Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve
Crime fiction is probably top of the list when popular appeal to readers is gauged. Producing a novel in this genre demands skill in plot, and of course, originality. The psychological thriller offers infinite possibilities because of the uniqueness of each individual.
M.T. Edvardsson’s new novel, The Woman Inside, is a book which satisfies all of the above. It is a translation of the author’s original work and does not fail to sustain suspense, doing this in a manner that is a departure from the usual crime fiction.
Many authors present a crime which then becomes the focus of the police. A squad of detectives then gets to work. Possibilities emerge at intervals, until the final solution to the crime is revealed. This book has little involvement by the police. There are occasional brief interviews which tend to add to what is already known by the reader, or merely supports what has been surmised.
Early in the drama two bodies are discovered. They are Regina and Steven Rytter. They live a life of luxury, their home is a mansion on the outskirts of Lund, the beautiful Swedish cathedral city. They seem endowed with all of nature’s gifts. However, she is found brutally murdered and he is dead from an alleged overdose.
From this point other characters are introduced.
Karla is a young law student who works as a cleaner in the mansion of the Rytters. Later she decides to leave her current lodgings and takes a room at Bill’s house. He has an eight year old daughter, Sally.
Jennica is a stunning young woman who has a job as a ‘psychic therapist’, taking client’s calls each evening. She is a regular Tinder user.
Edvaardson cleverly connects these five people and, as their lives intersect, new aspects of each become more detailed and pose questions as to who is most likely to have a motive and possibly be the perpetrator.
Karla, hard-working, honest and determined to succeed in her studies, is plagued by doubt and a desire to help others.
Bill, devoted father, hopeless manager of his finances and besieged by bad luck, becomes increasingly desperate.
Jennica is stunned when confronted by reality and this places her in a precariously angry and different frame of mind.
Steven Rytter is an enigma to a certain extent. Handsome and absurdly wealthy, he presents as a very charming man who cannot resist the lovely Jennica. Dark suspicions concerning the treatment of his wife, Regina, become increasingly obvious to Karla. She becomes concerned for her and for the plight of Sally and her father who is almost at the end of his tether.
Circumstances arise, problems confronted, as the book progresses. Mystery surrounds the two murders until the dramatic resolution at the end.
Suspicions mount as the plot progresses and Edvaardson skilfully dangles possibilities of guilt at intervals by using the predicaments of his characters. Learning the identity of the murderer is secondary; rather it is the chilling illustration that ordinary people are capable of committing extraordinary, even criminal deeds.
The Woman Inside is from a prominent Swedish writer. His previous novel is being made into a Netflix series. This novel too has great dramatic content, edged by suspense …. ideal for the screen.
The Woman Inside
[2023]
by M. T. Edvardsson
Pan Macmillan
ISBN 978 152900 818 0
$34.99; 336pp