Missing, by Karin Alvtegen
By Peter on Jan 25, 2008 in Crime Books, Swedish crime book
Missing grabs the reader from the first page, and doesn’t let go until the gruesome end. This fabulous thriller won Best Scandinavian Crime Novel (previous winners include Peter Hoeg’s Miss Smilla and Henning Mankell’s Faceless Killers) and Silverpocket Awards in 2002. With Missing Karin Alvtegen has enjoyed massive success all over Europe.
Sibylla Forstenström is the daughter of a rich but insensitive merchant and his wife.
After a depression and an unwanted pregnancy she flees as an 18 year old girl from her family and the institution where she is kept. Now Sybilla Forsenstrom doesn’t exist. For fifteen years she has been excluded from society and, as one of the homeless in Stockholm, she takes each day as it comes, keeping all her possessions in her backpack – apart from a knife and salami. She is always well-dressed and displays impeccable manners. One night, in The Grand Hotel, she charms a susceptible businessman into paying for her dinner and room. His dead body is discovered the following morning and Sybilla becomes the prime suspect. When a second person is killed in similar circumstances, she becomes the most wanted person in Sweden.
Fearing that her homeless state means guilty, she eludes the cops with some help and begins investigating the homicides. Her inquiries are entertaining as she sees the clues differently than the cops. And she displays considerable smartness and courage, as well as an uncanny ability to think and act outside the box – sometimes far outside it.
Missing is not only an excellent crime novel and a wonderful, very exciting book. It is also an exploration into the terrifying isolation of a woman who has rejected the values of her background and the intimacy of her family. Karin Alvtegen is a sensitive writer with considerable empathy, at the same time as she uses stunningly direct prose in a plot of tremendous pace and nerve. Missing Missing would be a mistake on your part!
Other great books by Karin Alvtegen include Betrayal
and Shame
.
– Peter
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