Room in the Ground

In a tense return to the Bloodstorm series, past choices come back to haunt those who were wronged—and the ever-blurring lines between good and evil make them question what is right.

Kim Ribbing is a peculiar man—a skilled hacker, but otherwise reticent and fiercely private. Crime writer Julia Malmros never expected more than a working relationship with him, but all that changed the moment they locked eyes. Now there’s something between them just as thrilling as the mysteries they investigate together.

And just as dangerous too.

Because Kim has secrets. Enemies. A murky past. And it’s all coming to a head in the confines of his basement.

When Julia and fourteen-year-old Astrid—orphaned in a childhood friend’s murder that Julia and Kim investigated—venture downstairs, they’re pulled into the darkest corners of Kim’s life. And they resolve to help him finally get out.

As deep as they go, they still can’t escape Jonny, Julia’s detective ex-husband who’s got an axe to grind with Kim. When a new case lands on his desk, confirming his suspicions, he knows just where to look.

But some people always know just how to hide.

John Ajvide Lindqvist—dubbed Sweden’s answer to Stephen King by the Daily Mirror—is a Nordic horror master who leaves readers terrified yet craving more. With limitless imagination and a keen sense of language, he creates new worlds, tempting you to laugh in the middle of darkness even as he leads you into the unknown. Born in 1968, John grew up in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm. A fan of magic, he started out as a conjurer, then did stand-up comedy for twelve years before finding his true calling: writing. In 2004, he debuted his now internationally acclaimed novel Let the Right One In. Since then, John has written more novels, as well as works for stage and screen. Published in thirty-one countries, his writing has earned awards including the Selma Lagerlöf Prize and Best Novel in Translation (Norway). His work has also been short-listed for the August Prize, Book of the Year, and Swedish Radio Literature Prize. To learn more, visit www.johnajvidelindqvist.com/english.php. After a thirty-year career as a US diplomat that included lengthy assignments in Europe, Africa, and Latin America, Michael Meigs settled in Austin, Texas. His literary translations have earned the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s annual translation prize and the American Translators Association’s Lewis Galantière Award, and his work on Dolores Redondo’s The North Face of the Heart was short-listed for the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize. Michael has reviewed live narrative theatre in Austin and elsewhere in Central Texas since 2008, when he established his website: www.CTXLiveTheatre.com. He is also a production coordinator for an Austin opera company, a finance director for the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association (AATIA), and a member of the Austin Theatre Critics Table.