I was very lucky to get an early proof of this book but I had not read the previous two books, so I obviously purchased the first two. I just need to get me some time to read as I am excited about this series!
I am also excited that my blog tour buddy is Hayley @ Rather Too Fond of Books so make sure you check out her post!
Before we check out what Blood Song is about and the exclusive excerpt I have for, let us check out what Book 1 and 2 is all about.
Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson, Maxim JakubowskiSeries: Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #1
Published by Orenda Books on October 1, 2017
Pages: 300
Amazon UK
Goodreads
In Falkenberg, Sweden, the mutilated body of talented young jewelry designer Linnea Blix is found in a snow-swept marina. In Hampstead Heath, London, the body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea's. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea's friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.
And check out a snippet from the audiobook.
Keeper by Johana Gustawsson, Maxim JakubowskiSeries: Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #2
Published by Orenda Books on March 15, 2017
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror. London, 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some ten years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before. Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman’s body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims. With the man arrested for the Tower Hamlets crimes already locked up, do the new killings mean he has a dangerous accomplice, or is a copy-cat serial killer on the loose? Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down. Following the highly acclaimed Block 46 and guaranteed to disturb and enthral, Keeper is a breathless thriller from the new queen of French Noir.
God I love these covers and don’t the books sound epic!!!
Ok, ok, let us look at Blood Song, Book 3 in the series!
Blood Song by Johana Gustawsson, David WarrinerSeries: Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #3
Published by Orenda Books on March 1, 2020
Pages: 300
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Spain, 1938: The country is wracked by civil war, and as Valencia falls to Franco’s brutal dictatorship, Republican Therese witnesses the murders of her family. Captured and sent to the notorious Las Ventas women’s prison, Therese gives birth to a daughter who is forcibly taken from her. Falkenberg, Sweden, 2016: A wealthy family is found savagely murdered in their luxurious home. Discovering that her parents have been slaughtered, Aliénor Lindbergh, a new recruit to the UK’s Scotland Yard, rushes back to Sweden and finds her hometown rocked by the massacre. Profiler Emily Roy joins forces with Aliénor and soon finds herself on the trail of a monstrous and prolific killer. Little does she realize that this killer is about to change the life of her colleague, true-crime writer Alexis Castells. Joining forces once again, Roy and Castells’ investigation takes them from the Swedish fertility clinics of the present day back to the terror of Franco’s rule, and the horrifying events that took place in Spanish orphanages under its rule. Terrifying, vivid and recounted at breakneck speed, Blood Song is not only a riveting thriller and an examination of corruption in the fertility industry, but a shocking reminder of the atrocities of Spain’s dictatorship, in the latest, stunning installment in the award-winning Roy & Castells series.
Woah woah woah!!!
So, before we check out the excerpt, I want to check out what has been said so far on tour! I know I know such a tease!
Live and Deadly says
If you haven’t read Roy and Castells yet, you are missing something quite special. Gustawsson has an uncanny knack of being able to harness really strong and often quite unpalatable facts and to weave these into a personal story that brings the history to life and makes the reader feel a little of what it must have been like to live in those times. Then she deftly weaves that into a spellbinding contemporary crime story featuring two of the most interesting crime protagonists around utilising sharp, focussed prose which is flawlessly translated here by David Warriner.
Emily Roy and Alexis Castells are wonderful characters but the story focuses more on the plot than the two protagonists which I really liked. It gives you just enough to get to know them and where they are in their lives but doesn’t take anything away from the fabulous and enthralling plot.
It’s so difficult to actually say much about this story without giving anything away and I have to say I just want to tell you everything, really gush about how brilliant this story is but I’ll refrain from spoiling it and urge you to go and read it for yourself.
Where do I even begin? There is a special place in my heart for Johana Gustawsson as she rekindled my love for my native language. Before I even begin talking about the mind-blowing novel that is Blood Song, I must mention that one of the powers of this series is the perfect (and I mean ‘perfect’ in the purest meaning of the word) writing with which the plot is delivered. Each word paves the way for the characters to enter your mind, for the taste of blood to invade your mouth, for the cases to turn personal. Johana Gustawsson masters words like no other. The rhythm of her sentences always matches the scenes she puts her readers in. As an avid reader, I enjoy plenty of styles and admire a long list of authors, but no one speaks to my head and heart as powerfully and beautifully as the Queen of French Noir.
Varietats says
This is a book I will recommend to everyone, but it’s not an easy read, it will give you goose bumps and you’ll want to stop reading and forget what you’ve read, but that’s why it’s so special. I don’t have words to say how much I like it, it’s not a beautiful book, it’s an interesting book with a lot of insights in so many different themes that it will not let you indifferent. Now it is time to start Blood Song and let the story abduct you…
The Reading Closet says
Blood Song is a historical fiction crime read that has very non-fictional routes. Not only is it a a heart palpitation of a read, but it’s 272 pages of humanity, where pain, corruption, grief and freedom meet in an explosive plotline, with closely authentic characters. Johana has created a shockingly vivid fictional prose with such an emotive core, that you’re going to find difficult to put down and forget about. Sobering and haunting all at the same time! The writing is unfaltering, a perfectly planned layout of events that create an increasing tautness with every chapter that will leave you teetering over the edge with a tension filled expectation. It will not dissapoint!
Liz Loves Books says
Blood Song was a gorgeous if traumatic read and Johana Gustawsson knows how to weave a web of emotion around the reader whilst also producing a proper page turner that is utterly gripping from first page to last.
Now if these fabulous bloggers have not done enough to entice you, what about this excerpt then?
✮ Excerpt ✮
Falkenberg, Sweden
Friday, 2 December 2016, 10.00 pm
Kerstin wished she could have stopped the hands of time ticking. Cling on for just a few more seconds, so she could hold back the monster. Hide it. Tame it, somehow. But she had no longer had a choice. It had been now or never. So she had taken Göran by the hand, thrown open the gates of hell and released her inner demons.
Now Göran was asleep, face down in the well of his pillow. None of the words exchanged after their dinner had stopped sleep from coming and his anger had ebbed away into the night. Set free from the day and numbed by fatigue, his whole body now rested soundly, in childlike surrender.
Kerstin took off her dressing gown and slipped into bed beside him. Placing a hand on her husband’s greying chest, she kissed his shoulder, where it curved to meet his armpit, the sweet spot where she loved to lay her head. She wished she could slide her thigh across Göran’s legs and quiver at the touch of the soft hairs and hard muscles. She longed to hold him until the grief fought its way to the surface and flooded over her. She was waiting for the tears to come. For them to trickle timidly, one held-back drip at a time, then suddenly well into a raging torrent that would sweep her away. She wanted to cough up all the sadness caught in her throat and spit it out. Feel the panic set in as she struggled to breathe. She wanted the sorrow to sweep her away. She wanted to drown in it.
Kerstin shivered and pulled the duvet up to her shoulders. She hated this never-ending darkness. Some days, the sun seemed to never rise at all, and only snow would break up the clouds. Without it the moon could never part the heavy blanket of the night. Their bedroom was above the living room, overlooking the sea. Every night, Kerstin savoured the moment when she would lie in bed, gazing out at the water. But the sea was never more resplendent than when it shimmered in the summertime. Now, on the cusp of winter, it shivered with goosebumps as the wind whipped the surface into whitecaps. Perhaps the snow wasn’t far away, after all.
Earlier, as Kerstin had stepped out of the shower, Göran had asked her to sleep
Right wow! You know what you have to don’t you!!!!!
Until next time xxx
Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for the tour invite and the Publisher and the author for an excerpt from the book.
annecater says
Huge thanks for the blog tour support Zoe x
Zoé says
Thank you for having me xx