The Åre Murders is a five-episode limited series for Netflix based on a popular series of books by Swedish author Viveca Sten. (The Sandhamm Murders, which as of 2024 is ten seasons deep on Swedish television, is based on another Sten book series. Sensing a pattern?) In Åre, Carla Sehn stars as Hanna Ahlander, a cop from Stockholm who’s aiming for a little personal R&R in a northern tourist town full of skiing and other outdoor activities. But it’s trouble she finds instead, as Hanna joins local detective Daniel Lindskog (Kardo Razzazi) in the search for a teenage girl who has suddenly gone missing. There is another pattern we’re sensing here, and it’s how everybody Hanna meets – from her housekeeper, to Amanda’s friends and teachers, and even to the searching townspeople – could be a suspect. The Nordic Noir genre loves to pile up that suspicion like so much blowing snow.
Opening Shot: The picaresque ski resort town of Åre at night, as it rests along a mountainside nestled against Lake Åresjӧn. At a teenage beer bash to celebrate Lucia, Sweden’s December festival of lights, Amanda (Freddie Moston-Jacob) calls her father for a ride home. No answer.
The Gist: Harald (Henrik Norlén) ignores his daughter’s call because he’s busy having sex in his car with his coworker Mira (Siham Shurafa). This was bound to be a problem, anyway – Mira thinks her husband knows – but Harald’s infidelity is sure to become a bigger issue, since that missed call on his phone was the last time anyone heard from Amanda.
The morning after the party, as the girl’s mother Lena (Sofia Ledarp) grows more concerned, Harald checks with Ebba (Frida Argento). Amanda left the party late, Ebba says. She doesn’t know where her friend went. But is the sullen look on her face just that of an indifferent teen, or is there more she isn’t telling? Increasingly frantic, Lena alerts local police to Amanda’s disappearance, and soon Detective Daniel Lindskog (Razzazi) is bringing in dogs and coordinating locals for a foot search cordon. Amanda was a sweet girl, everyone in town says. But she had bad taste in guys. Which is what puts Daniel onto his first suspect, Viktor (Linton Calmroth), a seasonal worker – and known angry drunk – who had been seen with Amanda.
For Hanna Ahlander (Sehn), an officer with the Stockholm police department’s domestic violence unit, her solo trip to Åre was supposed to offer calm. Enjoy her sister’s luxurious vacation home. Take a deserved leave of absence from the stresses of her work, and from the mess of a dirtbag boyfriend who cheated on her. But with Amanda’s disappearance everywhere on the local news, and Amber Alerts blowing up her phone, Hanna feels compelled to follow the search. She arranges for a temporary posting with Åre PD’s Birgitta Grip (Pia Johansson), introduces herself to Daniel, and joins the investigation into Amanda’s disappearance.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, Netflix’s own marketing for The Åre Murders places the series squarely in the Nordic Noir category, and the streamer’s got lots of other options to check that box. Like The Lørenskog Disappearance. Or The Chestnut Man. Or A Nearly Normal Family. And Carla Sehn was also in the Swedish Netflix comedy Anxious People, which like Åre was also based on a book.
Our Take: If the first episode of The Åre Murders feels a little brief – it certainly did to us at first – don’t worry: it’s actually a three-parter, as the limited series adapts Hidden in Snow and Hidden in Shadows, the first two titles in author Viveca Sten’s ongoing series of Åre novels. So the compartmentalization makes sense, and also helps goose the bingeability of this thing, since it tends to tumble together like a cohesive television movie. If there was ever a show that required Netflix’s insistent “play next episode now” feature, this is it.
What exactly happened to Amanda? And what was she, and seemingly her friends, hiding? The initial setup of Åre is intriguing, since it spends a lot of time establishing how Amanda’s dad is also concealing secrets, and perceiving everyone in town through a lingering camera lens, as if they just got done burying a body. Any of them could be part of Amanda’s disappearance; then again, none of them could be, too. Isn’t that just the way with these Scandinavian thriller-mysteries?
But if there’s another classic tenet to the Nordic Noir genre, it’s an investigator who harbors their own emotional damage, and we want to learn more about Hanna’s story, because the life she left behind in Stockholm seems full of broken pieces. Maybe she’ll put them back together again amid the scenic vistas of Åre, known as the Swedish Alps. Then again, maybe her leave of absence becomes an avalanche.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: As the search for Amanda takes over the resort town of Åre, an attendant at the ski hill switches on the lift. But he makes a startling discovery as the gondolas start to circulate.
Sleeper Star: Kardo Razzazi lends an easy naturalism to the role of Åre detective Daniel Lindskog – we’re interested in seeing more of how Daniel’s style works with big city police officer Hanna Ahlander.
Most Pilot-y Line: It’s no spoiler to say that Hanna will join the search for Amanda the second she gets the Amber Alert on her phone. Even her sister knows this. “Hanna, you’re in Åre to take a break. You shouldn’t get involved in anything like that right now.”
Our Call: Stream It! The Åre Murders features all the hallmarks of the Nordic Noir genre as it turns two differently-wired cops loose on the mystery of a teen’s disappearance. Throw in some fantastic location shots of Sweden’s mountainous north, and we’re all the way in on this investigation.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
