A shocking phone calls forces Detective Sergeant Sakka Pienni to return to the place she has done everything to avoid: the dark land up north.

Shortly after coming home, the small village is hit with a tragedy. An entire family is found dead. Local police dismiss it as a murder-suicide, but Sakka suspects that the truth is more complex than that and starts digging. She is also seeking answers to questions that have tormented her for more than thirty years. Questions about her sister’s mysterious death and her mother’s disappearance. Did Nicci Pienni really leave the village voluntarily all those years ago, or is there another story than the one Sakka has been told?

The Waste Land is a suggestive crime novel about trauma, grief, and vulnerability. With atmospheric prose, Lina Bengtsdotter portrays small town secrets, the people who must carry those secrets, and how the past refuses to let go.