Missing

by Anna Paterson (Translator), KarinAlvtegen (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $6.77

  Sybilla Forsenstrom doesn't exist. For fifteen years she has been excluded from society and, as one of the homeless in Stockholm, she takes each day as it comes, keeping all her possessions in her rucksack - apart from a knife and salami which she stores in a smart briefcase. She is always well-dressed and displays impeccable manners. One night, in The Grand Hotel, she charms a susceptible businessman into paying for her dinner and room. His dead body is discovered the following morning and Sybilla becomes the prime suspect. When a second person is killed in similar circumstances, she becomes the most wanted person in Sweden.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.27

  Missing grabs the reader from the first page, and doesn't let go until the gruesome denouement. This fabulous thriller won the Best Nordic Crime Novel in 2000 (previous winners include Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's and Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers ) and has enjoyed massive success all over Europe. Sibylla is on the run from the authorities and convention. Choosing to live of-no-fixed abode for many years, she tricks affluent businessmen into paying for dinner then putting her up in expensive hotel rooms. When one of them is found mutilated, Sibylla - with her unconventional life style and the fact that she was spotted fleeing the scene of the crime - leads her to become 'Sweden's Most Wanted' as a serial killer. But more that being an excellent crime novel, the book explores the terrifying isolation of a woman who has rejected the values of her background and intimacy of her family. Alvtegen uses stunningly direct prose in a plot of tremendous pace and verve. Missing is an irresistible reading experience.