Within the Circle

This new and ingenious pulse-pounding thriller from legendary Swedish crime author Arne Dahl tracks a string of bombings in Stockholm that are seemingly connected to the climate debate and a secret organization, perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo and Lars Kepler.

When a steel industry executive is found dead in a burning BMW, the death is quickly dismissed as a tragic accident. After another nearly identical accident occurs, criminal inspector Eva Nyman receives a letter that reveals details of an upcoming, and much more vicious, attack, leading her to believe that these are a deliberate series of murders, possibly even a case of climate terrorism.

In the letter Eva recognizes a phrase that was often used by her disgraced former boss, Lukas Frisell, who went off the grid after botching a kidnapping investigation. Eva cannot believe that Frisell is responsible for the murders, but evidence keeps pointing toward him. And as her new team, NOVA, races to uncover the murderer before more people die, Eva is reluctant to disclose her suspicions regarding her old boss. 

But as further bombings targeting public places begin, countless lives rely on NOVA’s ability to find out who’s behind it all and put a stop to the terror. The killer is out there somewhere, but all they have to go on is a cryptic letter and a strange symbol that keeps appearing everywhere they turn: a circle within a circle.

But who is hiding within the circle?

Auteur
Jan Arnald, (b 1963), primarily known under his pen name Arne Dahl, started writing very early and got a PhD in literature in 1995 at Stockholm University. At that time, he had already published a couple of literary books in his real name. But shortly after his dissertation, he experienced severe writer’s block and had to find new ways to get his creativity flowing. He found one, through changing his identity and writing in a completely new genre, crime fiction. He thus became the crime writer Arne Dahl and started publishing books such as Misterioso and Bad Blood, about the police collective called the A unit. Now, he has written twenty-one books of crime fiction and has won the European Crime Fiction Star Award for his collected work in 2019. With Within the Circle, he starts a brand new series about Eva Nyman and the NOVA team of the Stockholm police.