Winter Water by Susanne Jansson

Published in Sweden in 2020; published in translation by Grand Central Publishing on December 7, 2021

Winter Water straddles the border between crime fiction and horror. The story begins with a missing child, an overused crime fiction concept that challenges writers, usually without success, to take a fresh approach. Susanne Jansson meets the challenge by using ambiguity to create the suspense that most missing child novels lack. Did four-year-old Adam fall into the ocean and drown? His bucket at the water’s edge and the discovery of his boot in the water lend support to that theory. But Martin, Adam’s father, has been receiving anonymous threats, perhaps related to a property dispute with his neighbor. Is it possible that the neighbor, or someone else, kidnapped the child? And what should we make of other children who have disappeared in the same location and on the same day, January 11, during the last half century?

Martin theorizes that a little girl who drowned in the 1960s is calling other children to join her. He finds some evidence to support that view and even feels the pull himself, heightening the supernatural theme. A woman named Maya who befriends Martin as he struggles with loss and despair pursues the theory that the child was kidnapped. Maya has done some part-time police photography that has fueled her investigative instincts. She uncovers ambiguous evidence to support her kidnapping theory, although she nearly dies in the attempt to prove she’s right.

Uncertainty builds suspense as Martin tries to go about his life during the year following the disappearance, always wondering about Adam and occasionally feeling the temptation to join him if he, in fact, accepted a drowned girl’s invitation to meet her beneath the waves. Maya’s investigation, on the other hand, seems to reach a dead end until new information helps her pull some clues together. Even after Adam’s fate is revealed, suspense continues to drive the story.

The characterization in Winter Water is more subtle than a reader might expect from a missing child story. Martin understandably falls apart, feeling the guilt of failing to prevent his son’s disappearance. His wife holds it together for the sake a new baby until their roles reverse and she falls apart. All of this is handled with admirable restraint. Where an American writer might have turned out horribly weepy scenes, Scandinavian writers seem to take tragedy and depression in stride, regarding them (as they often are) as a natural part of life that can be depicted without melodrama. Maya also gains sympathy in a relationship subplot as her investigation impedes a blossoming romance.

Jansson skillfully blends the conventions of crime fiction and horror stories to keep the reader guessing about Adam for most of the novel. Both theories about Adam's disappearance are plausible (at least for readers who suspend their disbelief in the supernatural for the sake of a good story). Without spoiling the clever plot, I can say that in some sense, both theories are valid. Jansson’s ability to balance the genres should make Winter Water appealing to horror fans and crime fiction fans, or to any reader who enjoys a good story.

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