A shocking
crime scene: a woman has been found beheaded in the apartment of Jesper Orre, Sweden’s
most popular and scandal-ridden CEO of a clothing company. The prime suspect
has disappeared and what astonishes the police, too, is a weapon found on the
site, a weapon which has been used before in a similar case. Four weeks before,
Emma Bohman, a saleswoman of one of the clothing company’s shops, is in seventh
heaven. Jesper has finally proposed to her. For months they have been dating,
secretly since the journalists are always after Jesper, but now, her dream
seems to come true. But one evening, Jesper does not show up for dinner, and he
does not answer the phone, and strange things start to happen in her apartment.
As Emma’s life slowly gets out of control, the police investigate the murder:
has Emma become the victim of a serial killer? A man the whole country only
knows too well?
Camilla
Grebe’s latest thriller can grip the reader from the first page. The
description of the crime scene is just horrible, it is obvious that the
offender must have been full of hatred and rage, but also creative in a way
since the arrangement of the corpse is quite remarkable. Most of the tension,
however, arises from the structure of the novel. On the one hand, we follow the
investigation in the present, on the other, we get Emma’s last weeks and her
narration of how she met Jesper and how their relationship developed. It is
obvious from the start that the famous businessman has something in mind and
that there are aspects in his behaviour which make you shudder.
You quickly
get an idea of what could have happened and who victim and suspect are – but then,
Camilla Grebe walks in and has a completely different story to tell. When you
reach this point of the novel, you sit there staring at the pages in disbelieve
since all your ideas just vanish into thin air and most explanations you have
made up before are simply wrong. I really enjoy novels which can surprise me,
which play with me as a reader, put me on a completely wrong track and then
offer another story which is absolute believable and in tune with the
characters and their actions. Thus, “The Ice Beneath Her” a perfect read for
fans of Scandinavian crime fiction who like strong characters and psychological
thrillers.
