Kristina Ohlsson's The Disappeared has one of the most disturbing openings to a mystery novel in recent memory, as an unnamed woman watches an old film clip of another woman being hacked to death. Is it fake, or a real snuff film?
The story doesn't ease up, either, as Stockholm police find dismembered body parts, soon identified as belonging to Rebecca Trolle, a literature student who went missing two years earlier. Inspector Alex Recht and his team, including analyst Fredrika Bergman, discover that at the time of Rebecca's death, she was obsessed with the topic of her dissertation--a former beloved children's book author who went to prison for murdering her ex-lover. Rebecca was convinced of the author's innocence and may have stumbled upon information proving her theory.
While working the difficult case, the investigative team is also grappling with personal conflicts. Alex, still mourning his dead wife, finds himself attracted to Rebecca's grieving mother. Fredrika, who has just given birth, suspects her partner, Spencer, a literature professor, is hiding something when he suddenly takes paternity leave. She becomes more alarmed when his name surfaces in relation to Rebecca.
The Disappeared is the third novel in a series (following Unwanted and Silenced); though some recurring characters' stories aren't fully explained here, the protagonists are well defined and the enthralling case stands on its own. The complex plot keeps readers in the dark with a sense of dread, but the unsettling aspects are balanced by the investigators' persistence in the face of depravity, their determination not to let humanity disappear. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, crime-fiction editor, The Edit Ninja