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The Resting Place

Camilla Sten (Goodreads Author),

Alexandra Fleming (Translation)

3.64 · Rating details · 3,593 ratings · 1,028 reviews

A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten.

The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.

When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to ...more

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Hardcover, 336 pages

Published March 29th 2022 by Minotaur Books (first published September 17th 2020)

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Aug 17, 2021 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it really liked it

Whaaaat! Another gripping, horrifying, spine tingling book from the author of Lost Village and heroine struggles with prosopagnosia ( face blindness) which prevents her recognize a familiar person’s face including her aunt’s killer she just recently saw at the crime scene and the killer might be still in her vicinity, playing mind games with her!

Yes, I truly craved this book as soon as I read the blurb! I wanted to devour it so much and as soon as I saw it at my NG library, a few cartwheels ( I ...more

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Mar 30, 2022 Catherine (alternativelytitledbooks) rated it liked it

Shelves: physical-arcs

**Many thanks to Minotaur and Camilla Sten for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 3.29!**

I've read three books now featuring prosopagnosia: two were 5 star reads... and then there was this one.

Eleanor is the character in question, afflicted by this condition, but it held her hostage at a dangerous time. She walks in on the murdered body of her grandmother and actually SEES the killer firsthand...but since she cannot identify the person, this encounter is meaningless. The vision of the d **Many thanks to Minotaur and Camilla Sten for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 3.29!**

I've read three books now featuring prosopagnosia: two were 5 star reads... and then there was this one.

Eleanor is the character in question, afflicted by this condition, but it held her hostage at a dangerous time. She walks in on the murdered body of her grandmother and actually SEES the killer firsthand...but since she cannot identify the person, this encounter is meaningless. The vision of the day in question haunts her every waking thought. However, her grandmother's death has set off a chain of events...namely, a house left to her called Solhaga, leading Eleanor, the lawyer who has clued her in on this inheritance, her reliable boyfriend Sebastian, and slightly snappy and bizarre aunt Veronika are all off to visit the estate and find out firsthand what remains. What they all find is a plethora of secrets and an air of unease that hangs about the grounds, and Eleanor begins to discover that perhaps the past will no longer lie in wait.

Once a body turns up, however, the group begins to realize that the dead might have more to say than anyone realized. Can Eleanor find the clues to help her piece together who targeted her grandmother Vivianne on that fateful day? Is the killer on the loose...and looking to add HER body to the growing count? And is there ANY escaping Solhaga?

This one starts with a flurry of activity, and lots of blank space for interpretation. The scene is set, giving the reader a glimpse of Eleanor's observation of the murder and her subsequent loss of memory, and interrogation later on where she can't recall anything useful. I was drawn in pretty quickly by this setup, and thankfully this book has very short chapters.

Unfortunately, the quick pacing I should have felt while reading this kept getting slower and slower. We are introduced early to a timeline from the past via found diary, and this timeline was not only overly convoluted, it felt very repetitive and sometimes predictable. Perhaps the 'action' from the diary was just lacking, or maybe it was just too many diary entries, but after a while I lost interest. Eleanor and her posse also showed a major lack of judgment over and over, allowing their cell phones to die at the worst (and yes, most unlikely) moments and everything fell into place a little too neatly at times.

I also didn't feel the connection to the PLACE, which should have been a foreboding and terrifying character all its own. Perhaps the last atmospheric, creepy-house read I had just did it better, but for whatever reason, Solhaga didn't scare me. This was incredibly disappointing, since atmosphere would have certainly helped to sustain the tension while I was reading, and everything mentioned felt a bit generic.

The author also chose to use not one, not two, not three, but FOUR names beginning with V: Vivianne, Victoria (actually Eleanor, who chooses to go by Eleanor, but it's still included frequently enough), Veronika and Vendela. This didn't add anything to the narrative at all, and I don't think it was even intended to muddle things...but did anyway.

I didn't guess the final twist, and I must admit I had an alternate theory (after reading tons of thrillers) that was completely wrong. Sad to say, however, that even though I thought the ending was clever enough, I didn't really enjoy it at all. It just felt a bit out of left-field and not as thrilling or fulfilling as I'd hoped.

This read might not have been what I anticipated, but I do feel I'd give this author another try. Fans of a somewhat spooky slow burn with lots of buried family secrets and drama might find respite at The Resting Place...but for now, I think I'd better keep looking.

3.5 stars ...more

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Jan 03, 2022 megs_bookrack rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs-read

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Resting Place is the second novel I've read from Camilla Sten. The first was The Lost Village, which I read in early-2021 and gave 3.5-stars, not rounding up.

While there were aspects of that story I enjoyed, overall I would say I had been hoping for a lot more. I'm happy to report, The Resting Place gave me more.

This story is about Eleanor, who suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. As in, she is unable to recognize facial features.

So, when Eleanor walks in o ...more

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Mar 22, 2022 Lindsay - Traveling Sisters Book Reviews rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physical-from-publisher, 2022-favourites

4.5 stars!

Suspenseful, mysterious and gothic!

An old isolated mansion hiding plenty of dark family secrets.

This book had so many elements that I love! Dark foreboding atmosphere. Thick palpable tension and suspense. Deeply buried family secrets waiting to be discovered. Unique and mysterious characters that I felt invested in from page one.

Solhoga is the family mansion that encompasses this unforgettable tale. The house was like a character of its own! I loved the dark and gothic atmosphere. The ...more

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Nov 22, 2021 L.A. rated it really liked it

You will not find rest here...."Your fear is valid, but that doesn't make it real. The fear may be true, but it doesn't have to be your truth." The Lost Village was a chilling atmospheric bounty of chilling twists, but this one was even better.
This atmospheric Noir thriller will have you shivering in an estate in the countryside of Sweden. With its cold, dark winters and no escape from its past, a diary reveals much of its secrets weaving in from 1966 to present times. The diary was written by You will not find rest here...."Your fear is valid, but that doesn't make it real. The fear may be true, but it doesn't have to be your truth." The Lost Village was a chilling atmospheric bounty of chilling twists, but this one was even better.
This atmospheric Noir thriller will have you shivering in an estate in the countryside of Sweden. With its cold, dark winters and no escape from its past, a diary reveals much of its secrets weaving in from 1966 to present times. The diary was written by the housekeeper, Annushka, divulging many disillusions, pessimism and cruelties from the Ma'am of the house, Vivianne. No wonder the family closed its doors never to return.

Vivianne's granddaughter, Eleanor, cringes at the thought of this evil, heartless woman, who raised her. Her continuous calls go unanswered most of the time to avoid listening to her disillusion of voices in the walls coming to get her. She treks to her apartment and finds her stabbed to death as the killer is leaving the house. To her disadvantage, she suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness) and unable to recognize the killer's face.

Eleanor inherits the summer country estate Solhoga that her grandmother never mentioned owning. With her boyfriend, Sebastian, the family lawyer and Vivianne's sister in tow they find it to be an eerie mansion with spooky vibes and the past coming to life. Strange occurrences begin to take place with danger lurking in the shadows. Is there a killer watching them? As the winter snow piles up, locking them in, it becomes hard to put this thriller down. At least the wine cellar is full, but that dumbwaiter is dangerous!

Some of the characters you will only learn about through the diary, but they are fully disclosed giving you real vibes and their uncanny appearance. The evil of this grandmother is spine tingling and the unexpected twists at the end will be even more so.
I'm thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur books for allowing me to read another Camilla Sten book in exchange for my honest review. ...more

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Oct 05, 2021 Denise rated it really liked it

What a creeptastic read to kick off the month of October!

For some reason, I skipped over reading Sten's previous book, "The Lost Village" and now I'm wondering what in the name of all things hair-raising was I was thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book and Sten's writing style, so I can't imagine that I wouldn't enjoy that one as well.

Interestingly, this is the second book I've read in the last few months that deals with prosopagnosia (face blindness). In all fairness, I do What a creeptastic read to kick off the month of October!

For some reason, I skipped over reading Sten's previous book, "The Lost Village" and now I'm wondering what in the name of all things hair-raising was I was thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book and Sten's writing style, so I can't imagine that I wouldn't enjoy that one as well.

Interestingly, this is the second book I've read in the last few months that deals with prosopagnosia (face blindness). In all fairness, I do think that Alice Feeney used it more effectively in "Rock, Paper, Scissors," as I found it a bit underdeveloped as a theme here. This one begins with the main character, Eleanor, who suffers from prosopagnosia walking in on the scene of her overly cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder. Although she came face to face with the killer, she has no recognition of them due to her condition. She becomes plagued by anxiety and fears that the killer will come back for her, to the point that it overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality. She is shocked to find after her grandmother's murder that she has inherited an estate in the countryside of Sweden that she never knew about. It is a place with a chilling past, as she learns that it was where her grandfather died years ago, very suddenly. Eleanor, her boyfriend, Sebastian, her somewhat estranged aunt, Veronika, and a lawyer for her grandmother's Estate, all travel to the property for a weekend in order to do an inventory and to prepare the house for being put up for sale. The house holds many secrets though, and the closer they get to uncovering them, the more they wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.

I loved the sense of foreboding I had from page one. The Swedish countryside atmosphere is spooky, and Sten is a master at weaving the storyline from past to present in a way that not only flows succinctly, but also creates suspense in both storylines, which is difficult to do. I thought the blend of past and present was wickedly clever in that everything fell into place perfectly, but in a manner that kept me from completely figuring things out until the very end. I enjoyed all of the characters, even with their dark sides, and I suspected each one of them of nefarious dealings at one point or another. Did the ending leave me aghast with my mouth gaping open? No, but that being said, it was still well-executed and satisfying.

Overall, this is my favorite kind of horror read - a plot with supernatural elements that is later exposed as having very "earthly" explanations. 4 stars. ...more

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May 07, 2022 JaymeO rated it really liked it

Prosopagnosia (face blindness) is the new go to plot device in recent thrillers. This rare medical diagnosis has become popular in this genre because it sets up the perfect alibi. If you can’t recognize a face, would you be able to identify a murderer?

In The Resting Place, Eleanor finds her grandmother Vivianne brutally stabbed with a pair of scissors in her own home. She witnesses the murderer leave the scene, but cannot recognize the face. Who killed Vivianne and why?

When Eleanor receives a c ...more

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Jan 04, 2022 Liz rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Camille Sten does a great job of creating a creepy, tension filled story. From almost the very beginning, the book had me on edge.
Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. So, when she walks into the scene of her grandmother’s murder, she is unable to identify the person who rushes out the door. Then she finds out her grandmother owned an estate in the Swedish countryside which was left jointly to her and her aunt. They go out, with the probate lawyer, to take stock. And then the f ...more

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Jul 01, 2022 La Crosse County Library rated it really liked it

Shelves: brandon, greed, mystery, family, raising-good-humans, 1960s, summer-read, 2010s, investigation, twists

Imagine waking up every day and not recognizing the person looking back at you in the mirror. That’s how the main character, Eleanor, felt every day. Eleanor witnesses the death of her grandmother and saw the killer, but the problem is that she can’t describe what the person looks like to the police due to prosopagnosia. I didn’t know much about the book before I read it other than the fact that I like previous books by the author, and that it takes place in Sweden.

Following the murder of Elea ...more

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Mar 27, 2022 Marialyce (absltmom, yaya) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: books-of-2022, audiobook, netgalley

2.5 stars

I listened to about 60% and read the last 40% thanks to Dorie's gift of this book

Imagine brushing up against the person who murdered your grandmother. This was the fate of Eleanor, who suffers from an illness called, prosopagnosia, which renders her unable to recognize people's faces, Even her own face feels foreign to her.

Finding that her grandmother has left her summer cottage to her, Solhoga, a place that Eleanor has never heard of, she, her aunt, her grandmother's lawyer and her ste ...more

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Mar 25, 2022 Marilyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: marilyn-s-challenge

A Resting Place by Camilla Sten was an addictive mystery thriller that I found hard to stop listening to. It had all the elements of suspense, horror, fear and tense moments necessary to make it a heart pounding mystery thriller. The characters were rich and well developed and the plot was swift and chilling. There were twists and turns and I found myself guessing often about the outcome. A Resting Place was saturated with hints and then revelations of long buried family secrets. The dynamics an A Resting Place by Camilla Sten was an addictive mystery thriller that I found hard to stop listening to. It had all the elements of suspense, horror, fear and tense moments necessary to make it a heart pounding mystery thriller. The characters were rich and well developed and the plot was swift and chilling. There were twists and turns and I found myself guessing often about the outcome. A Resting Place was saturated with hints and then revelations of long buried family secrets. The dynamics and long buried history and secrets of this troublesome family were centered around an eerie, rambling and isolated inherited estate. Angela Dawe performed this audiobook in a very convincing and wonderful way.

When Eleanor’s mother died from breast cancer, her maternal grandmother, Vivianne, brought her up. Her grandmother was not the most warm and loving figure young Eleanor had envisioned in her life. In contrast, Vivianne was demanding and controlling. As Eleanor approached adulthood, she finally escaped her grandmother’s smothering control. Of course Vivianne made stipulations about this arrangement. Eleanor was allowed to move out of her grandmother’s apartment as long as she came for dinner and called on the days her grandmother specified. On one of those expected family dinner nights, Eleanor arrived at her grandmother’s apartment only to be met by an unidentified person leaving her grandmother’s apartment in a hurry. Eleanor suffered from prosopagnosia since she was a young girl. She was not able to identify or recognize faces. Even though Eleanor looked directly at her grandmother’s killer she would never be able to identify the killer’s face. Eleanor very quickly realized that her grandmother had been brutally murdered with a pair of sharp scissors. Eleanor compensated for her disability by using voice recognition or by recognizing other distinguishing features about the person. Unfortunately, her grandmother’s killer never spoke and nothing about the killer was familiar to Eleanor. Although Eleanor and her grandmother had a very unconventional relationship, Eleanor was saddened by her grandmother’s death and realized how much she had loved her and would miss her. Eleanor became obsessed with fear and anxiety over what she had witnessed. She feared that the killer would return and she would be at a disadvantage because she would not be able to recognize the person as her grandmother’s murderer.

A few weeks after her grandmother’s murder, which the police ruled as a robbery, a lawyer contacted Eleanor and told her that her grandmother had left her an estate located in the Swedish woods. The lawyer advised Eleanor that before she decided whether she would keep the estate or sell it, they should pay a visit to the house and take inventory of all its belongings and determine their value. Eleanor never heard her grandmother talk about or mention anything about this house. She traveled to the house with her boyfriend of many years, Sebastian. Her estranged and sometimes unpleasant aunt Veronika and the lawyer met her and Sebastian there. The house had been abandoned for decades but appeared to have been well cared for by someone. Eleanor sensed something sinister and creepy as soon as she entered the house. It was in this house that her grandfather had died all those years ago. She felt a presence of someone watching them. Strange things began to happen. Things started to disappear. Were they all in danger? What secrets was the house hiding from Eleanor?

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten was told in alternating voices and time periods. The present day was told by Eleanor and the past was revealed through the pages of a diary that Eleanor discovered in the house. Eventually the past collided with the present. I did not see or guess the ending before it was revealed. I was captured by the occurrences and revelations that were presented in this audiobook. It was hard to turn off. I truly enjoyed listening to the audiobook of The Resting Place and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this advanced copy of the audiobook of The Resting Place through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Publication is expected to be on March 29,2022 ...more

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Mar 26, 2022 JanB marked it as dnf

Shelves: edelweiss, mystery-thriller, audiobook

Dnf @ 35%
Just can’t muster up any interest in the story or the characters.

I received a digital ARC from EW and a digital audio from NetGalley. All opinions are my own

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Mar 18, 2022 Carrie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten is a psychological suspense with an edge of horror in the mix. The story in The Resting Place is one that is told in different timelines from a present time and one with events in the past from diary entries with a different point of view.

Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia or face blindness not being able to make out features on others faces. When Eleanor goes to visit her grandmother, Vivianne, she passes someone on their way out only to find her grandmother ly ...more

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Mar 21, 2022 Christina rated it really liked it

An atmospheric and creepy gothic novel that is beautifully narrated in audio format by Angela Dawe.

This book follows two timelines, one in the Nordic 1800s and one in present day. Eleanor, our present-day heroine, suffers from face blindness, and comes upon some writings implicating her ancestors in some terrible and very gothic crimes and abuses at the same time as she is working to solve a present-day mystery. Take one part Flowers in the Attic, mix with one part Nordic noir and half a cup of ...more

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Sep 21, 2021 Miya (ugly crying thanks to the Duffer Brothers) rated it it was amazing

I LOVED The Lost Village, so when I heard about this book, I was so freaking excited. I thoroughly enjoyed it while hiding under my blanket. Put my other books aside with no regrets and started flipping. I am such a fan of Camilla's style. It's unique and dark and eerie, all the good stuff. I cannot put her books down. This one was grabbed me, sucked me in immediately, and completely freaked me out in a totally different way than The Lost Village. Prosopagnosia "face blindness"...this is another ...more

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Feb 06, 2022 Helen Power rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-thriller, author-publisher-giveaway, netgalley, arc, popsugar-2022, horror

The Resting Place is a slow-paced horror/thriller with a novel premise and lyrical prose.
The novel is told in two timelines. In the present day chapters, Eleanor is venturing into the secret mansion that her grandmother bequeathed her in her will. She's accompanied by her boyfriend, her aunt, and a lawyer. She had never even known that her grandmother had this mansion out in the middle of nowhere, and there is a lot of mystery surrounding why she would keep this place a secret. Five months ago, The Resting Place is a slow-paced horror/thriller with a novel premise and lyrical prose.
The novel is told in two timelines. In the present day chapters, Eleanor is venturing into the secret mansion that her grandmother bequeathed her in her will. She's accompanied by her boyfriend, her aunt, and a lawyer. She had never even known that her grandmother had this mansion out in the middle of nowhere, and there is a lot of mystery surrounding why she would keep this place a secret. Five months ago, Eleanor's grandmother had been murdered, and Eleanor saw the killer. The catch? She suffers from prosopagnosia–a rare mental disorder that makes her unable to recognize faces. She can’t recognize anyone, not her boyfriend of six years, her grandmother, or even the woman staring back at her in her reflection. The killer could be right in front of her, and she would never know.
The past timeline is diary entries written in the 1960s, following a young woman, Anushka, who works as a maid for Eleanor’s grandmother. This storyline is much slower paced, though these chapters are quite short and span over a much greater amount of time.
The psychological aspects of the story go far beyond just Eleanor’s inability to recognize faces. Her grandmother, Vivian, was mentally abusive, and even in death, the effects of her maltreatment resonate throughout the narrative. Eleanor regularly has intrusive thoughts--critical, cruel asides in the voice of her grandmother. This adds to the suspense in otherwise slow-paced scenes, racketing up the tension, as these comments and insertions are far from benign.
This book, while slow paced, is engaging and unputdownable. I read it for the POPSUGAR reading challenge category “Read in one sitting”, and I literally didn’t get up once, not even for a bathroom break! (Granted, I was on a plane, so I really didn't want to get up!) I thought I’d predicted the end of the story early on, and while I had some aspects figured out, the twists were well plotted out and cleverly surprised me in the end.
One thing that I do want to point out is that Eleanor’s inability to recognize faces didn’t play as big of a role in the plot as I’d been hoping. I saw the Milla Jovovich film “Faces in the Crowd” years ago, where Jovovich played a character with this same condition. Part of the suspense in that film was that she never truly knew who she was interacting with, and anyone could be the killer, even those she trusted. In this book, while her prosopagnosia is critical to the main premise of the book, the rest of the story only has a handful of characters. The book would have been more suspenseful had she regularly encountered strangers or acquaintances and constantly questioned if they could have been the killer.
All in all, this is a suspenseful, beautifully written psychological thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc to review
This review appeared first on https://powerlibrarian.wordpress.com/
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My 2022 Reading Challenge
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2022: This book fulfills the "A book read in one sitting" category. ...more

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Jun 22, 2021 Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell marked it as to-read

A thriller about face blindness?

My inner psych major is sCREAMING

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Mar 12, 2022 Claudia rated it it was ok

The novel was an atmospheric thriller set in an old family mansion after the murder of her grandmother right in front of Eleanor. Eleanor should be able to point out the murderer but she suffers from prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces of even those she knows and loves (even herself). When a lawyer calls for inventory of the house, Eleanor, her boyfriend, Sebastian, her aunt, Veronica and the lawyer all go out to the middle of nowhere to go over it. However, mysterious things start h The novel was an atmospheric thriller set in an old family mansion after the murder of her grandmother right in front of Eleanor. Eleanor should be able to point out the murderer but she suffers from prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces of even those she knows and loves (even herself). When a lawyer calls for inventory of the house, Eleanor, her boyfriend, Sebastian, her aunt, Veronica and the lawyer all go out to the middle of nowhere to go over it. However, mysterious things start happening and a storm has them trapped! Dun dun dun.

Ok so to be totally upfront this was well written, the atmospheric writing was well done and did add tension and creepiness throughout the story. It did feel like anything could happen at any time. That’s not really the problem here.

The problem was the characters. They were assigned about one personality trait each (except for Eleanor who was assigned all of them) and then, if not Eleanor, told to act as suspicious as possible for no apparent reason throughout the entire book. Eleanor is strong, no weak, no brave, no cowardly, no - somehow tiny enough to fit in a dumbwaiter but also not know what a dumbwaiter is. There’s just nonsense that happens throughout the story. Two characters are revealed to be skulking about the house ‘looking for clues’ about two totally different things and neither wanted to get caught but neither just thought about going to this mostly abandoned property when…no one was there? Multiple murder *is* a lesser charge than breaking and entering so I get their thought process. Or…wait do we have that backwards?

No one makes any sense! The relationships are ridiculous. Sebastian and Eleanor have supposedly been together for six years but they could have met a month ago for all I could tell. Veronica is hugely rude to Eleanor and everyone for seemingly no reason.

Eleanor’s prosopagnosia is an interesting concept but that’s about it. Honestly, the murderer could have just run past her real fast and she not get a good look and it would be almost the same concept. I think we are supposed to also assume because she has one mental disorder that she could be a crazy and hallucinate all the time. Its not a very good representation of being neurodivergent.

The flashbacks were the most interesting part which is not something I usually say. But Vivienne and Annika were rather captivating and felt more real than anyone in the present time. I would have liked to see more of the transitional period of character growth but we were basically just told it happened which seems disingenuous to what we knew of the character in the past.

But the worst was the reveal of the plot twist. It was a crazy twist in that I didn’t suspect it! Because I could not care less about that person.

Overall, I would maybe recommend this book if you like atmospheric thrillers. Its got good ratings otherwise and what bothered me definitely won’t bother everyone. The writing was good and I would try this author again even if I didn’t like this one.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an audio ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Will do a full write up later! ...more

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Nov 29, 2021 Erin Clemence rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, kindle

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: March 29, 2022

Camilla Sten’s second English novel “The Resting Place”, brings together family secrets, an old mansion, and a murder (or two) that will leave readers feeling that Agatha Christie vibe. After the success of her novel, “The Lost Village”, I was eager to devour Sten’s newest release.

Eleanor found her grandmother, Viviann ...more

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Mar 16, 2022 Debra rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley, audiobook

3.5 stars

When you suffer from prosopagnosia, it makes you question things. Such as who can you trust. You can't recognize a familiar person's face. How do you form relationships?

Eleanor has walked in on her grandmother, Vivianne 's murder. She came face to face with the killer. She goes through her days knowing she came face to face with a killer, but who?

Vivianne has left Eleanor her home deep in the Swedish woods. A house that has housed a secret for the last fifty years. So, Elanor, her boyf ...more

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Mar 13, 2022 Dutchie rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

This had me hooked from the beginning and I absolutely could NOT put it down! Once I found time to read, it was read in one day! If you are looking for a creepy, atmospheric book this is it.

Eleanor has come upon her grandmother, Vivianne, who was just murdered. She catches the murderer in the act but she suffers from prosopagnosia which renders her unable to see exactly who the killer is. (side note: prosopagnosia seems to be a new common theme in novels). Eleanor is then contacted by a lawyer l ...more

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Dec 30, 2021 Nicole rated it really liked it

Well where to start with this one? I read this author’s previous work and remember being disappointed it wasn’t as supernatural as I thought. This book for me at least was a little confusing. We jump between two different timelines and there are many characters. However I enjoyed this one a lot more than her first book.

Eleanor has prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. This means that she is unable to recognize peoples faces. Even those who are closest to her. Eleanor unfortunately found h ...more

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Apr 29, 2022 Diana | Book of Secrets rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, suspense-thriller, suspense-gothic, suspense-domestic, dual-time-periods

Chilling! THE RESTING PLACE is creepy-good quiet horror. I enjoyed the cold, atmospheric setting of the isolated estate that the protagonist inherits. What disturbing family secrets are buried there? The twists were delicious and disturbing! Borrowed from the library.

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Dec 11, 2021 Carol rated it really liked it

I really, really wanted to like this more. I even went back and reread some passages to see if I had just been loopy when I read it the first time...but...no. I have to admit that I may have expected it to have equaled the first book...The Lost Village. Like most thrillers of this kind, the narrative is split between the past and the present, with the past being a melodrama and the present being underwhelming. The weather keeps the characters stuck inside with a killer that might be lurking on t ...more

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Dec 02, 2021 Fiona rated it really liked it

Shelves: into-the-woods, cold-is-cool, gothic-af, absolute-favourites, scandi, horror

If you like your horror unsettling and hauntingly atmospheric, then good news – Camilla Sten’s latest, The Resting Place, is here, and ready to set spines to tingling.

Bursting onto the English-language market last year with The Lost Village, Camilla Sten set herself a hard act to follow; but she’s done it. After the death of her grandmother Vivianne, Eleanor learns she’s inherited Solhöga – a country estate that’s never even been mentioned to her until now. Accompanied by her lawyer, her aunt Ve ...more

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Aug 19, 2021 Summer rated it really liked it

Shelves: thriller

After reading The Lost Village by Camilla Sten and falling in love with it, Camilla automatically made her way onto my exclusive list of auto-read authors. So when I found out one of Sten’s most popular books, Artavagaren(the Resting Place) was going to be translated to English, I couldn't wait to read it!

Our main character Eleanor suffers from prosopagnosia(face blindness) which prevents her from recognizing any familiar face. When Eleanor went on her weekly visit to see her shrewd grandmother ...more

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Aug 29, 2021 Bandit rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Camilla Sten’s debut was excellent. Pure excellence, a how to instant genre classic of an exciting and terrifying thriller. Naturally I was psyched to read her follow up. And I did. And this review is a chronicle of that disappointment.
It’s possible that coming out of the gate as strongly as Sten did, she simply set the bar too high for her subsequent efforts. It’s possible this and not its predecessor is the one off for an obviously talented author. But at any rate, this is a prime example of Camilla Sten’s debut was excellent. Pure excellence, a how to instant genre classic of an exciting and terrifying thriller. Naturally I was psyched to read her follow up. And I did. And this review is a chronicle of that disappointment.
It’s possible that coming out of the gate as strongly as Sten did, she simply set the bar too high for her subsequent efforts. It’s possible this and not its predecessor is the one off for an obviously talented author. But at any rate, this is a prime example of a sophomore slump and it’s just freaking sad.
There’s none of Sten’s debut’s originality, none of its elan, none of its dynamism. What you get instead is a strictly by numbers genre story, an all in the family thriller set in a remote Swedish location for atmosphere and so geographically contained that it’s practically a locked estate mystery.
It’s an estate the story’s protagonist, Eleanor, inherits from her recently murdered grandmother, a difficult, mercurial and imperious woman with some secrets in her closet. Eleanor promptly grabs her boyfriend and sets off to uncloset some of those secrets on location, along with her aunt and the estate lawyer. Once they get there, they notice that the longserving caretaker is missing and that is only the beginning of their difficulties. Some secrets don’t want to be known and some aren’t worth the effort to uncover.
Granted, this estate, this family, has more secrets than most and darker ones at that, but the unearthing of them is so slow and what’s found is so clichéd that it seldom seems worth the effort.
For this novel Sten took a minute by minute approach some thriller authors do, meaning the bulk of the narrative is dedicated to chronicling every minute moment and every momentous minute of the live of its characters and that’s fine to bulk up the word count, but doesn’t do much for the suspense building. In fact, the plot is so precisely so meticulously stretched out, you can see the seams straining to contain it.
Because of course if the story hurried up, there wouldn’t be much of it. There aren’t even that many characters and the ones you have aren’t there aren’t even that likeable or interesting. The only interesting thing about Eleanor is her prosopagnosia (and how contrived it that), meaning that while she saw who offed her granny, she can’t tell who it was.
Much like most thrillers of this kind, the narrative is split between the past and the present, with the past being an upstairs/downstairs melodrama and the present being…well, underwhelming. The weather locks the characters inside and there might be a killer lurking on the premises. Boohoo. Actually the entire production is melodramatic and underwhelming, especially considering that the author has already blatantly demonstrated she can do so much more.
The writing is still good, you can’t get rid of that easily, Sten can write, but the plotting is subpar at best and pacing leaves much to be desired. There is a prerequisite ending plot twist and (kudos to Sten here) it isn’t a predictable one, but it’s also just another example of the questionable character psychology employed in this novel, from development to motivations.
Overall, this was a disappointment. Sadly so. I would have read whatever Sten wrote based on the strength of her debut, this novel had very much the opposite effect. It isn’t terrible, mind you, it really isn’t. It’s just so blah, so slow, so average. I’m a huge genre fans, I love Scandinoir too, but there was just nothing here to wow the reader. And really, it’s Sten’s own fault, for being so good to begin with. Presumably her next book will be the one to tell which of these two was a typical Sten. Thanks Netgalley.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/ ...more

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Aug 28, 2021 Jen rated it really liked it

I liked this book, but not nearly as much as I liked this author’s previous book (the Lost Village), which I LOVED. Perhaps that made my expectations too high. The primary story centers on Eleanor, who travels to a remote mansion that she inherited after the brutal death of her grandmother. The secondary story focused on Anushka, living in that same house decades ago. I liked Anushka’s story better, though Eleanor’s story was creepier.

There was a good deal of action, as strange things started h ...more

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Mar 01, 2022 Mara rated it really liked it

Shelves: isolated-closed-circle-mystery, arc, ebook-owned

Between a 3.5 & 4 star - The atmosphere in this one was what I thought was really effective! So cold and creepy... I would characterize this as a psychological thriller verging into horror territory, and while I'm not totally convinced about the path that the resolution took, I am always a sucker for an isolation trope and this delivered on that score. Definitely the writing from this author has clicked for me best among the Nordic crime writers I've tried so far, so would certainly look for mor ...more

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Jan 03, 2022 Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today rated it really liked it

review to follow

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About Camilla Sten

Camilla Sten

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Camilla Sten is a writer, and her publisher made the mistake of letting her set this author page up by herself. She is best known for her internationally bestselling novel "The Lost Village", which has sold to 19 countries, and has written books ranging from YA fantasy to contemporary thrillers.

Camilla lives in Sweden with her American boyfriend and two fluffy, evil cats. She is quite enjoying tal ...more

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A good scary story is an oddly appealing experience. There’s something about the subtle chills of the ghost story—or the cathartic thrills of...

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Quotes from The Resting Place

“Prosopagnosia, face blindness. It means my brain doesn’t process human faces the same way others’ do. I can’t recognize faces, so have to memorize distinguishing features instead.” — 0 likes

“Your fear is valid, but that doesn’t make it real. The fear may be true, but it doesn’t have to be your truth.” — 0 likes

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