The Dark Heart

A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator

By: Joakim Palmkvist, Agnes Broomé - translator

Narrated by: Ulf Bjorklund

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

A chilling true crime story of poisonous family secrets, love gone wrong, and a cold case that refused to stay buried....

In late summer of 2012, millionaire landowner Göran Lundblad went missing from his farm in Sweden. When a search yielded nothing, and all physical evidence had seemingly disappeared, authorities had little to go on - except a disturbing phone call five weeks later from Göran’s daughter Maria. She was sure that her sister, Sara, was somehow involved. At the heart of the alleged crime: Sara’s greed, her father’s land holdings, and his bitter feud with Sara’s idler boyfriend. 

With no body, there was no crime - and the case went as cold and dark as the forests of southern Sweden. But not for Therese Tang. For two years, this case was her obsession.

A hard-working ex-model, mother of three, and Missing People investigator, Therese was willing to put her own safety at risk in order to uncover the truth. What she found was a nest of depraved secrets, lies, and betrayal. All she had to do now, in her relentless and dangerous pursuit of justice, was prove that it led to murder.

©2017 Joakim Palmkvist. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. English translation © 2018 by Agnes Broomé.

Swedish Millionaire Murder

Highly recommend the audio version because of the Swedish names/locations – knowing the exact pronunciation made the story more impactful for my reading experience.

A detailed character portrayal of the killers and for anyone who does not live in Sweden nor has visited Sweden, details about the “lay of the land” (hence the title of the book).

As a true crime reader, I always appreciate the nuances of details – isn’t that the point of solving crimes/murders – knowing all & getting the detail correct?!

The Dark Heart

It started out a slow read for me. But it was very detailed. Liked this book alot.

When will it get interesting?

I used to commit to finishing any book that I had selected to read. Thatveas sometimes torturous. life us too short, and there are so many good books to read. I listened to the first 45 minutes of this book and was thoroughly bored. There was no 'hook' for me, although this us my favorite genre to read. Save your money and time.

Struggled not to fall asleep

Would not recommend.
Had me agervated within the first five minutes.
Narration is confusing.
Difficult to understand

Boring

There was too much detail in this book. You don’t have to explain the history of every town you mention or every law you bring up. It was too much. I couldn’t even finish it and I never don’t finish a book.

A Great Book

A great story about a tragic murder that provides forensic information as the story moves along. I like the way the actual murder was intertwined with forensics. Both together gave an excellent account. I was not aware of the volunteer group that searches for missing bodies. I was delighted as it was explained.

true crime story

I must have purchased this as a deal-of-the-day. True crime is not one of my normal genres.

The book begins at the almost-end, and then jumps back to the beginning. Good plan, because the "almost-end" caught my attention. The beginning was confusing to this English-speaking American. So many similar sounding Swedish names of persons and locations to mentally sort through. By about 1/3rd of the way through, though who-was-who and where-was-where began to sort out. The story dragged in places, and was a bit too detailed in others. We pretty much knew who-dunnit, but how the authorities got to a conviction was an interesting story.

Disturbing story

The story was disturbing! Accents of some of the charachters difficult to understand. GREAT READER'S!!!

Dark and Confusing

I have very mixed feelings about this book. There were many things I found very interesting and many I found very confusing and boring. What I am unable to determine is whether the things that I found confusing and boring cultural differences or just confusing and boring.

In the end I am glad I listened to the book. The narration was good and overall so was the story.

hard to get through

I have started and stopped this one many times, I think the voice is what got me through.