The Forbidden Place

Susanne Jansson was born in 1972 in Åmål, Sweden. She later moved to Gothenburg to work in advertising and then to New York to study photography. The Forbidden Place, her debut novel, sold in twenty five territories around the world.

Susanne Jansson passed away in the summer of 2019 after a courageous fight with cancer.

'A bone-chillingly cool crime debut' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

In the remote Swedish wetlands lies Mossmarken: the village on the edge of the mire where, once upon a time, people came to leave offerings to the gods.

Biologist Nathalie came in order to study the peat bogs. But she has a secret: Mossmarken was once her home, a place where terrible things happened. She has returned at last, determined to confront her childhood trauma and find out the truth.

Soon after her arrival, she finds an unconscious man out on the marsh, his pockets filled with gold - just like the ancient human sacrifices. A grave is dug in the mire, which vanishes a day after. And as the police investigate, the bodies start to surface...

Is the mire calling out for sacrifices, as the superstitious locals claim? Or is it an all-too-human evil?
An international sensation, THE FORBIDDEN PLACE is a darkly gripping tale of the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and the terrible consequences they can have.