The Witness
The new case for mediator Angela Lans will be her most personal yet!
Five-year-old Ina wakes up to screams and loud noises. As she makes her way down the stairs to the living room floor, she becomes the only witness to a horrific crime: the murder of her mother. Police soon arrive at the house, and Ina’s father is taken away. The following trial is short, and Ina’s father is sentenced to lifetime in prison, despite his relentless claims of innocence.
Twelve years later, the now teenaged Ina decides it’s time for her to confront her father. Mediator Angela Lans is the one to handle the meetings and tries her best to steer the charged conversations between father and daughter. This is the first time Angela mediates in a domestic violence case, but it’s not long until she discovers new shocking circumstances.
At the same time, Angela’s personal life is about to become more complicated than ever. She has just moved in with her new boyfriend Liam and is looking forward to their common future, when her mentally ill sister Hanna suddenly goes from bad to worse. Angela decides to take Hanna from the psychiatric ward she’s in and move her into Liam’s apartment. While Angela struggles to help Hanna and keep her new relationship in balance, she gets more and more involved in Ina’s case which stirs up emotions, risking to jeopardizing the entire mediation project. At the same time, she notices Hanna’s behaviour changing by living with Liam.
In addition, Angela receives serious death threats and is pursued by someone trying to stop her, a person who turns out to be closer to the case than anyone could have ever imagined.
The Witness is the second book in the trilogy about mediator Angela Lans. It’s a gripping crime novel following a professional woman’s persistent search for truth and justice, both for herself and others.
info
Year of publication
2023
Original title
Vittnet
Page count
484
Original publisher
Ordfront
Original language of publication
Swedish
Reviews
Kajsa Banck, BTJ
"The language is simple and the story is driven; as a reader, you really want to know how it goes. The fact that reality and fiction run parallel is clear throughout the book and touches the reader even more when there are children involved."
Roger Bengtsson, Ungmusik.se
"You are immediately caught up in the story and the grip never really lets go during the almost five hundred pages of the crime drama. A nasty basic story where there are several unexpected twists, big ones too. I think they really make the book light up a little extra and in the long line of crime writers, Jenny Rogneby is one I really want to read more of."
Anders Ka, Kapprakt
"...many surprises on the way to the resolution, one should obviously not take anything for granted in this series. (...) Jenny Rogneby has found a fruitful and unusual approach with her new series; letting criminals and victims meet creates tensions that are exciting and touching to read, at least when handled by an author with the insights and abilities required to bring different aspects of human behaviour to life."
Aftonbladet newspaper
"Rogneby really knows how to write captivating stories, and after just a couple of pages you are hooked."
Interested in literary or film rights?
Get in touch with your ideas and our literary agents will get back to you in a heartbeat.