The Savage Altar
Rebecka Martinsson 1

Asa Larsson

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

Before Stieg Larsson, there was Asa Larsson... The Savage Altar is a truly absorbing, atmospheric and fast-paced thriller featuring lawyer Rebecka Martinsson, a fantastic character in the mould of The Silence of the Lambs' Clarice Starling.

A church in the glittering frozen wastes of northern Sweden. Inside, a sacrifice: the body of a man - slashed to pieces, hands severed, eyes gouged out.

The victim's sister, Sanna, is first to discover the body and immediately finds herself the police's only suspect. Terrified and confused, she calls on a friend: got-shot city lawyer Rebecka Martinsson.

Rebecka hardly wants to return to Kiruna - the small town she fled in disgrace years ago. But Sanna is frightened and she needs a loyal friend to clear her name. Someone not scared to dig deep and find the true killer.

Yet Rebecka is not especially welcomed into the closed-lipped community. She might know the town, the people and how suspicious they can be of strangers but she has still to find out how dark the town's secrets have become in her absence.

About the Author:
Asa Larsson was born in 1966 and lives in Sweden. Her second novel, The Blood Spilt, is available from Penguin now and she is the winner of Sweden's best first crime novel award.

'A chilling plot knee-deep in blood-spattered snow.'

'A nail biting, suspense-filled mystery.'

Review by Jessica (311013) Rating (8/10)

Review by Jessica
Rating 8/10
Young city lawyer Rebecka Martinsson must undertake a mission she’d rather not when she is forced to confront the ghosts of her past in her rural home town when her ex-boyfriend is found brutally murdered. It is not going to be an easy task, her emotions are running high. She comes across to the reader as a fragile but clever achiever; her boss gets on well with her but often his warm and friendly approach receives a sharp tongue from Rebecka. She struggles to make conversation with her friends leaving those moments of awkward silences which somehow sound so loud. Is all this to cover up her feelings and those ghosts she’d rather not face?

Her friend Sanna seems to be beautiful and also fragile too but gets along with Rebecka, after all she needs her more then ever now to help remove the shadow of guilt which has been engulfing her ever since her brother was murdered in the church. A place which is meant to be sacred and safe.
In order to help her friend in need Rebecka must relive the horrible darkness she left behind in Kiruna. Can she delve into a sordid conspiracy and more deceit to confront the one killer whose motives are dark, impossible to understand and down-right evil.

This book is fairly easy to read and provides a good plot and characters. You will devour this book within days as it is a dark, brooding and a brilliant who-dun-it. It captures the essence of rural northern Sweden in winter and the descriptions are quite beautiful. Definitely worth a read.
Jessica (31st October 2013)