The motif of water persists throughout the novel, from the opening scene (in which water trickles through the walls of the apartment building from Camilla’s overflowing bathroom) onwards. Camilla and Toya are both found dead with the shower running, while Barbara is filling a glass with water just before she dies. The climax of Harry’s confrontation with Wilhelm is marked by pouring rain, and Harry has a key revelation about the case while watching Oleg swim in a large public pool. Even the bar where Harry sometimes drinks and meets with other characters is named the Underwater pub. The motif undermines water’s typical associations with cleansing, purification, and quenching. Water is repeatedly mingled with blood and death, reinforcing the imagery of corrupted purity and the impossibility of finding true cleansing in a world saturated with violence. When Wilhelm explains how he hid Lisbeth’s body inside the waterbed, he comments that “I put her back in a womb. That was the start of her rebirth” (739). Wilhelm conflates death and birth, believing he is giving Lisbeth the chance to begin anew in a purified state. Water becomes a tool of death rather than life; Harry, for example, leads Sivertsen to believe he has poisoned a glass of water that the latter is drinking.

The motif of water is heightened because of the sweltering summertime setting and because of Harry’s struggles with alcohol. In the hot, parched conditions, seeking water to drink or swim in becomes tantalizing, and yet it can be a false allure. Harry’s desire to consume alcohol is actually an insatiable desire. Wilhelm points to the deceptive nature of thirst when he comments that “love is a thirst, Harry. It needs to drink. Water. A thirst for revenge” (728). Rather than quenching or cleansing, water reveals the dangers of uncontrolled desire, whether for alcohol or dominance over another person.