My favorite bit of advice starts with this simple strategy: The sensation of slowly sinking into a mushy combination of dirt and flowing water tends to dull even the best research skills.
There is much advice available about how to react when you’re in quicksand, but you’d better not wait until then to look it up.
But no! Quicksand is real and it can happen along a great midwestern river. I thought quicksand only happened in Hollywood movies that take place in a jungle or any place wet and dark. I was quite alarmed to see this warning from experts along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the areas hardest hit by the relentless drought and low water levels. You may think you are standing on solid ground, but appearances can be deceptive. Scandi Noir just got that little bit more disturbing.This weekend’s post comes from Bathtub Safety Officer Rafferty.īeing at ease is one of your best lines of defense against trouble of every sort.īut another important characteristic is being constantly aware of your surroundings. The moment the gavel dropped on the verdict? I’m not surprised this was popular in Sweden. There’s no locations in the booktrail sense unless the inside of a courtroom is your thing and they are rather nice in Stockholm at least from the outside! I’ve only been inside one once, and I swear as I was finishing this one night in bed, the silence has never seemed so loud. It’s a heck of an experience to go through and boy do these characters put you through a journey. I’ve not really read such an intense book before – but intense in a good way – in that way it never lets up. Being inside that girl’s head was not an easy experience but it’s a good writer who can make me uncomfortable but make me not want to stop reading at the same time. This wasn’t – it was pull and push and a short sharp stop and then we were off again. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this from the premise if I’m honest as often courtroom dramas can be a little dry. Gets in your head, messes with your head and then leaves you reeling.
The youngster’s relationships with the society, the city around them is shockingly bleak and inward looking. Her relationship with Sebastien adds levels of more grief and troubling developments. Seeing the tragedy and the events leading up to that day is horrific, awful, worrying, poignant and makes you think. She’s like any other teenager – adolescent angst aplenty, and is not a likeable girl when it boils down to it. This adds layers of doubts and denials to her narration. Maja seems very calm for a killer, and as her life is explained, you get a very changeable picture of a girl who has ended up in a very difficult situation, to put it mildly. This is the real landscape of the novel – first person narration of events which spiralled scarily out of control. The school an the city in general are in shock, outraged and horrified. Imagine knowing a teenager who is accused of committing a mass murder with their boyfriend in their school. The flashbacks to Maja’s school days and days leading up to the shooting. The setting of the novel but only as a backdrop for the only real setting is the school where the incident takes place and more importantly the Court where the case pans out.