Agnes Lovise Matre

Unhallowed Ground

Far more than crawling insects and worms lies buried deep in the dark earth.

During some garden work in the village of Øystese, the remains of a teenager are found buried in the earth – those of a young boy who was never reported missing. The subsequent murder investigation uncovers layer upon layer of guilt, shame and weakness, and threatens to reveal local secrets – with terrible consequences for many inhabitants of the tiny village.

District Sheriff Bengt Alvsaker must dig deep into the village’s misdeeds and widespread prejudices in order to find out the truth about what really happened thirty years before.

Her Dark Fjord-series is situated in the spectacular Hardanger landscape with the dark, elongated fjord, blossoming fruit trees and snow on the high mountaintops during the summer and fog, rain, and huge amounts of snow during the winter. In these settings, she uses the crime genre as a framework to talk about “forbidden” themes like shame, feelings of guilt, suppression and secrets.