Book Review: Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin

Publication date: February 17th, 2021

This is an enjoyable murder mystery set in the northern part of Sweden. It’s almost winter, it gets dark close to noon, it’s a small town where people rarely get away. Think dark, bleak, hopeless. The setting helps echo the difficulties our main character has. Kjeld, a detective who works further south in a large city, returns to his remote northern home after a desperate and panicked voicemail message from his long-estranged father. Kjeld navigates strained family dynamics while grappling with his father’s advanced Alzheimer’s, past hurts and grievances, oh and a possible murder on his family’s property.

On top of all that, Kjeld is in trouble with his own police department, has difficulties forming healthy relationships of any kind, and is quite selfish. Nevertheless, flaws and all, he’s an enjoyable character to follow and root for, and the mystery is interesting. I did figure out one twist extremely early on. It was so obvious I sort of wondered if the author purposely revealed that one, just to get the reader thinking about what it meant on a larger scale. It certainly did not hinder my enjoyment of the story, and there were other nice surprises. The final reveals were not at all shocking, but more of a natural progression of logical events. I would call this more of a character study/murder mystery than tightly wound suspense; I enjoyed reading it.

Oh and yes there really are ravens, who are pretty integral to the story. They lend a nice symbolism of family dynamics with them appearing as precious and wonderful to one character and scary and terrifying to another. That dichotomy is at the root of Kjeld’s difficulties with his father. And, they lend a nice creepy vibe to the story and setting.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book.