The Drowned Boy

A Norwegian police detective must unravel a grieving mother’s shifting stories in a novel by “a truly great writer and explorer of the human mind” (Jo Nesbø)

Carmen and Nicolai failed to resuscitate their son after finding him floating in their backyard pond. When Inspector Skarre arrives, Carmen reports that Tommy, a healthy toddler with Down syndrome, wandered into the garden while Nicolai was working in the basement and she was cleaning the house. Skarre senses something is off with Carmen’s story and consults his trusted colleague, the famed Inspector Sejer. An autopsy reveals Tommy’s lungs to be full of soap.

When Sejer and Skarre revisit the couple, Carmen, an epileptic, changes her story, confessing that she’d been knocked unconscious by a seizure while bathing Tommy. When she came to, she found him drowned in the tub and, horrified and frightened, threw him into the pond.

But Skarre and Sejer’s doubt is not appeased. What more could Carmen be hiding? And how far will she go to cover her guilt?

“Powerful . . . a riveting tale.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Will keep readers guessing. Grade: A.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“In the end, the novel isn’t about willful murder or even accidental death, but the psychological aftershocks for the living.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Compelling work from the author who seems to have inherited the late Ruth Rendell’s gift of spinning the darkest complications out of what might seem like nothing at all.” —Kirkus Reviews

© 2023 HarperVia (Ebook): 9780544433557

Release date

Ebook: August 18, 2023