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Mystery of Raspberry Hill (The) by Eva Frantz

Title: Mystery of Raspberry Hill (The)

Author: Eva Frantz

Translator: A. A. Prime

Illustrator:

Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books

Date Published: 2022

Format: Paperback

Genre:

Book Category: Fiction

Age Range: 12+

Original Title: First published in Swedish as Hallonbacken, Schildts & Sonderstroms, Helsinki, Finland, 2018

Country of Origin: Finland

Mystery of Raspberry Hill (The)

by Eva Frantz
Age Range: 12+

Narrated in the first person by twelve-year-old Stina, who lives with her mother Märta, a widow, (her father died in the war), and her five siblings in a district of Helsinki. Märta works hard to keep her family and money is scarce. Narrator Stina tells us on the very first page that she’ll be dead soon. “I cough and I cough, sometimes so hard that the bedsheets get all bloody.” She has consumption (tuberculosis) and is getting weaker and weaker every day. When the family learn through their family doctor that Stina has been offered the opportunity to take part in a special medical trial at Raspberry Hill Sanitorium they know it is their only chance of a cure for a child from a poor family.

Set deep in the countryside the Sanitorium is a beautiful and imposing building. Most of the staff appear to be friendly but it does seem unusually quiet and Stina finds herself the only one in her ward although she is told more patients will arrive. Stina’s course of treatment, under Doctor Hagman, who is in charge of the trial, begins, and with a good diet and plenty of fresh air, she begins to improve.

Stina is a bright and savvy girl and she gradually realises that something is not quite right at Raspberry Hill. Her frequent letters written to her family go unanswered. Then there is the mysterious young boy Ruben who appears in her dormitory one evening telling her he lives in another ward. However, when Stina explores the empty eerie corridors, she never comes across another patient and discovers his ward doesn’t exist. Staff are also secretive about a major fire that destroyed the East Wing. When wandering the grounds she encounters a strange, old woman who, finding out Stina is from a poor family, gives her a warning and urges her to run away.

Stina believes the sanatorium is hiding a dark secret and as her own health starts to decline, becomes determined to solve the mystery of Raspberry Hill, but as she edges closer to the truth, she finds herself in terrible danger.

Finnish writer Eve Frantz is an award-winning author of adult crime fiction and The Mystery of Raspberry Hill was her debut novel for young readers winning a prestigious prize in Finland. A. A. Prime’s excellent translation from Swedish has captured all the nuances along with the narrator’s voice.

Set in the early 1920s when tuberculosis was rife and there was no known cure, this gothic thriller is, in some ways, darkly disturbing, but Frantz’ writing style is pacy and has a light touch, which prevents it from sinking into morbidity. Although it deals with some serious issues such as death and the sinister overtones of medical experimentation, not to mention a supernatural element, the novel’s ultimate message is one of hope and the reader will never lose sight of Stina’s determination to survive.

A terrifically absorbing read that once started is hard to put down. Another excellent read is Frantz’s second book The Secrets Helmersbruk Manor (2023).

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