Wow. This is a really well crafted mystery. The main character is the sister of the murder victim and not since Wuthering heights has there been a more unreliable narrator. At times I found myself not just wondering if she'd done it, but wondering if she had a sister or there really was a murder. The hints about her reliability are fairly subtle, but definitely there. A great accomplishment for any writer, but for a first time novelist, an amazing job ( )

Dual review with Swedish first and then English!

SWEDISH REVIEW

Jag kände mig väldigt kluven under tiden jag läste boken. En del av mig ville verkligen få reda på sanningen om Rachels död, men samtidigt så hade jag svårt för själva berättarstilen. Första persons perspektiv kan vara lurigt. Ibland funkar det, ibland funkar det inte lika bra. Med Sargad måste jag erkänna att jag kämpade med det.

Själva story funkar tack vare att man inte vet om det förflutna har något med Rachels död att göra samt att Nora faktiskt beter sig konstigt, som om hon har något att dölja. Men i och med att det är Nora som är berättaren, så känns det som om man sitter fast i hennes huvud, och hennes tankegångar är inte alltid så klara. Däremot så fann jag inte tillbakablickarna på det förflutna när Nora och rachel var unga så svåra att hänga med i.

Men vad jag verkligen saknade var beskrivningar. Språket kändes så torftigt och det var svårt att få grepp om de andra karaktärerna i boken eftersom Nora i stort sett bara nämnde dem vid namn med aldrig riktigt gav en målande bild av dem. Vilket gjorde att de var lätt att glömda. Detsamma kan sägas om omgivningar etc.

Det är själva fallet, mordet på Rachel som gav liv till denna bok. Jag ville verkligen får reda på vem som hade mördat henne och varför. Och jag är glad att jag fortsatte läsa boken för trots mina problem med berättarstilen så var boken helt OK med ett slut som inte var tillrättalagt.

Tack till Louise Bäckelin Förlag för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

I felt that I was on the fence about this book during the time I read it. Part of me really wanted to find out the truth about Rachel's death, but at the same time, was I having trouble with the narrative. First person's perspective can be tricky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not work as well. In Under the Harrow, do I have to admit that I was struggling with it.

The story itself works because you do not know if the past has anything to do with Rachel's death and that Nora actually behaves strangely as if she has something to hide makes the story more thrilling. But, because Nora is the narrator, it feels like being stuck in her head, and her thoughts are not always so clear. On the other hand, I did not find the flashbacks to the past when Nora and Rachel were young that hard to keep up with.

What I really missed was descriptions. The language felt so meager and it was difficult to grasp the other characters in the book because Nora basically just mentioned them by name with never really giving a good description of them. Which made them easy to forget. The same goes for the landscape, etc.

It's the case, the murder of Rachel who gave life to this book. I really wanted to find out who had murdered her and why. And I'm glad I continued reading the book, despite the narrative problems, as the book was okay with an ending that I felt worked well thanks to not being too obvious.

Thanks to Louise Bäckelin Förlag for the review copy! ( )

This book kept me guessing. The two story lines come together very nicely at the end. ( )

I'm not at all sure how someone could say this story was boring. Sometimes it your state of mind when you read a book and what you bring into it while reading. The author's writing style was brilliant and refreshing. The murder scene was disturbing to say the least. A few times I swore out loud at things that happened. I was gripped by the story and had zero clue as to who the murderer was and found the ending to be very clever. I think I would have liked Rachel in real life, but maybe not her sister so much. ( )

So I read the reviews on Audible about this book and so many said this book was boring, but I decided to give it a shot. Well I found it anything but boring, I thought it was fantastic, unstoppable, I had to find out what happened next. When Lilly finds her sister Rachel murdered she delves into their psychological relationship and the damages of past sexual assaults. I think the story moved quickly and kept my attention the entire time, ( )