More Bitter Than Death - Softcover

Grebe, Camilla; Traff, Asa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857209507 ISBN 13: 9780857209504

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2013

Synopsis

Sometimes reliving the past revives old demons ...In a Stockholm apartment, five-year-old Tilde watches from under the kitchen table as her mother is brutally kicked to death. Meanwhile, in another part of town, psychotherapist Siri Bergman and her colleague Aina meet their new patients - a group of women, all of whom are victims of domestic violence. From Kattis, who was beaten by her boyfriend and lives under the constant threat of his return, to Malin, the promising young athlete who was attacked by a man she met online, and from Sofi, the teenager abused by her stepfather, to Sirkka, an older woman who had a troubled marriage - each woman takes her turn to share her story in the safety of the sessions. But as the group gets closer, it is not long before the dangers lurking in the women's lives outside invade the peace with shattering consequences. And somehow, the fate of five-year-old Tilde is intertwined with that of Siri and the other women, so that what started out as the search for peace will swiftly turn into a tense hunt for a murderer.

About this title

About the Author

Sisters Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff started out writing thrillers over email, each writing a chapter and sending it back to the other to continue the story. Camilla runs a consultancy business and Asa is a psychologist. They both live with their families in Sweden.

From Booklist

Conducting an experimental self-help group of women who have been victims of violence, Stockholm psychologist Siri Bergman and her friend and colleague Aina hear five women recount experiencing pain and degradation, usually at the hands of the men closest to them. Siri is particularly taken by Kattis, whose stories of her abusive ex-husband, Henrik, seem verified when Henrik’s lover, Suzanne, is brutally murdered, an attack witnessed only by Suzanne’s five-year-old daughter, who is kidnapped soon after. When Henrik, angry and armed, breaks into the group, more violence ensues. Meanwhile, narrator Siri struggles with the love for her dead husband that keeps her from committing fully to a relationship with Markus, even after she becomes pregnant with their child. Interspersed reports from counselors of a boy with increasingly severe behavioral problems add to a growing sense of dread that permeates the novel. Swedish authors excel at novels of dark suspense, and sisters Grebe and Traff (Some Kind of Peace, 2012) top off this fine psychological thriller with a final, chilling twist. --Michele Leber

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0857209507
• ISBN 13: 9780857209504
• Binding: Paperback