Asa Larsson is a Swedish crime writer who before becoming an author, was previously a tax attorney like her heroine Rebecka Martinsson.  The food, the cold, the landscape and the sometimes strange ways of the inhabitants are as much a part of these books as the mystery to be solved.  Her latest book is "The Second Deadly Sin" and is the fifth in the series.  Oprah Winfrey placed this series of books in her "Top Ten Mysteries Every Woman Should Read List".
From the first scene, where a bear is attacking a helpless dog which leads to the bones of a man found inside another bear and then to the murder of  a sleeping woman and the disappearance of her young grandson, the story is off and running.  Rebecka is pushed off the case by a rival, but this allows her the time to ponder some coincidences and investigate a pattern that she sees emerging.  The chapters alternate between the current murder investigation and a murder that took place a century ago with ties to the present day murders.  And of course her friend and policewoman Anna-Marie Mella is present to help solve the crimes.  You enjoy the characters in this series so much, you don't want to leave them. However if you are a dog lover, you should have a box of tissues right beside you.