Paradise (2000)

Scandinavian crime writer Liza Marklund has created a strong but touchingly vulnerable heroine in the form of the indefatigable tabloid reporter Annika Bengtzon who starts this book, Marklund’s third although the second chronologically, as a copy editor on the night shift.
When her senior male colleagues relegate her to fielding random phone calls, Annika is plunged into an intriguing story about Paradise, an organisation that can eradicate people’s pasts, making them impossible to trace.
But is Paradise genuine or a money making scam, fleecing the social services? A refugee Annika sends to them is subsequently murdered by the Yugoslavian mafia and with the help of a civil servant and a disenchanted former Paradise client [Mia Eriksson, based on a real person whose story Marklund told in the 1995 non-fiction novel Buried Alive] she exposes the group and its founder.
But in her efforts to assist a woman on the run, she has attracted the attention of a remorseless Mafia assassin, who is convinced she knows the whereabouts of a truckload of smuggled cigarettes – now a more profitable contraband than even cocaine.
Amidst strains of romance, personal tragedy and political connivance, the bodies pile up, tension mounts and Annika’s life – and the story – takes several unexpected twists. It’s not surprising Liza Marklund became the second Swedish author to reach the number one spot on the New York Times best seller list – she certainly delivers the goods. ( )

I read my first Liza Marklund book last year and quite enjoyed it.

Reporter Annika Bengtson returns in Vanished. I hadn't read the books in between and found Annika in a different state of mind and place. She's at the newspaper, but is a copy editor, not out in the field. She lives in a stark apartment in a condemned building, simply existing, trying to deal with numerous tragedies in her personal life. But while editing a story on a recent double murder on the waterfront one night, a random call is routed to her desk and she finds herself immediately intrigued. Rebecka claims to be able to erase a person's past and set them up with a new identity and life. Annika's boss gives her the go ahead to pursue the story - he's happy to see her excited about something again. But The Paradise Foundation may not be everything Rebeckah claims. And when she discovers that the waterfront murders and the Foundation may have a connection, Annika is drawn in....

This was a very different Annika for me. At times I saw the strong, fearless reporter, at other times she was a puddle on the floor. I understood her grief, but the neediness shown at a certain juncture is well - obsessive. I had a hard time accepting that she could swing so far from one side to the other in such a short time.

I found the idea of The Paradise Foundation fascinating. Office politics and ethics, Eastern Bloc Mafia, marriage, happiness and the Swedish social assistance program are also stirred into the plot of Vanished. There was a bit of proselytizing near the end that I did find myself skipping over. It was only as I read the end notes, that I discovered Marklund's basis for this book. While working as a night reporter on a Swedish newspaper, Marklund really did receive a call about a foundation exactly as described and ended up investigating it. I wonder how much of Liza Marklund is part of Annika?

The pacing is a bit slower, with lots of personal story this time. Marklund ends the book with a good twist - identifying the author of small diatribes scattered throughout the book - one I did not see coming. All in all a good read. I'm intrigued by this character and will definitely read another in this series. ( )