Lifetime

Written by Liza Marklund

Narrated by India Fisher

The most famous police officer in Sweden is found murdered in his bed. His four-year-old son is missing. His wife is suspected of killing both of them. No one believes her when she says she is innocent.

No one except for news reporter Annika Bengtzon. Her personal life in turmoil, she turns all her energies to her work, investigating the life of the murdered man.

But if his wife is innocent, where is their son? And will the truth be uncovered in time to find him…before it's too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House UK Audio
• Release date: Apr 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781448179442

Liza Marklund

Liza Marklund is an author, journalist, and goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Her crime novels, featuring the relentless reporter Annika Bengtzon, instantly became international hits and have sold millions of copies in thirty languages worldwide. Visit her website at LizaMarklund.com.

Reviews for Lifetime

[petrichor8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book took seemingly forever to read. I don't know if it was the level of detail in describing people/surroundings, or the endless tangents that the plot/main characters kept going on, but I couldn't wait until I finally finished it so I could move on to something else.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Liza Marklund's latest book Lifetime is the seventh book featuring newspaper reporter Annika Bengtzon. Stockholm, Sweden. Police Officer Nina Hoffman is on patrol when a shots fired call comes in. Nina and her partner race to the scene - only to find that the victim is another cop - and his wife Julia is lying beside him, covered in blood. Worse still - their four year old son is missing. Julia swears there was someone else in the apartment. Nina is sure her friend and former co worker could not do such a thing. Or could she....? Annika knows both women - she did a story on them years before. The high profile case is a story worth investigating. This is the third book I've read by Marklund and I've enjoyed every one. Annika is a complicated protagonist - she's headstrong, impulsive and plunges headlong into her stories. She trusts her instincts and hunches and follows them regardless. But her personal life is in a shambles - she herself is suspected of a crime and her marriage is falling apart. Although I've heard some other readers remark that this secondary storyline muddies the waters of the main plot, I disagree. I quite like seeing the two sides of Annika's life personal and professional. Both story lines held my interest equally. Annika's investigation leads to more questions and links to the past, with the path to answers and resolution anything but straight. Marklund keeps us guessing about Julia until the very end. And the end was a lovely 'gotcha'. Marklund brings the setting to life as well, with descriptions that underline the gritty tone of the mystery. This is an excellent series with a character I quite like. Definitely recommended. I'll be watching for the next in the series

[lmichaelmeigs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Despite her apparent success in Sweden -- both as a writer and as a businesswoman -- Liza Marklund hasn't made the transition across the Atlantic. Her first book, The Bomber, wound up on the remainder tables, and the successive titles in her Annika Bengtzon series appear to have found no takers in the English-speaking world (despite her success in Germany). I read the first title in English (courtesy of the remainder table) and then continued in German; and after some work with the language, I have read the last two in Swedish. This is fascinating stuff -- less for the plot intrigues (which are okay, as far as thrillers go) than for the obstinate, striving, naive and ambitious Annika. Curious that the only reviews on LT so far come from Danes; no Swedish commentaries! I find the portrait of the strained, competitive marriage between Thomas and Annika utterly convincing -- including the desperation that Annika shows when dealing with two small children and a husband who is easily seduced by a competitor. No certainties any more; the stern expectation of marriage-forever appears to have disappeared first, and long ago, in Scandinavia, but this couple has found no reconciliation with the new realities. The title"Life Sentence" plays on several levels -- Thomas is doing a financial analysis for political masters of the feasibility of abolishing life imprisonment; crimes described here might be punished with a life sentence; and though marriage is no longer a life sentence, parenthood certainly is.Marklund offers a fascinating look at the seamy profession of tabloid journalist, as well as the management dilemmas of progressively adopting such journalism to the spread of the Internet. Swedish television did a couple of fine dramatizations of Marklund titles that convincingly render the newspaper world.A Danish associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin calls Marklund "the Queen of Scandinavian Crime Fiction." I, for one, am waiting with interest for Marklund's next installment.