Scandinavian suspense fiction has been a real find for American readers over the past decade or so. Now there’s another new name in the game --- Asa Avdic, whose debut novel, THE DYING GAME, manages to feel both classic and futuristic at the same time.

The year is 2037, and the place is Sweden, which is part of a totalitarian state called the Union of Friendship. Its citizens live in an isolated, bureaucratic society, subject to censorship, oppression and the whims of the state. At the center of the novel is Anna Francis, a dedicated bureaucrat whose workaholic tendencies landed her a series of accolades and promotions --- until one of them, a posting in the remote refugee camps of Kyzyl Kum, resulted in some unspecified disaster, and Anna’s former celebrity doused in ignominy and notoriety.

"THE DYING GAME is an intriguing mix of the old and the new. Its isolated setting and limited cast of characters are reminiscent of classic 'locked room' mysteries by writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and P.D. James."

At the novel’s opening, however, Anna is being given an intriguing opportunity. She has been offered a short-term position as, essentially, a spy. She will be placed on a remote island in the archipelago off Stockholm, along with five other people, each of whom is being considered for a top intelligence position. Anna is, with the help of a doctor, supposed to fake her own death (positioned to look like a strangulation) and then, using the island house’s complicated surveillance system, observe how the other candidates react to her “murder.” Who exhibits leadership skills? Who cracks under pressure?

Faced with the prospect of significant monetary gain and the opportunity to have a more normal life with her nine-year-old daughter (who’s increasingly been cared for by Anna’s mother during her lengthy work-related absences), Anna leaps at the assignment. She’s never been one to shy away from a challenge, after all.

But very soon things start to go awry. Anna unexpectedly knows one of the other competitors, for one thing, and her staged “murder” does not go exactly to plan, either. And then, in the confusion that follows, people start disappearing, and eventually someone winds up dead, for real this time.

THE DYING GAME is an intriguing mix of the old and the new. Its isolated setting and limited cast of characters are reminiscent of classic “locked room” mysteries by writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James. But its near-future setting and Orwellian setup make it feel almost chillingly forward-looking as well. Perhaps befitting its setting, much of what we know about Anna and the other characters (several of whose points of view we glimpse during the denouement) requires reading between the lines of the narrative’s unemotional, almost detached tone.

Unlike the locked room mysteries of yore, THE DYING GAME does not tie up every loose end with a tidy bow. Instead, the conclusion, while satisfying from a mystery perspective, leaves open several moral questions and encourages readers to continue musing about potential motivations.