The Disappeared

Written by Kristina Ohlsson

Narrated by Maggie Mash

'When the film begins she has no idea what she is about to see. Nor does she realise what devastating consequences this film and the decisions she then makes will have on the rest of her life.'

The body of a young woman is found carved up and buried in a forest glade in an innocuous Swedish suburb. Alex Recht and his team in the Stockholm Police soon identify the body as belonging to missing student, Rebecca Trolle, but as his team continues to excavate the site, they soon find that someone has been returning to the same spot to bury their victims year after year, decade after decade.

Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman is assigned the task of delving into Rebecca's private life. But little does she know that her enquiries are about to uncover evidence that will put her actions under scrutiny from Internal Affairs, and will throw her private life into turmoil.

And what does the case have to do with the elderly children's author living in a care home . . . who has never spoken a word to anyone since she arrived years ago?

Kristina Ohlsson has already sold more than 830,000 copies worldwide. Now discover for yourself what makes her Sweden's favourite crime writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio UK
• Release date: May 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781471150883

Kristina Ohlsson

Kristina Ohlsson is a political scientist and until recently held the position of Counter-Terrorism Officer at OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). She has previously worked at the Swedish Security Service, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish National Defense College. Kristina lives in Stockholm.

Reviews for The Disappeared

[Bo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great series! Good twists and good plot. Looking forward to the next one.

[Sally de Beer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great plot, love the characters just wish the male characters didn’t speak soooo slooooowly, it’s annoying

[picathartes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Smart.Impressive.Full of emotion.I was drawn to the many and varied characters whether I wanted to be or not because they felt real independent of any sense of connection to them. I find that far too many books are filled with dry, soulless characters and while maybe entertaining enough reads, really they are nothing more than filling time and quenching the thirst of knowing what was in them. This book was far from that. The story progression is very impressive too, how the author chose to tell it I found quite unique.That said, there may be too much emotion going on as all the main characters are a hot mess. They can't see their hands in front of their faces let alone the forest for the trees as they have so much going on in their heads the entire book. Plus, everyone had secrets and I got a little tired of everyone’s secrets; that trick keeps you on your toes wondering about possible suspects and how they fit into the case, but it seemed to be never-ending there for a while. I'm not sure how that added or detracted from the story as a whole, but it may have been a bit much.Not sure how I feel about the myriad independent lines of investigation either. It seemed a bit too footloose. In this type of book there should be a "war room" with a white board and all these seemingly random bits of information would be piling up. Then the investigators would be connecting the dots as they appear even if irrelevant. But instead, they mostly have movable meetings which results in no progress whatsoever. That seemed a bit thick.In the end, too much happenstance and interconnectedness, and too many loose ends for my liking so "only" 4 stars. Worth reading: absolutely!

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the body of a woman is found buried in the woods, newly bereaved Alex Recht from the Stockholm police believes it to be that of long missing student, Rebecca Trolle. Soon more bodies are found buried in the grave, but years apart. Inspector Alex Recht, Fredrika Bergman, and Peter Rydh discover that at the time of Rebecca’s death, she was obsessed with the topic of her dissertation, a former beloved children’s book author who went to prison for murdering her ex-husband. Rebecca was convinced of the author’s innocence and may have stumbled upon information proving her theory.

The novel is the third in a series featuring Fredrika Bergman and her fellow investigators as they attempt to solve the case, which develops into serial murders. Personal conflicts among the police personnel arise, complicating the investigation. The author delivers fragments of a backstory and brief glimpses of each character’s life. The characters are dark, disturbing, and fascinating. There’s an elderly children’s author who hasn’t uttered a word in decades, a former boyfriend with a troubling obsession, and a web of mystery that includes sexual assault charges, pornography and snuff films.

This was a suspenseful novel, even though it could easily have been edited to be flow a little faster. It created a great mix of psychology, urban myths and police procedure with a sense of the thriller at the end. I've enjoyed all three of the books in the series and look forward to the next one which is scheduled to come out this year.

[heathrel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think I need to take a break from mystery...three in three days is making my head spin. But Ohlsson is making serious strides in her technique as she goes from #1 to #3 in her Bergman and Recht series: she is now able to hold several lines of plot in suspense simultaneously without any of them collapsing into
inevitability. I suppose it helps that she now has a body of work that she can use to create parallels. The weakest sections are still those where she needs to go back over plot from her previous texts. All of the characters hit new levels of "stressed outedness" in The Disappeared. Hopefully Ohlsson uses more creative vocabulary in Swedish for what comes to be translated as "stressed" in English; the word is used too frequently.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel was something of a disappointment to me, but not enough of a disappointment to turn me off on the series. "The Disappeared" is number three in Ohlsson's Fredrika Bergman/Alex Recht series, and I was eagerly looking forward to it, having found "Silenced" in particular a very compelling read. "The Disappeared" shares some of the positives of the earlier novels -- a high and sustained level of suspense, well rounded and (in some cases!) very likable characters, and a fluent writing style. But the improbability that occasionally popped up in the earlier novels swings into high gear in this entry. There are too many coincidences, too many links between the case and the investigators' private lives, and too many really bad people in really high places. By the time it was over my interest had descended to the level of "OK, what's she going to come up with next". It's not that expect Scandinavian mysteries to present a totally realistic portrait of modern day Scandinavian society: a lot of what's enjoyable in mystery fiction is having "the evil in our midst" identified, apprehended, and taken out of circulation. But the suspension of the will to disbelieve, for me at least, has limits. Now, all that said, I am still looking forward to reading the latest installment in the series, "Hostage". Ohlsson may go over the top, plotwise, but she is a really good mystery writer.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One positive knock-on effect of reading Stieg Larsson's Girl trilogy (or two out of three, anyway) is that I have developed an interest in Scandinavian crime novels, but where Larsson's macho fantasy failed to convince, Kristina Ohlsson's writing succeeds with style. This is actually the third in the series about detectives Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht, but apart from missing out on their backstory, reading out of order didn't ruin the story.The body of a student found in a shallow grave and an old woman in a nursing home who is hiding dark secrets behind a vow of silence. How are the two connected? Alex Recht, Fredrika Bergman and Peder Rydh are determined to find out, but first the detectives must face their own personal demons. The mystery is neatly paced, with the usual red herrings and steady supply of fresh (or less than fresh, in this case) victims, and the central characters are all believable, which makes a satisfying change, after Lisbeth Salander. Each chapter ends with a transcript of dialogue from an internal affairs investigation into the detectives' handling of the case, treading a thin line between trailer and spoiler for the outcome of the mystery. Who is putting the investigation into jeopardy? I did find the fact that all three professionals were personally connected to either the victim or the suspects slightly far-fetched, but the resulting tension is worth the suspension of disbelief. I guessed the sub-mystery, and found the identity of the murderer slightly disappointing, but overall, an engrossing and well-written read. I will definitely look up more of Kristina Ohlsson's novels!

[twink_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I quite discovered Swedish author Kristina Ohlsson by accident when I picked up her first book "Unwanted". Fortuitous accident - because it was the first in a fantastic crime series featuring Investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman. The third book, Disappeared, is newly released and it too was a fantastic read. The prologue's opening lines, set in the past, grabbed me immediately.... "When the film begins she has no idea what she is about to see. Nor does she realise what devastating consequences this film and the decisions she then makes will have on the rest of her life." Present day. Two years after she disappears, the dismembered body of Rebecca Tolle is found by a dog walker in a shallow grave. When the crime scene team expand their excavation of the grave site, they find another body. But the second body has been buried for at least thirty years. Are the two connected? Is this the work of a serial killer spanning thirty years? Frederika and the special unit of the Swedish Federal Police are called in. Their case builds slowly, with multiple suspects - one of them close to a member of the team. I really enjoy Ohlsson's character building. She has given each main character a rich personal life that provides a more intimate reading experience. Ohlsson is extremely clever with her plotting and delivery of her story. Interspersed with the investigation are Internal Affairs interviews held after the case has ended. "You're here because you were in charge of an investigation that ended in disaster." We get wee snippets of information that heighten the tension, provide subtle clues, provide teasers - and kept this reader up far too late. Midway through, I went back to read that prologue again as the pieces started to fall into place. An intelligent, well written series (with a side of grisly) that I can easily recommend. I do hope Ohlsson plans to continue with this series.