(Quercus)

Anyone looking for a fix of murky, unputdownable drama from Sweden after Stieg Larsson’s wildly successful Millennium Trilogy could do worse than to try John Ajvide Lindqvist. This is the Stockholm author whose debut novel, urban vampire drama Let the Right One In, was recently adapted into a critically-acclaimed movie. Lindqvist’s latest work translated into English is Harbour, a story featuring his trademark blend of awkward outsiders and supernatural suspense.

On Domarö, a remote island in the Stockholm archipelago, Anders and Cecilia are torn apart when their young daughter Maja disappears during a winter walk across the frozen sea. Anders returns years later, a lonely drunk, to discover that Domarö is stalked by some kind of omnipotent mystical force, emanating from the water itself. Powered by what feels like a mixture of awe and contempt for the deep blue, the pieces of a complex narrative spanning several generations snap together jigsaw-like, in a non-linear fashion that ensures this remains a solid page-turner to the last.