MAY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Angela Dawe raises the stakes in this atmospheric horror novel. Sixty years ago, 900 people of the Silverjarn village in Sweden disappeared—except for a woman and a baby. Filmmaker Alice Lindstedt, who aims to solve the puzzle, recruits a team to produce a film about the “lost village.” But they all get more than they bargained for. Dawe’s storytelling is superb. She does an excellent job of slowly unraveling the mystery behind Silverjarn, heightening the fear factor. Her varying pacing amps up the suspense, and her flexible voice breathes life into the multitude of characters, regardless of gender and age. Horror listeners will be on the edge of their seats. A.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/11/2021
Fledgling documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt, the narrator of Sten’s strong debut, grew up listening to her grandmother’s reminiscences about Silvertjärn, a former mining village in a remote region of Sweden. In 1959, Alice’s grandmother had already left Silvertjärn when mysterious circumstances led to the disappearance of nearly everyone in the community, the grandmother’s parents and younger sister included; the only people left were a woman stoned to death in the town square and an abandoned newborn. Determined to make a name for herself, Alice assembles a group of friends to shoot a documentary on location around the same time of year the disappearance took place. Using old family correspondence to guide them, Alice and her crew begin to unravel the mystery. Their suspicions that they aren’t alone grow as they become victims of strange occurrences, equipment is destroyed, and loyalties are tested when their group members fall injured or go missing. Flashbacks heighten the tension. This gripping psychological thriller is sure to please fans of Shirley Jackson and cinema verité–styled horror. 100,000 copy announced first printing. Agent: Anna Frankl, Nordin Agency (Sweden). (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"Come for the mounting horror and scares, but stay for a devastating examination of the nature of family secrets." - New York Times book review
“THE LOST VILLAGE draws you in with its spooky premise—the disappearance of an entire town—but great atmospherics and unexpected twists keep you turning the pages. For fans of haunted reality TV shows, Scandinavian thrillers, and all things relentlessly creepy.” — Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger
"Very atmospheric and engaging mystery from a new and exciting voice in Scandinavian crime. The reader is drawn into a unique setting from page one and it is impossible to stop reading." - Ragnar Jonasson, author of The Island
"An enthralling and claustrophobic read. Camilla Sten has written a lurid thriller that will send shivers down your spine.” – M.T. Edvardsson, author of A Nearly Normal Family
"This gripping psychological thriller is sure to please fans of Shirley Jackson and cinema verité–styled horror." - Publishers Weekly
"Very hard to put down...delivers maximum dread with remarkable restraint, and as the situation goes from bad to worse to terrifying, readers will revel in the chills." - Booklist
"Deliciously creepy and profoundly addictive." - The Free Lance Star
"Legitimately scary." - Air Mail
"The suspense in this book is off the charts." - Manhattan Book Review
"[A] scary, highly entertaining debut...that pays homage to Shirley Jackson." - South Florida Sun Sentinel
"Welcome to the world of Camilla Sten...impossible to forget." - Criminal Element
Library Journal
02/19/2021
Alice Lindstedt is a documentary filmmaker chasing the story of Silvertjärn, a remote Swedish village whose residents vanished without a trace in 1959. Alice has assembled a small crew that will spend five days filming there, in the hopes of getting material that will inspire investors to fund the project. As soon as they arrive, however, a series of unexplained occurrences make it clear that Alice and company aren't alone in Silvertjärn. Someone (or something) is keeping tabs on them. Whatever it is, it's not happy they're in town. Sten's first book available in English never lets up on the tension, weaving scenes from Silvertjärn's past through Alice's story in the present. It's a satisfyingly creepy two-for-one mystery—"Who's after the filmmakers?" "What really happened in Silvertjärn?"—that opens up into horror in the breakneck final act. VERDICT While some of the interpersonal dramas fall a little flat, the unraveling of Silvertjärn's secrets (and the fate of the town's lost villagers) make for a mostly gripping ride that will satisfy mystery and horror fans alike.—Cody Daigle-Orians, Hartford, CT
MAY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Angela Dawe raises the stakes in this atmospheric horror novel. Sixty years ago, 900 people of the Silverjarn village in Sweden disappeared—except for a woman and a baby. Filmmaker Alice Lindstedt, who aims to solve the puzzle, recruits a team to produce a film about the “lost village.” But they all get more than they bargained for. Dawe’s storytelling is superb. She does an excellent job of slowly unraveling the mystery behind Silverjarn, heightening the fear factor. Her varying pacing amps up the suspense, and her flexible voice breathes life into the multitude of characters, regardless of gender and age. Horror listeners will be on the edge of their seats. A.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-11-27
An aspiring TV producer and her skeletal crew of four head deep into the Swedish hinterland to make an underfunded documentary series about a village that vanished overnight 60 years ago. What could possibly go wrong?
One day in 1959, Silvertjärn was a mining village of 887 inhabitants. The next day, its population was down to two: Birgitta Lidman, bound to a post and stoned to death in the town square, and a baby girl left in a schoolroom. Alice Lindstedt has been haunted all her life by the mystery of the vanished citizens, whose numbers included her grandmother, retired nurse Margareta, and most of her relatives. In the years since, there have been remarkably few clues. The infant, adopted long ago by a couple who raised her as Hélène Grimelund, knew nothing about the fate of her birthplace, but now Alice, who’s fought through poverty, temp jobs, and clinical depression, is resolved that “The Lost Village is my ticket out of all that.” Things go badly from the beginning. Co-producer Tone Grimelund sprains her ankle while she’s exploring one of the deserted houses and then disappears herself. Someone sets the crew’s vans on fire, and Alice’s college friend Emmy Abrahamsson, cameraman Robert, and financial backer Max eye each other warily even as they agree that the culprit must have been someone else. All the while, debut novelist Sten is counterpointing their adventures with a series of flashbacks to 1959, bringing Silvertjärn closer and closer to the brink of annihilation.
A memorably creepy newcomer to the crowded field of Nordic noir that’s worth a miniseries itself.
