Following 2023’s The Beasts Of Paris, a heavyweight slab of historical fiction, Stef Penney returns to a cold climate with new novel The Long Water. An aura of isolation and suspicion abounds, wagging tongues and hidden wrongful deeds setting the tone – one previously explored within the pages of Penney’s acclaimed debut The Tenderness Of Wolves, set in Canada in 1867.

There are parallels between The Tenderness Of Wolves and The Long Water, with both tales featuring a missing person and discovery of a dead body. The Long Water, though, is set in modern-day Norway – Nordland, to be specific – and unlike The Tenderness of Wolves, where innocence needs to be proven, is very much a tale of small-town folk wishing for dark secrets to remain buried.

The Long Water is told firsthand by affable 79-year-old Svea, her carefree granddaughter Elin, and Elin’s friend Benny. As Nordland’s school leavers celebrate their spring exam results with wild abandon, in the midst of these celebrations Daniel, a popular teenager, goes missing. As the search progresses, the remains of an unidentified body is found in one of the disused mines that only adds to the mystery.

Penney does not cut any corners when it comes to creating an atmospheric backdrop or defining her characters, and so The Long Water is a slow-burner that takes time for the tension to build, and when it does it doesn’t lose its grip.