No matter how weird it may sound – I have always been interested in detective stories. Ever since I was 10 and read my dad’s book, I have seen and read a lot of stories including murder, killers and the way the law tried to get them. I have been given this book by my teacher about a year ago yet could not find the time to read it for a long time. Thankfully, I needed a few minutes to dive into it were given to me and I am glad for the choice I made.

The book starts with a link to a weird video being sent to the National Criminal Investigation Department, which no one thought of as of a serious thing. It was considered to be a stupid joke at first. The shaky camera looking through a window owned by a woman putting on tights was a rather strange shot to observe. The detectives changed their minds very quickly when the woman’s body was found dead.

A different woman, Margot Silverman, is working on this particular case. She has watched the video countless times and is convinced that the team is dealing with a serial killer. She is driven to find out what exactly was his motive. Meanwhile, the criminal uploads a new film. The scene is almost similar – just a regular woman in her living room, coming home from a run, taking off her joggers and eating a tub of ice cream while watching something on the television. There is nothing strange about it. The detectives try to identify the woman or her location, but there is no way they would be able to do it based on the material they have seen.

The point of view then changes. The woman we have been introduced to in the clip, Susanna Kern, seems to be scared about a weird scratching noise she has heard outside. She decides to call her husband who is currently in a different country and is looking forward to being with him again. It calms her down for a little while and she takes a relaxing shower. After coming back to the living room, she realises she had forgotten close the front door. Panic rushes through her whole body and she quickly closes it. The feeling of uneasiness does not leave her though so she goes and checks the door again. When she comes back to the living room to finally sit down and eat her ice cream peacefully, she is surprised by a reflection of a man with a kitchen knife in his hand. She panics and hides in her bathroom and then even proceeds to give the man her credit card information, hoping that he will leave her alone after that. After waiting a little she leaves the bathroom. The innocent „burglar“ she thought has already left greets her with multiple lethal stabs.

Erik Maria Bark is remembering all the good times he used to have with his son, who no longer lives with him nor does his ex-wife. He is a psychiatrist specialising in trauma, therefore he is often called to help the police with relaxing witnesses. That is exactly the reason he has been called to the Karolinska Universal Hospital with his colleague Nelly to help Margot Silverman with interrogating of Björn Kern, the husband of Susanna. He had found her dead and Silverman is desperately trying to make him talk about it in order to prevent similar cases from happening.

The last chapter is about Erik wanting to play the piano. He booked the lessons for his son’s birthday at first but later realised he was the one who wanted to play the instrument, projecting his desires on the child.

I really enjoyed the story so far, even though the actual plot is not fully revealed yet I think that the fact I read about 40 pages, which is much more than I intended to, only shows how much I liked it. I personally love it when authors change up the point of view of the story, it makes it so much more dynamic. I loved the descriptions even though I know not many people find them interesting. The story itself was so easy to read – with every page I read I longed for the next one and I wished for the lesson to never end. I am looking forward to see how to story unravels. It perhaps means more freezing scenes sending shivers down my spine like the one where Susanna saw her killer in the reflection of her own window. If I was reading the scene at home, I would probably check my own door and see if it was really locked. The concept of seeing a video of a victim that you know is about to be killed is just completely terrifying too. I cannot imagine myself in the position of Margot Silverman or the other detectives when they knew what was about to happen but could not do anything about it. I am glad my teacher recommended this book to me.