A Grain of Truth

by Christian Unge

Stressed-out, sleep-deprived and pill-popping Dr Tekla Berg is as unusual a central character as you will find" Irish Independent

"Tekla is a terrific character" Literary Review

"Tekla Berg is a brilliant character" Susi Holliday

"A memorable protagonist" Imran Mahmood

"Tekla is a scalpel-sharp character" Jens Lapidus


A woman is found wandering the corridors of Nobel Hospital in Stockholm, accompanied by a young boy. She appears to be looking for a man who was involved in a car accident earlier that day.

Meanwhile, in one of the emergency rooms, Tekla Berg is fighting to save a patient who was seriously injured in the same incident. The resulting chaos goes beyond anything anyone could have predicted, leaving hospital staff, police and everyone else involved equally shocked and perplexed.

Hospital Director Monica Carlsson has stepped up her attempts to privatise her fiefdom with the launch of an exclusive patient hotel, a controversial liver transplant unit and the prestigious recruitment of star surgeon Klas Nyström. It soon becomes obvious that Klas has his own agenda and is working to undermine Tekla at every turn.

But Tekla is too distracted to meet this challenge head she has become obsessed with the mystery surrounding the woman and her young charge - for the boy's identity remains unknown and no trace of his past can be found.

Reviews for Hell and High Water

"A gripping crime novel . . . fast-moving and packed with convincing detail and memorable characters" Literary Review

"As gripping as it could be . . . An authentic and seriously exciting debut" I rish Independent

Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding and Sarah de Senarclens

432 pages, Hardcover

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[Cara Swain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was bought this book as a gift because I am a doctor, who loves crime stories and has lived in Stockholm. I’m not certain I would have chosen it myself, but it was an entertaining read.
Most of the medical information was accurate (the author is a doctor after all), but a little far-fetched at times! The plot is told from different viewpoints, which was enjoyable and kept me guessing, although I felt the ending was a little weak and perhaps too neat. I’m left with questions, but no desire to look out for a sequel.
This is the second book by this author, with characters and their traits introduced in the first. As such, this book doesn’t really stand alone, and I have many questions about the strange behaviour and actions of the protagonist. There were also several subplots that were either under-developed in this book or might track as a thread between books. I personally felt that some of the chapters were completely redundant and did not add to the overall crime-thriller plot. For me, it would have been more interesting to learn more about the motives and crime activities.
Originally written in Swedish, the English translation is very good, but the retained use of Swedish sentence formation was odd for a native English reader. Also, the use of last/family names for many of the characters is a little off-putting - I don’t understand why the main character is referred to as Tekla, but all others by their surname?!

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in this series set in Stockholm featuring main character Dr Tekla Berg who works in Accident & Emergency. I like Tekla and found this a compelling read apart from the short chapters at the start dealing with a young woman and a child wandering around the hospital. However it all made sense when the author starting telling the events which had led up to this. There's a lot of medical descriptions but this is a solid thriller. My only minor reservation is the author's inconsistency with names as sometimes he refers to characters by their forename and sometimes by their surname so I was not always sure whether he was writing about the same character or someone else.

I understand that the author has written more books in this series but that they have not been translated into English yet.

[Starla · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a long read however did enjoy this book

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good read. Took me a minute to get started, but then I couldn't put it down. Tekla is an amazing character.