The Disappeared

A young woman is found carved up and buried in a forest glade in a Stockholm suburb. She is identified as Rebecca Trolle, a student who went missing two years earlier. While Fredrika Bergman and her team try to find out why Rebecca met such a violent demise, more bodies are found in the same area. Fredrika Bergman is inevitably drawn into the case, but it becomes much more complicated when her lover’s name is mentioned in the investigation. The investigative unit are nearing a resolution, but the killer is still at large. One question remains: whose body will turn up next when the killer returns to the grave in the forest? (Goodreads)

So, this book was recommended to me and lended to me by my brother. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t read a book that he suggests because our tastes vary quite drastically, but on this occasion I had to read it after looking at the summary. And Oh my… Thank goodness I did!

I don’t even know where too start – I have to say that, Kristina, You have blown. My. Mind! There were so many elements of this book that I love. Firstly, the characters. Every single one has a story, a past – something that is very personal and happens in everyday life – something relatable. I felt like I could sympathise with every single character in this book, including the suspects within the murder case. There were some characters I felt instantly sorry for and felt the need to hug them whilst there were others who I was deeply suspicious about and I needed time before I decided that they had nothing to do with the case.

The murder case itself was complex, but not so complex that you couldn’t follow it. I have always wondered what it would be like to work on something like that and I always thought that it would be a fairly interesting job. The complexity of the case left me on my toes and guessing right until the very end! There were so many twists and turns that I literally couldn’t put the book down. Even after the culprit was revealed, there was another twist that blew me away all over again.

Despite the fact that the story mainly focuses on the case and the detectives and suspects involved, there were actually two cases being shown – The initial inquiry into the murder of Rebecca Trolle and the inquiry by internal affairs into the conduct of the acting investigators. It becomes clear later on why internal affairs had to get involved and it made the story all that more interesting!

I rate this book 5/5 stars and I am definitely going to check out some more of her work!