This is a review based on the Swedish original version of this book.

Inland is the second book in a series about police inspector Sam Berger and Molly Blom. The book picks up where Utmarker ended. When Sam Berger wakes up, he is surrounded by all things white. He doesn't know where he is but then he sees Molly Blom next to his side. They find themselves in the mountainous landscape of Lapland, northern Sweden, and it turns out they are both on the run for the Swedish secret service "Säpo" and later on even for the police as well.

Nevertheless they have to solve a murder crime while they are on the run. As they have to be on their watch the whole time they cannot use the modern communication tools and this makes things of course a lot harder. Their case has links with one of the first cases that Sam and his former colleague, Désiré "Deer" Rosenkvist, had to investigate in the beginning of their career together. Deer is also in the loop now as she has to play go-between and needs to pull some strings sometimes in the real world which can’t be done whilst under cover.

You can well follow up how Deer and the other characters are influenced by the extreme conditions in which they need to operate, as all characters are really well developed by the author in their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and approaches towards all the events that take place. Arne Dahl takes a dive in the internal world of his characters and tells us how they can get torn apart by the ambiguity they encounter the whole time, which is different for every one of them. The crime case in this novel is again a complex story that roots in a violent devastating past of the main perpetrator. Nothing is again what it seems. The investigation gets going in a seemingly calm way hiding however the subdued excitement coming from different sides which builds up fantastically towards the end in a way which the author has really figured out well.

The book may not be as exciting anymore as the first book Utmarker, but it still is a top crime novel from the highest Scandinavian quality in my humble opinion.