The Red Mountain
While the Balva clan herders carry out their annual reindeer slaughter, human bones are found at the foot of the Red Mountain. This exacerbates the tensions in the region as the clan and a group of farmers battle out an exceptional lawsuit at Stockholm’s Supreme Court. The issue – the right to land – is fundamentally important to the country’s reindeer herders. Who was there first? Who owns the land?
Klemet and Nina of the P9 patrol of the Reindeer Police are assigned to the case, but identifying the skeleton, which is missing its skull, is a challenge. There is much at stake: if the 17th-century skeleton belonged to a Sámi, this would provide precious proof that the Sámi were present in the territory before the Scandinavians. As the police officers contact museums and institutions, they discover the existence of a 19th-century human bone collector and delve into disturbing 20th-century ideologies, hidden in the darkest depths of Swedish history. As they dive deeper and unearth a series of mysterious disappearances of Sámi bones and remains, they find themselves up against the mistrust and hostility of the administration.
Klemet, entangled and increasingly confused by his double identity and Sámi heritage, and Nina, who finds him harder to cope with every day, will meet some conflicted characters along the way. Petrus, a Sámi leader, torn between his duty, his son and the pursuit of his father's dreams in the grandiose and desolate landscapes of Lapland’s forests; Bertil, an antiques dealer with a dubious political past; Justina, an octogenarian with strange talents which extend beyond Nordic walking and bingo, and archaeologists with obscure agendas...
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Original Language
FRENCH | Éditions Métailié
Translation Rights
ITALIAN | Marsilio
LATVIAN | Latvijas Medijis
SWEDISH | Piratförlaget
Reviews
"The Frenchman Olivier Truc rises to the level of the greatest Nordic crime authors." Marc Fernandez, LCI.fr
"A third volume which completes the depth of this surprising Lapland series." Le Figaro littéraire
"A tense, page-turning thriller but also an astonishing journey into the primary forests of Lapland, a ferocious territory at the heart of our modern Europe." Madame Figaro
"Olivier Truc definitely knows how to tell a story well." La Tribune de Genève
"Nordic crime writers have long accustomed us to endless polar nights, northern lights, icy fjords and the subtle unease of a frozen society. But it is a French journalist, documentary filmmaker and writer, Olivier Truc, who (...) paradoxically reveals himself to be the most exotic and the most alluring." Philippe Blanchet, Le Figaro Magazine
"With the same rigorous and precise socio-ethnographic approach, with the same commitment and fervor to plead for an indigenous minority and the preservation of their ancestral lands, Sápmi, Olivier Truc, manages once again, without a shadow of redundancy, to trigger the reader's curiosity, a captivating and downright exciting appetite for knowledge." Cécile Pellerin, ActuaLitté
