"...An intriguing thrill ride...a combination of the secrets and symbols of Dan Brown with the adventures of Jules Verne...unlike anything else you'll read this year." --AP

A corpse discovered in a flooded mine shaft. A secret organization with mysterious links to Nazi Germany. A fatal nineteenth–century polar expedition. These are the foundations for Jan Wallentin’s thrilling debut novel, Strindberg’s Star, a masterful blend of history, mythology, and adventure. Already an international bestseller, the book crosses all genres, weaving a multilayered story that will leave readers breathless.

During a lonely cave dive, Erik Hall finds a dead body floating in a flooded mine; clutched tightly in the corpse’s hands is an ankh, an ancient Egyptian symbol of life and mythological key to the underworld. Religious symbol expert Don Titelman reluctantly agrees to examine the artifact but before Erik can provide any more information, he’s killed—and Don becomes the prime suspect. A loner haunted by his grandmother’s stories of her gruesome torture at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, Don is dependent on a cocktail of medications to keep his demons at bay, yet now finds himself at the center of a rapidly expanding international mystery—what is the ankh and who does it belong to?

With a sharp ear for dialogue and a keen sense of detail, Wallentin has created a broad cast of unique and memorable characters, and he deftly teases out their complicated relationships. After a threatening conversation with a shadowy figure named Eberlein, Don joins forces with Eva, a Swedish attorney, in order to track down the ankh’s companion piece—a five–pointed star procured by Arctic explorer Nils Strindberg. A faded postcard stolen from Erik’s home reveals an illicit affair nearly a century old and in the process provides the shocking location of the star, bringing Don and Eva one step closer to solving the mystery. But Don and Eva must still unravel the purpose of the ankh and star before the artifacts fall into the hands of a malicious secret society, and finally reveal an interconnected web of mythology, science, and power.

Strindberg’s Star is crisply written and lavishly detailed, and the book is a literary novel as much as it is an adventure story. Wallentin’s work is built on careful research and an uncanny talent for intrigue, and he has crafted a plot that is intricate and precise yet moves with exhilarating speed. As the novel builds toward its astonishing conclusion, a series of twists, false leads, and surprises defy readers’ expectations, taking them on an international thrill ride.