Birds of Sorrow

Her black dress dances in the wind as she runs, the crisp scent of cold air invading her senses, tree branches crackling beneath the urgency of her footsteps. Is he drawing near? The frozen lake looms into view, dawning on her as her sole possibility for escape. But unbeknownst to her, the ice beneath her is treacherously thin. She doesn’t have time to think before the unsettling sound of cracking ice reaches her ears, and the murky waters envelops her in a cold, dark abyss.

It is January, and the snow has yet to blanket the quaint town of Harlösa in Southern Sweden. In this tight-knit community, a mysterious young woman who no one seems to know has plunged through the ice. The case lands on police investigator Fredrika Storm’s desk, who has recently moved back to her home region of Skåne after spending a few years in Stockholm. Together with her colleague Henry Calment, she embarks on a journey of cracking the case of the mystery woman – who was she? And who was she running from?

As they delve deeper into the case, the investigation becomes more perplexing and nothing is what it seemed like at a first glance when multiple tracks unravel hidden secrets into Fredrika’s own family history. What kind of relationship did the young woman have with Tobias Falk, a troubled man who left the village a summer over twenty years ago? And how is the case connected to the disappearance of Fredrika’s own mother, that very same summer?

Birds of Sorrow is the first installment in Frida Skybäck’s gripping crime series featuring police investigator Fredrika Storm. In this gracefully crafted suspense novel, Frida Skybäck keeps the readers on the edge of their seat until the very last page. This tale is a poignant exploration of homecoming, where the familiarity of everyone knowing everyone belies the hidden secrets beneath the seemingly idyllic surface. And how family ties can change over time and become infected when unfortunate circumstances force brothers to question their siblingship. Amidst the suspenseful twists, Skybäck artfully reveals how history, like a relentless tide, resurfaces in the present, weaving a narrative that is as unpredictable as it is captivating.