Anders Roslund is
the master of the Scandi Noir genre. He charts the darkest, most evil crannies
of human thought and behaviour.
Two four-year old girls are reported missing on the same day in Stockholm. Detective Inspector Ewert Grens, himself no stranger to the grief of losing a loved one, finds himself drawn unofficially into discovering the truth of what happened to them five years later.
Grens, aged sixty five, physically unwell and living on coffee and cinnamon buns, is gripped by the case after a chance meeting in a cemetery. That fateful meeting leads to the uncovering of an abhorrent world-wide paedophile ring. With the help of Billy and Birte, two brilliant, yet so different, computer specialists, they discover that the only way to bring this evil ring to justice is to engage the help of the best infiltrator Grens knows, Piet Hoffman, who must crack the group from the inside while they work from the outside. Will Piet succeed? Are the girls still alive?
Anders Roslund captures your attention from the very beginning and does not allow the brutal tension to falter until the spectacular conclusion. I had to let out a breath that I did not know I was holding in at the end!
Excellent translation by Elizabeth Clark Wessel.
5 Stars
Reviewed by Liz.
