The Savage Altar by Asa Larsson
On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man lies mutilated and defiled–and in the night sky, the aurora borealis dances as the snow begins to fall....So begins Åsa Larsson’s spellbinding thriller, winner of Sweden’s Best First Crime Novel Award and an international literary sensation. Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she’d left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman. But to help her friend, and to find the real killer of a man she once adored and is now not sure she ever knew, Rebecka must relive the darkness she left behind in Kiruna, delve into a sordid conspiracy of deceit, and confront a killer whose motives are dark, wrenching, and impossible to guess....(courtesy of Goodreads)
This is the first of Asa Larsson's novels I've read, and it didn't disappoint. I found the setting very atmospheric and the pace was perfectly set. I get somewhat irritated by the tag "If you like Stieg Larsson, then you'll love Asa Larsson" because they are nothing alike at all, apart from the fact that it's set in Sweden and the authors share a (common) surname.
Saying that, the characters are flawed and well realised, making one's investment worthwhile, because it's all so much more believable. I will happily move on to the next book.
If you enjoy Scandicrime, give this lady a go, because it's worth the time.
8/10