In the Name of Love

A young woman is brutally murdered on an island near Stockholm—a haunt of wealthy retirees and arty weekenders. Suspicion falls first on a family of Iraqi refugees, initially welcomed into the community but gradually feared and shunned. But then, as the victim's story unfolds, suspicion begins inexorably to fall elsewhere. Lena Sundman was rude, dysfunctional, and very young—everything a fastidious man like Dan Byrne disliked. Taking refuge on the island after the sudden death of his wife, Dan finds himself strangely drawn to the troubled girl, starting from the moment he reluctantly rescues her in the teeth of a gathering snowstorm. This is a taut, elegantly chilling drama in the tradition of Scandinavian masters from Ibsen to Larsson.

Born in Ireland, Patrick Smith has spent most of his life as a translator in Sweden and, having published novels and short stories in Swedish, began his first novel in English at the age of 70.