The Ice Coven

Lisa Yamamoto and Jason Nervander, Finland’s “most-followed social media celebrities and lifestyle bloggers,” haven’t been seen since they attended a record launch, in Seeck’s outstanding sequel to 2020’s The Witch Hunter. Their celebrity makes the search a priority for Det. Jessica Niemi and her colleagues in Helsinki’s Violent Crimes Unit, especially when an ominous poem is posted on Yamamoto’s Instagram account days after her disappearance: “Deepest sea, darkest grave/A princess sleeps beneath the waves/Soon sea will freeze, snowfall cover/And none shall her tomb discover.” A photo of a lighthouse was also posted. One of the comments on the social media site is simply the word justice in Japanese, suggesting that Yamamoto’s probably unpleasant fate was merited. The puzzle deepens when a search of the missing woman’s home unearths a sketch she made resembling the Instagram image, with a drawing of a schoolgirl standing in front of the lighthouse. Seeck throws in a murder that definitely happened, human trafficking, frog toxin, and somnophilia into the mix, masterfully ratcheting up the tension. Ragnar Jónasson fans will be mesmerized. Agent: Rhea Lyons, HG Literary. (Sept.)