It’s unusually hot weather for Sweden, and Erica Falck is heavily pregnant and stir-crazy. Her mood is not helped by the enforced absences of her partner Detective Patrik Hedstrom, investigating the grim, lonely death of a young German tourist. Her damaged body has been found atop the remains of two young women missing since 1979 – both of whom met an almost identical fate. The murders appear connected to a bitter and feuding family still living in the shadow of a long-dead patriarch – but which one of them, if any, are responsible? This was not originally slated for Book of the Month, but I was so impressed, so drawn in and so moved by this that once I finished (and wiped the tears from my eyes) it belonged nowhere else. Detective stories are sometimes trashed as plot-driven entertainment for the masses, a guilty pleasure not meriting serious literary attention.

The Preacher reminds us that some of the best, most poignant writing comes from this genre that does, after all, trade on the most extreme examples of the human