The Shadow Lily by Johanna Mo
Johanna Mo’s The Shadow Lily (Penguin) is as intricate as it is alluring. This second book of The Island Murder Series stands alone, filling in crucial details about the previous novel while setting the scene for a third. Part thriller, part police procedural, The Shadow Lily weaves a missing persons investigation and a detective’s search for answers about her father’s past crimes.
MISSING PERSONS INVESTIGATION
Hanna Duncker has more than one crime to solve. When a pregnant woman returns from her vacation to find that her husband and infant child have disappeared, Hanna and her partner are called in to investigate. Are the husband and son still alive? Does the letter sent by his daughter from a previous marriage have anything to do with it? Hanna is determined to uncover the truth.
TRUTH AND AUTONOMY
What makes this story so tangible and gripping is its basis in truth. The setting, Öland, is a place Johanna Mo is familiar with, painting the novel’s atmosphere with cool Nordic imagery. But what stands out more, is the close-knit community of the island, during the investigation of the missing husband and infant.
In a conversation with Penguin Books, Mo said, “The inspiration for the investigation was loosely inspired by the disappearance of a boy. He went missing a few years ago on Öland and I was moved by how everyone got together to look for him.” While writing, the author consulted real detectives who work in the area to guarantee the authenticity of the novel.
PAGE TURNING SUSPENSE
Johanna Mo sets up a tempting premise with the main storyline and keeps readers engaged with chapters called The Last Day, from the perspective of the novel’s victim. Mo spoke with Penguin about the autonomy of this character. “It felt important to me to give the victim in the book a voice. I didn’t want the victim to just be someone who flutters by as a corpse in the beginning of the story.”
Speaking of ghosts that float through the novel, Hanna’s deceased father — formerly convicted for crimes Hanna is uncertain that he committed — is a major part of a secondary plot line. He represents the ever-shifting line between being a good person and a bad person, showing Hanna and the readers that things are not always so black and white.
Navigating a web of lies and complicated relationships brings up difficult questions about Hanna’s seemingly caring father, who she believes isn’t capable of violence. Did he commit the murder he was accused of? Or was he just trying to protect someone he loves? This thread of investigation promises to continue into the third novel, where new details will be revealed.
Whether you begin with the bestselling first novel, The Night Singer, or tackle this sequel separately, Johanna Mo’s writing — beautifully translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies — is sure to have you on the edge of your seat. The Shadow Lily is a dark but stunning novel that proves its thesis true: “Even beautiful things can grow in the shade.”
About Johanna Mo:
Johanna Mo (1976) is an author from Kalmar, Sweden. She has written eight crime novels and two literary novels to date, and she has worked as a freelance editor, translator and literary critic for the past twenty years.
In the summer of 2020 Mo published, The Night Singer, the first book in a new series set on the island of Öland entitled: The Island Murders. Here, readers are introduced to an irresistible new police duo: Hanna Duncker and Erik Lindgren. Rights to the series have been sold in 17 territories and The Night Singer became an instant bestseller upon publication. The second book in the series, The Shadow Lily, was originally published in June 2021 and a third book will follow in the summer of 2022.
