Invisible Murder (Nina Borg Mysteries) (original 2010; edition 2012)

If I were to describe the perfect book, this one would fill the bill.

The writing style of these two Danish authors is effortless, the flow is smooth, quickly shifting from one character to another, the plot is original and well-executed throughout, and the characters have depth and believability.

In Russia, two boys discover an item in an old, abandoned hospital that they bring to the black market.

Sandor, brother to one of the boys, is a student, desperately trying to escape his impoverished roots and make something of himself.

Nina Borg, the central character in this story, is a nurse who is called to check on a group of sick Hungarian Gypsies.

These characters and their stories are expertly woven together and the result is a masterpiece.

I loved this. ( )

Several different story lines combine to create an explosive ending in Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbol.

Red Cross nurse Nina Borg works at a refugee facility in Denmark , but also secretly works for an underground network that assists Romas and others who have found their way to Denmark.

Jorgen Skou-Larsen is a retired Danish building inspector , married to a woman some twenty years his junior named Helle. Jorgen is increasing concerned with his naive younger wife as she makes irresponsible financial choices.He is also troubled by the mosque being built close to his home.

Sandor Horvath is a hardworking law student in Budapest, concerned about his upcoming law exams.

Meanwhile, Hungarian Romas Tamas and his friend Pitkin scavenge for items to sell to survive. In so doing, they stumble upon an object both valuable and very dangerous, which they intend to sell on the global black market.

An intriguing read, that includes several topical issues, such as Islam in Denmark, the plight and challenge of the poor and homeless Roma people in Europe and Denmark in particular, combine to make this an intelligent and absorbing thriller.

4.2 stars. ( )

Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbøl is the second book in her Nina Borg series, the first being The Boy in the Suitcase. As with the first Nina Borg book, I was captivated by Kaaberbøl’s writing style and the depth and breath of her characters as well as her plotlines. I was skeptical that this book could be as well written as The Boy in the Suitcae and I am pleased to announce Kaaberbøl proved me wrong. Invisible Murder is brilliant; I am officially a fan of the series and anxiously await Kaaberbøl’s next book. I highly recommend Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbøl. ( )

Invisible Murder, co-written by Danish authors Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, features Red Cross nurse Nina Borg, a character the pair introduced in their highly acclaimed 2011 debut novel. That novel, The Boy in the Suitcase, in addition to being a New York Times bestseller, was named best Danish Thriller of the Year, a New York Times Notable Crime Book, and was nominated for several other literary awards.

In addition to the work she does for the Red Cross at a large refugee camp, Nina is still tied into “the Network,” a group of doctors, nurses, and advocates that provides off-the-grid care and help to those in the country illegally. Many of the people she sees through her “Network” are Eastern Europe gypsies forced to endure atrocious living conditions as they try to stay under the radar of Copenhagen authorities long enough to scam the city’s citizens out of some of their money.

Nina’s husband, a North Sea geologist, approves of her clandestine services, asking only that she not take that risk while he is away working on an offshore oil rig (the couple have a teen daughter and young son). Nina, however, because she finds it impossible to ignore the plight of sick children, decides to make one quick visit, despite her husband’s absence, to the neglected Copenhagen garage within which several Hungarian gypsy families have taken shelter. Bad mistake.

Not only is Nina unable to identify the illness that is causing the children to vomit and dehydrate to the point of delirium, she develops the same symptoms and is hospitalized in critical condition. In the meantime, Copenhagen security personnel are frantically searching for the young man Nina was originally called about, fearing that he has smuggled the makings of a deadly terrorist weapon into Denmark.

The plot of Invisible Murder is a complicated one in which the authors give equal weight to what is happening simultaneously in the lives of four very different sets of characters. The story alternates between Nina’s efforts to help the gypsy children; the frantic attempts of Danish Security to crack what they believe is a terrorist network; a young man’s search for his younger brother, who happens to be the same boy Danish authorities are so desperate to find; and the everyday life of an ailing old man and his younger wife.

Although Invisible Murder might require a little patience on the part of the reader, it will reward those who do not become frustrated enough to stop reading. Admittedly, because it can be difficult to keep track of some of the Scandinavian character and place names (a common problem encountered by readers of translated novels), keeping a descriptive list of characters as they are introduced will make it easier to keep up with the novel’s many interrelated plot twists. You will be happy that you stayed with Invisible Murder to the end.

Rated at: 4.0 ( )

As in The Boy in the Suitcase, the story involves multiple points of view and locations. The authors have enough respect for their readers to assume they will be able to put the pieces together.

Invisible Murder begins when a boy in Hungary finds something in an old, abandoned hospital that he thinks he can sell; his half-brother is a law student in Budapest facing a major exam, a test of his ability to blend into Hungarian society. Each is in his own way desperate because they are Roma (or Gypsy), an ethnic group that is badly discriminated against. The boy, whose family needs money for the most basic things, arranges a sale with someone in Copenhagen, but once there, he gets sick before he can hand off the mysterious package. His older half-brother gives a brilliant oral exam, but his professor fails him anyway, because . . . well, we can’t have Roma earning law degrees. He follows his brother to Copenhagen and is caught up in the mess that ensues.

So is Nina Borg, though she knows helping a group of immigrants will put her marriage to the test again. She is under strict instructions to think of her children first, but she has a hard time turning away when nobody else is available to help. When she goes to a garage, she finds a large group of undocumented Roma, many of them suffering from a mysterious illness. In both books in this series, the authors show how inequality and desperation don’t observe political borders. Victims are not all angelic, and bad guys are not without their reasons. As in the previous book, the motive behind the crime is surprising. I am very much looking forward to reading the third book in the series, this one partly set in the Ukraine. (The authors are considering taking their research somewhere warmer, perhaps with nice beaches, next time.)