The Room in the Ground by John Ajvide Lindqvist

 

“It’s true, I want to understand. But more than that, I want you to understand."

In part two of the Bloodstorm trilogy, Julia Malmros and Kim Ribbing are back with a new adventure, this time with Astrid Helander’s help. This time Julia isn’t just using Kim for companionship, she’s become infatuated with him. 

To me, a love story feels like the natural progression of their relationship after they’ve survived the events of the last book but turns out to be deeply unfortunate for Julia as Kim’s a bit of a psychopath and appears to be incapable of reciprocating. Astrid Helander, troubled and angry and apparently left without a conscience after her parents’ murder, appoints herself as Kim’s partner in crime (literally).

Julia, who feels insulted when a tv producer compares her mystery novels to fantasy, begins research on a new book, looking into a political party called the True Swedes, their affiliates the Apostates, and Project: Sweden. All I could think of was MAGA Extremists and Project 2025 so naturally I had to look up Swedish politics to see whether or not the US was being teased or not. Apparently ultra conservative, bigoted control freaks occur in every country so he very well could have been writing based on his native political climate… Any who, she opens up a can of worms and invites a fair amount of danger into her life.

Julia feels responsible for both Kim and Astrid, who are making unbelievably terrible life choices, and doesn’t just allow herself to be pulled into their orbit, she places herself there on purpose becoming an accomplice. I like that Julia’s poor choice of emotional attachments seems to intensify the tone of the book; the three characters are increasingly unlikeable people, but they’re just broken enough that you don’t actually want anything bad to happen to them. They’re the kind of characters that you hate to love.

Meanwhile Jonny Munther, Julia’s ex-husband and detective superintendent, is trying to move on from Julia but can’t allow himself to let go of his beef with ‘that Ribbing guy'. He’s suspicious and determined to catch Kim doing something illegal, which unfortunately Kim is. It’s kind of weird seeing the police investigate a mystery where the mystery is no surprise to you. You already know what happened and who did it so it isn’t as surprising to you as it is to the police but it’s kind of fun to watch them work anyway.

Over all I thought this was a fun crime novel if a little morbid; it lacked the action scenes of the last book but made up for it with intensity. I thought the ending was questionable though. Only half of this mystery got solved. Kim Ribbing had a resolution but Julia’s subplot with the True Swedes did not. I assume and hope it will be addressed in book 3 but I really would have liked it better if it had been addressed now. I prefer concrete endings.