The Blood Spilt

[sawyl]

Another Åsa Larsson novel, this time The Blood Spilt. Set a year or so after the events of The Savage Alter, it features Rebecka Martisson, clearly on the edge of a complete breakdown after the events of the previous book, as she returns to Kiruna to carry out a trivial bit of legal work.

A popular, politically active woman vicar is killed on midsummer and her body is strung up in her church. With Anna-Maria Malle still on maternity leave, her deputy, Sven-Erik Stålnacke, finds himself in charge of the difficult and frustrating investigation as the pro and anti Mildred Nilsson factions — Magdalena for and Mildred's fellow vicar Stefan Wikström against. When Rebecka arrives in town, ostensibly to assist with a trivial bit of legal work, she decides to stay in Poikkijärvi little while in an attempt to get her life back together. She quickly makes friends with Nalle X, a young developmentally disabled man with a straightforward way of looking at the world and an infectious enthusiasm that brings Rebecka back in contact with the world around her.

As the police investigation unfolds, various dubious details start to come out about Stefan and his (and Mildred's) supervisor, parish priest Bertil Stensson. There are also signs of local graft and corruption in the form of the hunting committee, who pay a pittance to the church for the woodlands they control, manage their membership as ruthlessly as an exclusive gentleman's club, and who were at loggerheads with Mildred Nilsson over whether a lone female wolf living in the area should be protected.

On balance, I think I prefer The Blood Spilt to The Savage Altar: the plotting feels tighter, ending is tougher and more unpleasant, and Larsson does a great job a capturing Rebecka's fragile mental state, with all its peaks and troughs. The set pieces are strong — the appalling law firm party feels worrying authentic — and the mixture of recurring and new characters work well together. I also rather liked the decision to inter-cut the mystery narrative with a series of Londonesque episodes from the life of Yellow Legs the lone wolf, the creature whose existence provides on the many possible motives for Mildred Nilsson's murder.