So bitterkalt

We don’t talk about sick or healthy people at St Patricia’s. Words such as hysteric, lunatic and psychopath… They are no longer used. Because who amongst us can say that we are always healthy?’

An underground passage leads from the Dell nursery to Saint Patricia’s asylum. Only the children enter, leaving their minders behind. On the other side are their parents – some of the most dangerous psychopaths in the country.

Jan has just started working at the nursery. He is a loner with many secrets and one goal. He must get inside the asylum . . .
What is his connection with one of the inmates, a famous singer?
What really happened when a boy in his care went missing nine years ago?

Who can we trust when everyone has something to hide?


I was initially was a bit disappointed that The Asylum was not book four of the Öland series by this excellent author.However that was assuaged by the sheer readability of this stand alone novel which is much darker and more disturbing than Theorin’s dreamy, otherworldly Öland tales.

The 3 strand narrative story winds tighter around the reader as Jan's troubled past is revealed little by little and you spend most of the time reading wondering whether he is trustworthy or not; whether you like him or not and is he really suitable for working with children….???

By the time I was a third of the way through I had decided I didn't trust any of the characters and all the doubt, mistrust and grown dread makes for a anxious reading experience!

A first class psychological thriller that that delivers an unbelievable tense reading experience.

Although I really don't like doing comparing authors' works, if you put The Asylum up against Theorin's other novels, it falls short. As the novel opens, Jan Hauger has applied for job as a classroom assistant at the Dell preschool located in a building at St. Patricia's Hospital, lovingly referred to as "St. Psycho's" by the locals. St. Patricia's is home to patients of all sorts, but it houses some people who "have destructive impulses, antisocial men and women who have done what you might call bad things," and the preschool allows some children to visit their parents who are patients. One of its most famous inmates is Ivan Rössel, a serial killer who has left many bodies in his wake. Jan has a history working with preschool children but he believes that this job will actually get him closer to someone he knew in the past, Alice Rami, who he is convinced is a patient there. We get the impression that Jan has something to hide nearly immediately, when the doctor conducting the job interview calls a preschool where he's worked before and Jan is mentally hoping that there is no one there who remembers him. But all goes well, and Jan gets the position. As he begins his duties, he becomes obsessed with the idea of somehow getting himself into the hospital; it is connected to the preschool building via an underground tunnel and an elevator that is always met by someone. The preschool staff, including Jan, is not allowed there, but finding a way in becomes a regular obsession with him. As the story progresses, the novel is split into three interwoven parts all very much connected to each other -- the present where Jan, a loner, tries to make connections with some of the staff, the past connected to his time at the Lynx preschool, and earlier in his troubled boyhood. Although it's not quite apparent at first why, all of these episodes will meld into one huge tragedy, all connected with St. Patricia's Hospital. I have read and thoroughly loved each and every one of Johan Theorin's crime-fiction novels, mainly because this writer is truly a master of atmosphere. His crimes are tightly plotted, his characters credible,and his sense of place is perfectly executed. In his newest novel, The Asylum, that lovely gothic, creepy atmosphere is there -- but to be quite honest, I'd have to say that it's my least favorite work by this author. It starts out with all the right elements: a mental hospital that also houses the criminally insane as well as an experimental preschool for children whose family members are patients there, a young man looking to reconnect with a piece of his past, and a sense of dread that fills the reader with instant tension that rarely lets up. Each character has a role to play and most of them are very well developed. But by the time I finished, I was actually disappointed because the story became predictable and frankly, highly implausible toward the end and without even having to read it I knew exactly what was going to happen. I did finish, but it only confirmed what I'd guessed. Arrgh! One of my favorite authors tries something new, call it an atmospheric thriller if you will, and it just didn't work for me. However, the getting there was the best part -- my stomach was tied in knots for much of the reading time from the suspense, especially Jan's attempts to get into the hospital -- up until the last few chapters which were a complete letdown -- too pat, not realistic and frankly, not befitting the quality of this author's other work. I wish I could be more upbeat about this book, but I always call things the way I see them. However, to be very fair, there are several good reviews of this novel with high star ratings, so it's my pickiness at work here I'm sure. I'd still definitely recommend it, especially to readers who enjoy awesome Gothic settings and the feeling of dread running through their veins while reading.

Read and reviewed for Random House UKA wonderful read populated with an assortment of mad men and women, loners, plotters, secret-hiders and manipulators. And those are just the characters outside of the asylum. Jan Hauger starts his new job at the nursery side of St Patricia's Hospital aka St Psychos as a nursery teacher. The kids love him and he seems very fond of them, but like most of the adult characters in the book he carries a dark secret. A sally port is used to relay the children of the nursery back and forth underground from nursery to asylum where they spend time with their parents who are inmates. The asylum is secured with cameras, alarms and security guards who prevent the inmates escaping, but our protagonist is desperate to get in, not out. Descriptions of the dark corridors and underground rooms of the asylum are surreal and malevolvent. The characters Jan meets all have their own agendas to help or inhibit him and no-one is quite what they seem. As the story unfolds, we by turns feel sorrow, horror and empathy for Jan. His terrible past crime is almost justified and as past and present collide, another terrible deed looks set to take place. It's not a case of all's well that ends well either as the reader is taken on dark and dangerous journey into the mind of a madman and his devoted side-kick.Definitely a book I recommend for a thrilling read and I will certainly be looking for more by this author.

I was initially reluctant to read The Asylum, and for a time my progress was a little tentative, as the subject matter involves children and a child carer of suspect character and with a troubled past. Given the story is told from the main character's point of view, albeit in the third person, there is an unsettling feeling in having such access to his train of thought, his mindset. But if you stick with it, this slow moving psychological thriller will not disappoint, providing you don't mind a story that doesn't really allow you to side with, or feel sympathy for the main character, indeed any character, for fear that your sympathies might be ill-placed. Thus an unease stays with you throughout.In the story Jan, the main character, takes a job as a child carer in a day care center attached to a psychiatric hospital. The children in this day care center are the offspring of some of the inmates of the hospital, and they are allowed in on regular visits to their parents via a connecting passageway. Supposedly housed in the hospital is a woman from Jan's past whom he hopes to make contact with again. Indeed its his reason for applying for this particular post. Jan's past is revealed piece by piece, including his previous association with this woman, his previous employment in another pre-school and a particular experience that left an obvious mark on him. There are others of course held in the hospital, include a child killer, with whom another working in the day care center has contact. The plot thickens! The story's psychological aspect, the tension, the uncertainty, all are its strongest points, and despite some unlikely circumstances, the slow pace, and an ending that is not quite the equal of the rest of the book, this book is still worth your attention. That being said, it is not quite on a par with the author's best.

It takes a long time to get there, but the two twists at the end are almost worth it if you have the patience.A long trek through increasing tension.It was interesting to read about Sweden written by a Swede. The subtle differences. The translation only jarred once - which is pretty good going really.I felt the descriptions with the children were too many and not particularly real.There are three strands to the story, all from different times in the Jan's life. You know that they will come together to make sense, and they do.Whether the entire book hangs together is debatable. I'm not entirely sure it lives up to the blurb on the front that amounts to this author being better than Steig Larssen.

This novel is narrated from the point of view of Jan, a young man who is a child care worker. He is seeking employment at a nursery school which is part of a mental institution in which are housed some of Sweden's most violent insane criminals. While the nursery school is not located on the grounds of the institution, it is connected to the institution by an underground tunnel leading to a basement with an elevator up into the premises of the institution. The nursery school/day care is attended by children of the inmates, and they are brought to visit their parents through this tunnel. From the beginning, we can see that Jan is a competent and caring caregiver. However, from the beginning we can also see that there are some questionable events in his past. We know he is interested in the job at the nursery because of his obsession with a singer who is reportedly an inmate at the institution. We also know that there was an incident in his past when a child under his care went missing. As he begins work, we also learn that some of his coworkers have hidden reasons of their own for working at the nursery school. This was an interesting read, and well-written, but I wouldn't call it top-notch Scandi-crime. It was competently plotted, although perhaps a little long, and internally cohesive (it all made sense in the end). It just wasn't compelling.

Well written, creepy and unsettling. Well worth a read.