When Beauty Came to Town

'This is a real summer thriller. Perfect for a hammock or at the beach. It's an exciting and well told story with good drive and interesting characters.' - The Bookworm Some traditions are meant to be celebrated. Others are designed to kill. Every summer, the Medieval Festival transforms Visby into a living relic of the past. But beneath the revelry and the torchlight, a secret theater company has claimed the St. Clement Church ruins as their private, midnight stage. At the center of their performance lies a 12th-century double tomb-the site of an ancient, bloody butchery. Now, history isn't just being reenacted; it's being repeated. As part of a dark initiation rite, sixteen-year-old Malva is forced to spend a night sealed inside the cold stone of the grave. When she fails to return, her father, Mikael, turns to Detective Inspector Maria Wern. Malva's disappearance is the second blow to a family already shattered: her mother has been trapped in a coma for a year, a victim of a hit-and-run that left the family's world in ruins. Amidst the hunt for the missing girl, Maria finds herself unexpectedly falling for a charismatic firefighter she meets at a festival party. But her heart and her badge are on a collision course. Her new lover is a member of the secret theater troupe, playing the role of a chaste friar with a hidden agenda. Does he hold the key to Malva's location, or is he the one guarding the tomb? In this spellbinding thirteenth installment of the Maria Wern series, international bestseller Anna Jansson pits Maria against an obsession that has simmered for centuries. To find the truth, Maria must step into the shadows of the ruins and risk her life-and her heart-before the final curtain falls on another innocent life. 'An exciting thriller that asks questions.' - Östran Sweden