Black ice

A split-second decision to accept a ride from a stranger places Sandra at the center of a series of tragedies, a murder, and, ultimately, a quest for revenge. After a shopping spree, Sandra is strategizing about how to maneuver her bags onto a Gotland, Sweden, bus when a friendly, clean-cut businessman, Jan Hallin, offers her a ride. Looks can be deceptive; Hallin rapes Sandra and speeds away, running another car into a ravine and killing the driver. Nearby, a trysting couple witnesses the accident and makes a callous decision with deadly consequences. Four years later, fate brings together Sandra, the widow who survived the car crash, and one of the witnesses. They agree that Hallin should pay for the tragedy he's caused, and Sandra begins chronicling his misdeeds in a popular newspaper column. Too late, they realize that taking on Jan Hallin has ignited a battle with a psychopathic killer. Hallin's careless brutality and his victims' revenge become ironic vehicles for redemption in this complex, slow-burning thriller with a final twist that leaves no one unscathed.

A fatal hit-and-run two-car collision on the backroads of the Swedish island of Gotland in January 2014 serves as the catalyst for a spiral of treachery over the next four years in this skillfully plotted psychological thriller from Gerhardsen (Cinderella Girl). With no one reporting the wrecked vehicle, which landed in a ravine and was subsequently covered by snow for days, it's written off as a single-car accident. But that's something at least one person, in addition to the drunk driver, knows to be false, and that witness's blackmail attempt sets in motion a chain reaction of intimidation, kidnapping, and murder. Gerhardsen skillfully makes the most of her premise by allowing only limited flashes of information to emerge from the quartet of narrators, whose identities and roles begin to become clear only about halfway through the novel, precipitating a fresh set of increasingly perilous twists. The author's mastery of tone imbues a largely tragic tale with touches of humor. By turns touching and terrifying, this nail-biter deserves a wide audience. (June)