Lina Bengtsdotter

Charline (Charlie) hasn't been home in 19 years. She left a teenager and came back a police officer in Stockholm. She and her partner are assisting local police in their hunt for missing 17 year old Annabelle who disappeared one night walking home drunk from a party.

Investigation shows that Annabelle did not have a very happy home life and Charlie empathizes with that. Her home life was not extremely happy either. Both Charlie and Annabelle party hearty, but unfortunately, Charlie's actions get her suspended from the investigation into Annabelle's disappearance.

The characters in this book are bland, the plot is OK and the ending is disappointing. As an entree into Scandinavian Noir, For the Missing is OK. Not great, but certainly not horrible. There are better examples, however.… (more)

Dual review with Swedish first and then English!

SWEDISH REVIEW

Annabelle är en bok som från början fängslade mig och om jag hade inte arbetat dagen efter jag började läsa boken hade jag nog läst klart den i ett svep. Men så blev klockan lite väl mycket och jag fick gott vänta tills dagen efter, samt jobba, innan jag kunde plöja de ca 100 sidor jag hade kvar. Det var jobbigt att behöva vänta!

Boken är väldigt välskriven, spännande och medryckande. Ett kapitel till blev lätt till 50 sidor mer och jag fann mig själv verkligen gilla båda karaktärerna i boken samt berättelsen. Charlie är just den typen av karaktär jag gillar att följa, en skärp polis men med demoner som kommer att orsaka vissa problem för hennes under utredningens gång. Parallellt får vi även följa Annabelles dag, den ödesdigra dagen hon försvann. Men det är även ett till sidospår i boken, om två flickor och det dröjer till slutet innan man får reda på vad just den sidohandlingen har med huvudhandlingen att göra.

Slutet kändes lite oavslutat. Som om det kom lite hastigt på, och jag hade velat ha ett mer avslut på utredningen. Men det är nog det enda som jag kände lite besvikelse över att slutet inte riktigt levde upp till resten av bokens fantastiska nivå.

Jag vill avrunda med att säga att Annabelle en alldeles fantastiska bra kriminalare, en av de bästa jag läst i år och jag hoppas verkligen att få läsa fler böcker med Charlie, detta känns verkligen som en bra introduktion till en fantastisk series!

Tack Bokförlaget Forum for recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

Seventeen-year-old Annabelle disappears on a warm summer night from the small community of Gullspång, on the border between Västergötland and Värmland. Her parents are deeply worried, the local police are perplexed and Missing people are looking for her in vain.

Criminal Investigator Charlie Lager is sent there with a colleague. She is an investigator at the National Operational Department, a skilled police officer who, at work, has found the routines that her chaotic interior needs. She doesn't want to go, but ends up as always: following orders. It will be a journey back in time. She is forced to return to the place she left when she was fourteen, her past and a childhood she made her utmost to escape from. Once there the memories come alive. Of growing up where the choices are few and the dream of giving up is strong. She remembers her mother and the fear of becoming just like her...

While trying to find out the truth about who Annabelle was and what happened to her, Charlie makes scary discoveries about her own background. And she had to face her worst memory: the time she let another person die.

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Annabelle is a book that captured my interest right from the start and if I had not worked the day after I started reading the book, would I probably have read it in a sweep. However, by then it was a bit late and I had to wait until the day after and also I had to work before I could read the 100 pages I had left. The agony!

The book is very well written, suspenseful and compelling. A chapter more turned easily into 50 pages more and I found myself really like both characters in the book as well as the story. Charlie is just the kind of character I like to read about, a first-class police, but with demons that will cause some problems for her during the investigation. We also get a flashback to the day Annabelle's disappeared in a parallel story. There is also another parallel story in the book, about two girls, and it's not until the end before you find out what that story has to do with the main story.

The end felt a bit unfinished. As if the end came a little too fast, and I would have liked to have a better closure on the investigation. Although that's probably the only thing I felt a little disappointed with that the end did not really live up to the rest of the books amazing level.

I want to end this review by saying that Annabelle is a very good crime novel, one of the best I read this year and I really hope to read more books with Charlie, this really feels like a good introduction to a fantastic series!

Thanks Bokförlaget Forum for the review copy!… (more)

Charlie Lager thought she had left her dysfunctional youth behind in Gullspang. Now a successful member of a national crime squad, Charlie has a few problems with drink, prescription drugs and casual sex but she's good at her job. However her team is called in to investigate the disappearance of a young girl from Gullspang, Charlie has to return to her childhood home. She wants to get out as quickly as possible but the past has a habit of catching up with us all.
A new voice in the packed scandal-noir oeuvre but Bengsdotter arrives on a high. This is a nuanced take on the genre with layers to be unveiled and a logical (if somewhat dissatisfying) ending. All the cliches are there, the central cop with a past, the straight man, the dark underbelly of rural Sweden, and yet it all works so well.… (more)

This is the english translation of a popular book released last year in Sweden. The first of a series, it introduces DI Charlie Lager of the National Operations Dept. in Stockholm. When a young girl from the small town of Gullspång goes missing, she & colleague Anders Bratt are sent to help with the investigation.

As we quickly learn, Charlie has a boatload of secrets. One of them is she actually grew up in Gullspång with her alcoholic mother Betty. And she’s spent most of her life suppressing the memories. Not a problem, she’ll just keep that to herself & do her job (& pack her medication). Besides, what are the odds she’ll be recognized after 20 years?

Annabelle Roos is a smart, vivacious teenager who loves a good party. There’s not much to do in Gullspång except get together & drink. As far as she’s concerned, her future does not include sticking around. But until then, she has to survive small town gossip & her unstable mother. Turns out Annabelle has a few secrets of her own & after one night of partying, she disappears.

The book has 4 story lines that alternate & gradually connect to the overall arc of the plot. The one given the least amount of space is the investigation into Annabelle’s disappearance. In other chapters we follow her over the course of her last few days leading up to the party. There’s also the story of Rosa & Alice, 2 young girls whose friendship takes a sinister turn. And lastly, we relive Charlie’s childhood as her return to town opens the floodgates on all those memories & events she’s worked so hard to forget.

So here’s the deal. This author has some serious writing skills & the fact it is a debut novel just makes it all the more impressive. Kudos also go out to the translator. The prose is smooth & without the odd phrases or stilted dialogue I’ve come across in other translated works.

But I think your enjoyment of this book may be tied to your reading preferences. This was a new author for me so I did a little reading up on her books & saw this tagged as a thriller. I would have to humbly disagree. If forced to give it a label, I’d say it’s a combination of family drama & suspense.

I thought I was picking up a police procedural which I love to read but soon discovered the investigative aspect plays a minor role. This is actually Charlie’s story. And boy, does she have one to tell. I won’t get into details but since she fled Gullspång, Charlie’s life has been a steady stream of booze, pills & meaningless one night stands. And as we revisit the past with her, we come to understand why she has a few “issues”. The choice to make Charlie’s personal story the focus may have been because this is book #1 in a series & the author wanted to establish the character & her history.

So when it came to rating the book, I chose to base it on personal preference & what I enjoy reading. It’s just a simple mismatch between book & reader & not a reflection of this author’s ability to craft a compelling story. If you’re a fan of character driven drama this should be right up your street.

By the end the fates of Annabelle, Rosa, Alice & Betty are revealed & there are some surprises in store. As for Charlie….well, she’s got a long road ahead of her but you get the feeling she’s finally made peace with her past.… (more)