Lifelong Friends, Sarah Hollister and Gil Reavill, at 70, Co-write Thriller “This Land is no Stranger”

New York, NY, USA – February 4, 2021 – This Land is no Stranger, set to release March 11, 2021, published by  LYS förlag. Written by Sarah Hollister and Gil Reavill, friends for more than twenty years, they decided to share Hollister’s knowledge of Sweden with Reavill’s knowledge of writing. What is considered Nordic Noir genre, it has an unusual twist. Hollister says, “Gil and I take a more global and American perspective in our writing.” With a spin on traditional Nordic noir and Scanoir genres, this murder mystery thriller follows a female protagonist and disgraced NYC cop, Veronika Brand, as she escapes her homegrown problems only to find herself in unfamiliar territory in the home of her ancestors, Sweden. Reavill says, “While growing up in Wisconsin, in the American Upper Midwest, I was surrounded with Nordic immigrant culture, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish communities. Later on, I discovered Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum, and, especially, Peter Hoeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow. I was interested in the cross-fertilization of American and Scandinavian crime fiction, the trans-Atlantic influences flowing both ways.”

The hallmarks of Swedish suspense fiction made popular by Henning Mankell, Camilla Läckberg, and Stieg Larsson are cleverly combined with new crime fiction that explores social, cultural, and economic power from historical and modern perspectives. Sweden, Swedish culture, and Nordic identity are explored in this cleverly written suspense drama that keeps the reader guessing right to the very end.

This new approach to Swedish suspense fiction breaks from traditional approaches by showing the cultural context through the eyes of a protagonist who is a non-native. The topics and themes explored in this book go beyond crime fiction, putting This Land Is No Stranger on track to be one of the best books of 2021. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

With a career that is spiraling out of control and a nasty drug habit that has taken her to rock bottom, NYC detective Veronika Brand is looking for a way out. When a call from Sweden interrupts her personal chaos, the foreign tongue of her distant Swedish relatives pulls her across the Atlantic with the lure of adventure and escape. But what she finds is far from the idyllic picture her grandmother painted. Instead of long languid summers basking in the midnight sun, she unearths secrets long since buried in the frozen ground.

In Krister Hammar, a local Sami land rights lawyer, she thinks she has found a kindred spirit. But when they stumble upon a brutal murder scene in a manor house owned by the rivals of her family, she starts questioning his truth. She finds herself being moved like a chess piece between the desolate region of Härjedalen in the north and the steely-cold streets of Stockholm, scrambling to find the links between her family history, a trail of missing Roma girls, and a series of vicious murders. In unfamiliar territory on the wrong side of the law, Veronika has her sights set only on the beast that preys on the wicked. Will she be able to see past the lure of the northern lights to the dark secrets that threaten to destroy her?

REVIEW

“This Land is no Stranger is an intriguing family saga intertwined with the fascinating world of the mysterious Roma people. Set in Sweden’s dark winter, this compelling, edge-of-your-seat novel is rife with murder, mayhem, and bodes the question, who will survive.”
 – Donna Moreau, Author of “Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Homefront to the Vietnam War”

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sarah Hollister is an American writer and playwright, living the Scandinavian reality on one of the 24,000 islands in the Swedish archipelago near Stockholm. Her plays Sisters’ Dance and Relevant Truth have been produced in New York City, and she is a member of the Dramatikerförbund (Sweden’s drama guild), which awarded her residences at the Henning Mankell House in northern Sweden. She is a founding member of the Stockholm Writers Festival.

A New York-based author, screenwriter, and journalist, Gil Reavill often writes about crime, both in fiction, with the “13” series of thrillers (13 Hollywood Apes, 13 Stolen Girls, 13 Under the Wire) and non-fiction, with Mafia Summit and Aftermath, Inc. Reavill also co-wrote the screenplay for the corrupt-cop feature film, Dirty, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.

For more information on the book and author interviews, contact the authors directly at veronikabrand.com

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