The Chosen
A Novel
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In her phenomenal #1 international bestseller—fifth in the critically acclaimed and award-winning Fredrika Bergman series—“one of Sweden’s best younger writers” (Los Angeles Times Magazine) delivers a tense, atmospheric mystery featuring an enigmatic killer rooted in folklore.
On a cold winter’s day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later, two Jewish boys go missing on their way to tennis practice, and an unexpected blizzard destroys any trace of the perpetrator.
Investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman and police superintendent Alex Recht face their toughest challenge ever on the hunt for a killer as merciless as he is effective. As they struggle to pin down a lead, someone or something called the Paper Boy—a mysterious old Israeli legend of a nighttime killer—keeps popping up in the police investigation. But who was the Paper Boy really? And how could he have resurfaced in Stockholm? It is up to Fredrika to track down the elusive murderer before he claims his next victim.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Someone is targeting Stockholm's Jewish community in Ohlsson's taut fifth Fredrika Bergman novel (after 2014's The Disappeared). The first to die is a preschool teacher, gunned down in front of horrified parents and children outside the Solomon School. Bergman, back helping the police after an absence, joins Det. Chief Insp. Alex Recht on a newly formed special task force, which requires them to work alongside a former colleague, who was fired for an act of violence and now heads security for the Solomon Community. Right after the crime, two 10-year-old Jewish boys disappear on their way to a tennis lesson, their bodies turning up displayed in a disturbing manner in the snowy woods. The killer left paper bags with faces drawn over the boys' heads, bringing to mind an old Israeli myth of the child-snatching Paper Boy. It's one of many tenuous leads that point to Israel, and Fredrika soon heads there to try and sort out what's become a dangerous mess in Sweden. Ohlsson's characters are compelling, and the tragedies she traces finely wrought.
