Missing (2000)

Sibylla Forsenström is 32 years old and has been homeless since she was 18. One of the tricks she uses when she wants a night’s sleep in a proper bed is to trick a businessman into paying for a hotel room for her. One night when she does this the man who paid for her room is murdered and the Police want to question Sibylla. When another body is found and the murder is also attributed to her she becomes a wanted woman all across Sweden and her usual haunts for keeping safe become unsuitable. Eventually she finds an unlikely friend and confidant who helps her to try and uncover who the real murderer might be.

I intended to read a few pages of this before going to sleep last night. I quite literally could not put it down and finished the whole thing in one sitting (thankfully it was a Friday night and I don’t work on Saturdays). Here is story telling at its absolute finest: I was hooked from page one of this simple and moving tale. It takes place over a short period of time which combined with the nature of the story and the fact that Sybilla features in all of the action depicted it has a very intense feel to it and I see from other reviews that I’m not the only one who read it in one sitting.

One of the things that struck me was that, unlike so many books these days, it didn’t delve deeply into every minute detail of Sybilla’s life and in fact left quite a few things up to the reader’s imagination. This is such a contrast from some of the detail-laden books the size of house bricks that I’ve read lately that I had almost forgotten that great stories can be told in less than 600 pages and that blood and gore aren’t necessary to create atmosphere.

Sibylla is a great character. She reminded me a little of Lisbeth in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy although given the vagaries of translation schedules I can’t work out which one would have been created first. The whole book is told from her point of view but alternates between present day events and the details of her childhood which explain how a girl born in a well to do family ends up homeless. It’s a rare character that can carry an entire book but Sibylla is interesting enough to do it and I was completely enthralled by both her present day troubles and the vignettes from her childhood. There aren’t really any other major characters but a couple of the minor players, including Sibylla’s hideous mother and the friend that helps her are both well drawn and quite memorable in their own right.

Missing is wonderfully sparse, genuinely exciting (I don’t stay up into the wee hours for just any old yarn) and quite thought provoking at the same time in the way it dealt with the issue of life’s outsiders. ( )

What do you do when you're accused of murder and all the evidence points to you as the sole suspect and you don't fit within the confines of what most people believe is normal societal behaviour? When you're Sibylla Forsenstrom you go on the run of course. Living on the streets of Stockholm, Sibylla occasional runs a scam to get a free night in a hotel from a lonely traveller as she does enjoy the luxury of a a good meal and a hot bath every now and then. When she wakes up with the police knocking on her hotel room door wanting to ask her some serious questions she decides it's time for a sharp exit. Managing to elude the police she finds out that the man who paid for her meal and room had been brutally murdered and his body mutilated and as she was the last person seen with him and her fingerprints were on his hotel keycard she is suspect no.1 in a list that has just one name on it.

As time passes and Sibylla manages to evade capture we get to learn of her transformation from upper-class Swedish teenager to a homeless woman that has been living on the streets for the last fifteen years and the possibility of guilt doesn't hang too far away as the body count rises and she still stays out of police clutches. While hiding out, Sibylla encounters an unlikely ally in the shape of 15 year-old Patrick who believes her pleas of innocence and then convinces her that they should try and find the real killer so she can be free from society's expectations once again.

The suspense mounts with every turn of a page and Sibylla is an engaging character. The book is only really let down with the rather abrupt ending which feels a little forced. Still a decent read though. ( )

Loved this book. Ms. Alvtegen has written my favorite genre book, a psychological mystery. I have read books by other Scandinavian mystery writers and find that they are just too violent and depressing. I am probably one of the few who did not enjoy Steig Larsson's Girl With The Dragon Tatoo, thankfullly this book is totally different. Being born into a Scandinavian family (Swedish mother, Finnish father), I found the characters to be true reflection of many Scandinavian attitudes & beliefs. I look forward to reading much more from this author! ( )

Really hated the abruptness of the ending. It was like Karin Alvtegen just stopped writing. I found that frustrating and it certainly shows in my review. Otherwise, a well written, at time poetic, account of two women finding a way to survive their circumstances. ( )

A marvelous mystery - I would have been very happy if it had won the Edgar! ( )