made me want to skim read. It was a satisfying end, my only little nit-pick was I wanted to know more about Emma and Woody and how that played out, I know what happened of course but I kinda wanted more in-depth story.Overall, it was a great read, definitely gonna keep an eye on Grebe for more books to read.x

This exquisite solo debut from Camilla Grebe makes quite an impact and has a strikingly individual approach combining an intense psychological thriller against a backdrop of a police investigation into a brutal murder. The narrative is provided by three markedly distinct narrators, all of whom offer their questionable perspective on the events surrounding a macabre beheading which serves as the basis for their lives being thrown together. Told in two different timelines this novel opens with an unsettlingly investigation into the murder of a young female corpse whose body is found decapitated in the Djursholm home of the controversial CEO of a clothing chain-store. Jesper Orre, the forty-five-year old self-styled bad boy of fashion renowned for both his tyrannical attitude to his employees and the array of glamorous women that are seen on his arm is unsurprisingly nowhere to be found but the crime scene looks all too familiar.World-weary detective Peter Lindgren is a jaded detective, with his isolation and loneliness symptomatic of his inability to invest his life outside work with the level of attention that he places on his job. He has gone from his passionate early days in the force when he was optimistic about improving society through to the aching knowledge that not all crimes can be neatly summed up and the world has evolved into a more inhospitable place. Peter's personal life has been characterised by his aversion to commitment and his guilty conscience about those he has let down is very obvious. Together with his co-partner of ten-years, Manfred Olsson, he is summoned to attend to the a horrific and blood heavy crime scene which takes Peter straight back to the events of ten-years previously and a still unsolved murder. Although reluctant to recognise the hallmark traits of the decapitation of temporary worker Miguel Calderón in Södermalm a decade previously and the seemingly posed placement of the head, Olsson readily recalls the case. In her consultancy work with the police criminal profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön worked with the police on that previous investigation and once again she is enlisted to aid the detectives. Fifty-nine-year old Hanne is anything but content, reduced to living within the confines of a crumbling marriage with a controlling husband Owe, all with the tacit understanding that he will eventually become her carer given her diagnosis of early-onset dementia. To Hanne, the investigation offers her a chance to contribute and a challenge to reignite her flagging interest in the practical application of her skills. Significantly it also hastens a show-down with the one man, ten years her junior, that she was willing to risk her marriage and livelihood for - lead detective Peter Lindgren.Playing out alongside this current investigation is the narrative of a twenty-five-year old shop floor worker in one of the many branches of Jesper Orre's clothing empire. Emma Bohman's story begins two-months prior to the discovery of the crime scene that Peter attends and charts her secretive and intense romantic liaison with Orre and his subsequent swift and unforeseen abandonment. As a troubled Emma begins to worry that she has been a victim of a powerful and manipulative man, she is dragged back to the memories of a manipulative schoolteacher, Woody, who imposed himself on her. However, Orre dropping contact with Emma follows her lending him a substantial amount of her cash and the disappearance of the one item of value in the painting that adorns her bedroom wall. As days pass into weeks and Emma's covert surveillance and attempts to contact Orre prove fruitless a series of unsettling events to leave her wondering just what she knows about the man whose engagement ring she wears and the very real threat that he could pose. Delving back into the memories of her early years as the child of a mother dependent on alcohol it is fascinating to see how Emma's formative years have shaped the woman she is today, just twenty-five but with neither parent alive and a distant aunt as her only relative. In the knowledge that both of these timelines will synchronise at some stage a haunting opening proverb leaves a frisson of trepidation in the atmosphere: “You never know friend or foe, ’til the ice beneath gives way.”This character driven thriller is as fascinating both for what readers learn about the three individuals as the unfolding investigation into a brutal murder. Peter, Hanne and Emma are three damaged individuals all beleaguered with their own troubles and outlook. Grebe's on-point observations on realist Peter, domineered Hanne and insecure Emma offers unparalleled exposure to the pivotal players in the compulsive tale. Each subsequent step forward in the investigation is matched by gradually learning more about the narrators and accentuating the tension is the knowledge that all three narrators are simultaneously faced faced with something of a crossroads in their personal lives.Despite it becoming apparent the territory that Grebe's novel was headed into at the halfway juncture, it remained as compelling and provides a satisfying, but harrowing, conclusion. As it becomes apparent through Emma Bohman's narration that her brief love affair has morphed into an ugly obsession which in turn has unleashed a cycle of vengeance, revenge and ultimately madness, the awkward tension between a similarly let down in love, Hanne and the man who dealt the blow, Peter is replicated. Three poignant narratives seamlessly interweave to make for a fascinating study of love going drastically awry and its acrimonious and brutal legacy. However, it is essential throughout that readers retain scepticism about all three narrators and understand that readers are skating on very thin ice. An psychological study in the main, the poignancy of Hanne's failing memory is as profound as the psychological revelations on obsession and revenge and ultimately madness.Readers with an intolerance for the legendary unreliable narrators of psychological fiction may find themselves a little short-changed, I confess to my heart sinking, and I would probably rate this at 3.5 stars. It was the sensitive portrayal of Hanne's failing memory that secured the extra half a star and elevated this into 4 star territory.Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

I like a bit of pulp escapism sometimes and find that most of the well known authors plough a well furrowed path of systematic and contrived storylines that tick the boxes for publication but do little to excite or intrigue the reader.This psychological thriller by Swedish author Camilla Grebe is a little different. It is written in the first person but a number of different narrators (never easy to do) and has multiple timeframes over for each character and flashbacks and reminiscences that are not always signposted as such. You might think that this would be a bit bewildering. It is not. Camila Grebe is sufficiently skilful to ensure that the reader is guided through these different characters and timeframes without too much fuss and the storylines come together nicely for a satisfying conclusion.

This is an odd book.It's well written - sort of.It has believable rounded characters - sort of.It has a strong plot - sort of.It took me until almost half way through to realise that there really wasn't much happening.That it took that long is testament to the writing which is generally good.But nothing really happens. It just seems to drift from character to character, with the actual murder plot sort of hovering just out of sight.The search for the ever elusive excellent scandi-nordic noire continues.....

I found this novel very disappointing after its promise as "...a gripping psychological thriller..." which it certainly is not. In particular, the ending is very confused and unsatisfactory; leaving many unanswered questions. The structure of the novel with alternating narrators is fine but, as has been pointed out by others, no one is particularly likeable and a successful crime novel needs a person who, although maybe flawed, can be trusted and no one is that person. There are so many far better writers. A great let down.