The Living and the Dead: The bestselling thriller and prize-winning Scandinavian crime sensation

Christoffer Carlsson

Dec 2025 · Random House

Ebook

400

Pages

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This book will become available on December 2, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.

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About this ebook

PRE-ORDER NOW! For fans of The God of the Woods and Tana French, The Living and the Dead is a beautifully written, haunting murder mystery, set in a rural Swedish town, where one community's secrets will be laid bare over the next twenty years . . .

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WINNER OF THE GLASS KEY AWARD FOR BEST NORDIC CRIME NOVEL
WINNER OF THE BEST SWEDISH CRIME NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF DENMARK’S PALLE ROSENKRANTZ PRIZE FOR BEST TRANSLATED CRIME NOVEL

‘All the makings of a page-turning thriller, but with an emotional depth that is truly rare’ FREDRIK BACKMAN

‘Carlsson is to the police procedural what Cormac McCarthy is to the Western.’ ANTHONY MARRA

'Magnificent, epic yet immediate . . . a thriller to break your heart' A. J. FINN

‘Carlsson plumbs what can and cannot be known about human lives and criminal investigations’ NEW YORK TIMES
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On a cold, snowy winter's night in 1999, Sander and Killian leave a house party together, in a small town in rural Sweden. The very best of friends, they imagine they will remain so forever.

The next morning, each is a key suspect in a murder. Each has something they want to conceal from the police. And from the other.

The hunt for Mikael Söderström's killer will take over twenty years. It will see a detective leave the force forever. And it won't end until a second body is found, and the tight-knit community's secrets are finally brought to light...

About the author

Christoffer Carlsson was born in 1986 on the west coast of Sweden. He holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Stockholm and is one of Sweden’s leading crime experts. Carlsson is the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, voted by the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy, and has won the prestigious Glass Key award for The Living and the Dead, given to the best Scandinavian crime novel of the year. He's also won the Best Swedish Crime Novel twice.

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