Reviews

• “There is a fairytale quality to Stina Jackson’s superb second novel […]. It describes terrible things — addiction, violence, physical and psychological abuse — in such a matter-of-fact way, in such perfect prose, that what ought to be unbearable becomes spellbinding. Each character, whether good or bad, is treated with clear-eyed compassion that implies: ‘There aren’t any monsters. There are only people.’ The effect is like watching a Greek tragedy directed by Ingmar Bergman. Above all, though, it is a gripping novel, full of love and dread, that leaves you reeling when the identity of the culprit is revealed.”

• “A beautifully written, smart yet dark novel novel of suspense and tension. /…/ I absolutely raved about Stina Jackson’s award-winning debut, The Silver Road, and this her second novel hits the just the right notes too. She has the ability to inject moments of light and hope within the darkness that holds the story in its grasp. /…/ The characters are as deep as the tone is dark, and I read with bated breath. The Last Snow cements Stina Jackson as an author to watch, this is a story that just thrums with foreboding atmosphere and demands to be read, highly recommended.”

• “A compelling and at times a very disturbing read. The slow but remorseless build-up of tension added ever more layers of darkness to this deftly plotted story and I frequently found myself feeling almost unbearably anxious about what would happen next. /…/ Throughout the story I admired and appreciated the author’s perceptive observations of a whole range of human behaviour. Her ability to so convincingly capture the nuances of the characters tension-filled interactions meant that I frequently felt I was standing alongside them – quite a disconcerting feeling! /…/ This is another beautifully written novel from Stina Jackson […] and I recommend it without reservation.”

• “The story cuts deftly between characters and scenes in a way that feels filmic from the start. /…/ [The Last Snow] is reminiscent of Stephen King in its recreation of life in a small community populated by damaged but sympathetic characters and, like much of King’s work, would work equally well as a claustrophobic family drama, or a horror story, as it does as a thriller.”

• “Jackson’s plotting […] is bracing and sure-footed, while her painterly eye summons up a village at the very edge of a forest with dark, fairytale simplicity and menace. /…/ Each sentence rolls with a supple, mesmerising music; the accumulated effect is haunting and irresistible.”

• “Suspense that can be tasted, smelled, and felt. /…/ Stina Jackson impresses with yet another murder in Northern Sweden. In The Last Snow, Sweden’s new queen of crime digs deep into painful and complex questions of parenthood and heritage.”

• “Stina Jackson is entirely her own. /…/ Genre names neither frame nor encompass the full extent of what Jackson can do, and just like with her debut novel, the Stephen King-esque The Silver Road, The Last Snow is a nuanced literary portrait of regular people who have ended up as isolated, vulnerable, or more or less powerless – until they take their fortune into their own hands. /…/ Stina Jackson is in other words an author who defies immediate genre classification. Her novels carry greater weight and layers than most belonging to the [suspense] category. /…/ Jackson is a – remarkable – literary author, who employs the effects of the thriller genre.”

• “Beautiful and brutal. /…/ Jackson has a powerful and arresting language. /…/ [An] excellent and different work of crime fiction.”

• “A superb piece of crime fiction – and more. /…/ Stina Jackson has written two crime novels. Both are among the best our reviewer has read in years. /…/ Almost a hundred pages go by before the murder, but by then we’ve long since been captivated by Jackson’s sparkling narrative about what’s to happen. From that point on the pace quickens, but is just as confident in its prose, as psychologically believable, as sorrowful and simultaneously full of something that we see too little of in Nordic crime: a dogged faith that there’s something brighter ahead.”

• “Jackson has a striking talent for expressing herself. /…/ She’s at her best in the lingering and neat sensory depictions of nature. They lend the northern winter forests an existential touch reminiscent of Per Olov Enquist.”

• “In a class of her own: Stina Jackson’s debut novel was exceptional, and the latest one is even better. /…/ There’s a notable aura of O’Connor, Tennesee Williams and William Faulkner about this remarkable novel. /…/ The Last Snow is a thrilling, sorrowful, entertaining and poetic novel.”

• “An incredibly eerie tale, so claustrophobic it makes you look for the nearest door. /…/ The angst-riddled existence of the small family is not just pitch black; through the cracks, there are glimpses of love and warmth, and even at its darkest there is light. This is also why the image of the shabby kitchen where the three of them sit becomes so vivid. In particular Simon, the teenager who is supposed to handle everything and himself, stays with you long after the book has ended.”

• “[Stina Jackson’s] The Last Snow provides readers with high-quality entertainment, written in a nuanced and existentially finetuned prose. /…/ The reader is invited to join a masterfully designed journey into a family’s – and a landscape’s – hidden depths and dark secrets.”

• “Stina Jackson narrates with the same assuredness as in her debut. The end result is just as good, if not better. /…/ The Last Snow is a frighteningly realistic story. /…/ Stina Jackson deepens the tale about children and parents, nature and nurture and the terror that can dwell within one’s closest family. Liv and Liam mirror one another, both victims to unclear circumstances and controlled by stronger wills beyond themselves. Their motives are skillfully hinted at, what it is that made them this repressed. There is an entire world buried in the subtext and that is where Stina Jackson’s true talent lies. The Last Snow is a novel about the human condition, and the thrill level is an added bonus.”

• “The fates of these characters grip you from the very first page. /…/ The reader sympathizes with every secret wish, every desperate action and stressed reaction as the mystery unravels. The suspense is unrelenting and the emotions deeply human.”

• “It’s a difficult feat to replicate a success but here we can establish that [Jackson] has outdone her first novel with The Last Snow. It’s such an incredibly well-constructed tale with distinctive characters, that it keeps the reader captivated throughout all of its 350 pages. /…/ Stina Jackson demonstrates her narration skills as she moves us between different timelines, childhood alternates with adulthood, and she does it so elegantly. /…/ [Jackson] has a talent for telling stories and puts in the hard work needed to make them perfect.”

• “Stina Jackson’s The Last Snow is one of those rare crime novels that stand out within the genre. /…/ Living up to expectations after a debut like [The Silver Road] is a heavy task, yet Stina Jackson handles it with ease. Her The Last Snow is one of the best Swedish crime novels I’ve read in a very long time – maybe since Arne Dahl […], Åsa Larsson […], or even Kerstin Ekman’s Blackwater. The Silver Road was rightly given brilliant reviews, so also by me, and at first it is hard to say what makes The Last Snow even better. But most likely it is Jackson’s increased confidence, which allows her to stay with the characters longer. When the book draws to a close, I too want to linger, even as I am incredibly eager to see where this authorship will go next.”

• “An unbelievably thrilling and gripping suspense novel. /…/ You can’t help but be absorbed by [Stina Jackson’s] depictions of the northern Swedish countryside, the pine forests, the marshes, the atmosphere and the people. I read it in one go – there’s nothing for it but to go along for the ride.”

• “An [Edward] Hopper painting set in the Northern Swedish hinterlands. /…/ With her second novel, The Last Snow, Stina Jackson consolidates her position as an unstoppable force of nature within the suspense genre. /…/ Already by page one, where a gas station […] ‘casts its neon light across the desolation,’ I begin to see Stina Jackson as the Edward Hopper of the Northern Swedish hinterlands. The iconic American 20th century artist and the 21st century author both share an eye for the dreamlike and disquieting beauty of solitude and melancholy. /…/ The Last Snow is a skillfully executed novel, harsh and rewarding.”

• “With The Last Snow, Stina Jackson proves that a sequel can be just as good as her super lauded debut, The Silver Road. Wow, she’s good at darkly and suggestively portraying people’s faults, without it for that matter turning pitch-black.”

• “Jackson’s prose oscillates between feeling like a disquieting campfire story and a piece of modern-day proletarian literature. /…/ A skillfully told story. /…/ Jackson offers up a measured pace, but has composed a novel with such dread-inducing moods that it becomes a page-turner.”