An island paradise in summer becomes the scene of a Christie-style murder mystery.
Author: Eva Frantz
Swedish original: Sommarön
Publisher: Schildts & Söderströms, 2016
Genre: crime fiction
Number of pages: 266 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, English sample
It’s a hot summer on the Åland archipelago, and Axelsson’s summer cottages are filling up with vacationing workers and their families. Everyone is looking forward to socializing, grilling, having cold drinks, swimming in the sea, and enjoying the sun.
In the middle of the week, someone finds old slides showing vacationers from the 1970s. The next night a storm rises, and a dense fog descends over the island. The internet connection is broken, phones no longer work, and the vacationers find themselves isolated from the rest of the world. And soon it appears that there is a murderer in their midst…
Summer Isle is a classic tale of suspense in which the sunny summer’s shadows are darker than black, in the best tradition of Agatha Christie and Maria Lang. Facts that seem trivial turn out to be crucial; the subtly built tension of the plot keeps readers in its grip; and the nostalgic shots of the summer fun in the 70s set the scene for nail-biting suspense.
“Eva Frantz knows how to write classic crime fiction. It’s not just her ability to create intrigue, but also the psychological clairvoyance she employs to create her characters using small, everyday things, like dialogue. […] The cosy and the horrific are naturally intertwined and meet on Summer Isle. […] Frantz’s language is a pleasure, and it mingles with the things she describes without making a number of itself.”
– Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper
”Frantz has created a perfectly believable, imaginative plot with systematic skill.”
– Östnyland newspaper
Also available:
Out of the Game (2020)
The Eighth Maiden (2018)
Blue Villa (2017)
The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor (2021)
Queen of the Night (2021)
The Mystery of Raspberry Hill (2018)
About the author:
Eva Frantz