After the death of her father, Kerstin leaves her home and travels to a small place on the coast in northwest France. But at the boarding house, with its secret doors and its silent, shadowy figures, she is subjected to disturbances and terrifying threats. She finds herself in a dreamlike landscape of rugged cliffs, dark winter surf and deep caves. And when a young boy is found dead outside the limestone quarry, she is drawn into a series of mysterious events that unfold in the desolate place.

Tragedy Under Drifting Clouds is a strange, poetic mystery novel in the classic mould, enigmatic and suspenseful, uplifting and mournful, and written in Christiansen’s inimitably rich prose.