Bad Apples – Will Dean – What Do I Read Now?

Huge thanks to Ann Cater for orgainising the blog tour for Bad Apples, the fourth in the Tuva Moodyson series by Will Dean. Published by Point Blank Crime on 7/10/21.

It only takes one…

A murder

A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated

A festival

A grim celebration in a cultish hilltop community after the apple harvest

A race against time

As Visberg closes ranks to keep its deadly secrets, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Powerful forces are at play and no one dares speak out. But Tuva senses the story of her career, unaware that perhaps she is the story…

Set in Sweden’s Halloween season, when the forests are full of elk hunters and the town of Visberg is thick with the aroma of rotting fruit, BAD APPLES is a thrilling introduction for readers new to the series, and for die-hard #TeamTuva fans, a heart-stopping rollercoaster…

Praise for the series:

‘I can’t wait for Tuva’s next outing.’ Val McDermid

‘BRILLIANT.’ Ann Cleeves

‘Tuva Moodyson just rocks.’ Mark Billingham

‘Total Scandi vibes, a cracking plot and a hugely likeable heroine.’- Grazia

‘Eerie, unnerving and buckets of fun.’ – Observer

Our Author – Will Dean

WILL DEAN grew up in the East Midlands and lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson thriller, Red Snow, won ‘Best Independent Voice’ at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019, and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020. The third novel, Black River, has been longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021. Rights for the series have been sold in eight territories (France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, China and Turkey). Will lives in Sweden where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set.

TV Rights to Dark Pines have been optioned by Lionsgate, the producers of Mad Men, with plans for a multi-part series featuring Tuva Moodyson.

Will has also written standalone novels, The Last thing To Burn and First Born, which is due out in April 2022.

My Review – Bad Apples

Will Dean, what are you doing to us? Bad Apples is enthralling and addictive, I didn’t want it to end. Tuva Moodyson hits back in this, the fourth instalment of the series. Tuva is the main protagonist. She’s a young, feisty, intelligent and resoureful woman, clawing her way through life, not taking no for an answer. She’s a journalist and digs deep to get to the bottom of the story and unveil the truth.

Tuva is back in Gavrik, though this book is mainly based in Visberg, a real place, though this version is in Sweden. Back in the forest, which thrills but also sends chills down Tuva’s spine, and mine. Will Dean has the incredible ability to set a scene and make it so it’s almost virtual. You can almost smell the pine of the forest, feel the crisp morning chill in the air and with Tuva’s heightened sensory feelings, due to her deafness, these become even more real. She’s led into the forest by a scream and finds a mans body. Tuva is now a witness and becomes deeply involved with the case. Noova is investigating too and their relationship is back on track and develops beautifully as the book goes on.

Visberg is a small hill town, near Gavrik and Lena, Tuva’s boss has got her working on the Visberg Tidningen. It’s a new area to Tuva and that means new locals, who don’t welcome her with open arms, almost the opposite, the Swedish coolness is evident, like they have secrets. What with the feeling she’s not wanted and ‘Pan Night’ coming up, which she’s told to avoid, ‘locals only’ she’s has mixed feelings about being there, but she needs to see for herself. Luckily it’s customary to wear a mask and dress up, so no one recognises her, its like a kind of grown up Halloween with no rules or limits.

The mysteries surrounding pan night get darker than ever when a human head is found and this leads Tuva into danger but she’s at the point of no return. The towns folk are cagey but scared, they have an us and them side of the town and that doesn’t help and they are against each other. Weird troll carving sisters are up against generations of wealthy dentists, who run the local members only golf club. If you aren’t part of that, you’re clearly no one in Visberg, not anyone worth knowing according to the rich half, but are they in fact the dark half? The cliques won’t talk and so Tuva struggles to find information, and suspects everyone.

It does indeed, only take one…….

If you haven’t read the first three books yet, I would highly recommend that you do. Will’s Dark Pines Series are simply brilliant and transport you straight to the forest on Tuva’s heels. Right now it the perfect time to read this book, with autumn setting in, but quite frankly, I would never turn away a Tuva Moodyson book at any time of year.

Please follow the rest of the tour for this amazing book.