När allt är över review

However, there is no body! There is a seemingly obvious suspect though. Jennifer’s husband Tom is known to the Department and to Olivia in particular as she was involved with a charge of domestic violence that was brought by Jennifer against him years before, the outcome of which meant he got off but Jennifer left him. Ever since then Jennifer has been under a kind of covert witness protection scheme  but she has had to keep moving as he always seems to establish her whereabouts.

Olivia becomes obsessed with protecting the child and is only too aware that unless she can pin the crime on Tom, and with her mother gone, Alice will be put under Tom’s care as he is her next of kin, and this would be something akin to a catastrophe for Olivia. Olivia involves Alice’s aunt Josefin who lives in Italy, encouraging her to return to Sweden and to seek joint custody of Alice at the very least.       

As well as this main plot, there is also a kind of parallel plot involving gangs and drugs in the suburb of Bocksta and in particular one gang member and thug named Dilman and his girlfriend Aisha. Olivia was originally involved in this case before handing it over to her colleague Ebba. Now she continues to keep an eye on this too from afar as she also fears for Aisha at the hands of a violent partner.

När allt är över is not Charlotte Al-Khalili’s debut crime novel but it is the first in a series featuring Olivia Oldenheim. The second instalment will be appearing in spring 2025.

This is not a conventional crime novel, as there is little in the way of police, crime scenes and investigations. The whole story is seen through the eyes of Olivia and her colleagues in the Department of Public Prosecutions. This perspective is perhaps not surprising given that this is Al-Khalili’s own field of expertise.

It does however make the novel somewhat different and for this reviewer it makes it seem particularly ‘Swedish’. ‘Swedish’ in the sense that there is a near-obsession with very precise job titles, the strict protocols around how every detail in the case is handled and the juxtaposition of one job and function versus another, and this is described in a very Swedish, bureaucratic, no-grey-areas sort of way.

However, Olivia is a uniquely interesting heroine and any sequel is eagerly awaited.