Bess and Halland live in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else. When Halland is found murdered in the main square the police encounter only riddles. For Bess, bereavement marks the start of a journey that leads her to a reassessment of first friends and then family.Review: Just as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose made crime fiction appear intellectual, so Pia Juul's The Murder of Halland dismantles the rules of an entire genre. Dagens Nyheter Pia Juul is a dazzling writer with natural, biting dialogue. And the descriptions of the sun's play on the fiord are so beautiful that they could have been lifted from Albert Camus' The Stranger. Extra Bladet This is good literature. Beautifully written. A rare and glittering stone on the beach. Ingvar Ambjornsen, Norway. Has won Denmark's most important literary prize, Den Danske Banks litteraturpris."