Publisher Description
In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train.
Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
To Inspector Alex Recht of the Stockholm police, this looks like a classic custody row. But none of the evidence adds up and young Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman is convinced the case is far more complex than her boss is prepared to admit.
So when the missing child is found dead in the far north of Sweden, with the word UNWANTED scribbled on her forehead, the rule book is finally thrown out of the window.
Now on the trail of a ruthless murderer with a terrifying agenda, will Alex and Fredrika manage to put aside their differences and work together to find the killer, before it's too late?
A true Scandinavian page-turner, Unwanted is packed with suspense, authentic police procedure and psychological depth
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Superior prose, plotting, and characterization lift this procedural set in Stockholm, the first in a series. When Sara Sebastiansson steps off a train to Gothenburg for a moment at an intermediate station, she leaves her six-year-old daughter, Lilian, asleep in a coach. A stranger's request to help with a sick pet ensures that Sara fails to reboard in time. Despite the conductor keeping an eye on Lilian for most of the trip to the next stop, the little girl is nowhere to be found on arrival there. Lilian's father, suspected of physically abusing her mother, is an obvious suspect, especially given conflicting stories about his whereabouts. Frederika Bergman, a police investigator who's less than comfortable interacting with people, and her colleagues soon realize they're dealing with a twisted monster whose motives are as obscure as his methods are horrific. Readers will look forward to spending more time in the company of the intriguing Bergman.