I read this more or less in one sitting, and it is my favourite of the series so far, although I'm not sure what the blue dress on the cover of my edition had to do with the story.

This concerns the discovery of the body of a student who went missing two years ago, and then widens out as more bodies are discovered. I liked the interview snippets from the subsequent review of 'the catastrophe', which increased the sense of suspense. I will be interested to see how many of the recurring characters make it into the next book.

Recommended. ( )

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! ( )

I liked this book as much as I liked the first on ein the series. That I skipped part 2 and went from 1 to 3 didn't mattere much for the story/characters.

In the first book I wasn't too fond of Fredrika, but in this book she really seems to become a real person (even though she's 'only' a character in a book). Sitting on (crucial) information for the investigation was quite shocking to read, as in not really fitting.

I liked the interview/interrogation pieces in between as well, about what lead to the accident. All in all it was a good read.
And I hope some day movies like these will die out, because they're no longer in demand...

Just found out, by the way, that the books I read from this series are made into a Netflix serial (one season thus far) STHLM Rekviem. ( )

A dog finds a dead body: a young woman cut into two big pieces, but missing her head and hands. It becomes clear that the story is about finding out who made a snuff film and whether the film is even real. The story line was well structured with flashes forward to transcripts from an internal affairs investigation into how things went so horribly wrong keep the momentum going. A real page turner. ( )

A solid Scandinavian police procedural, set in urban, modern Sweden, ‘The Disappeared’ is not your typical melancholic Nordic noir. The writing is plain and accessible; the style is matter of fact and occasionally straightforward to the point of being clumsy. But the author has constructed an intriguing mystery, one which successfully kept me involved throughout the lengthy story.

It features a densely-woven murder mystery spanning several decades, with the core plot enhanced by the ongoing and convoluted private lives of the investigating team of detectives. Where the previous book had been overwhelmed by (to me) tedious details about mundane failing marriages and personal pregnancy angst, here the back-story is usefully employed to add heft to the puzzle and meaning of the mystery. It helps that the author uses a nifty device – a subsequent investigation of the investigation – to chop up the timeline and ratchet up the tension.

Here, the plot follows an investigation into a newly-discovered body of a young woman who died a couple of years ago, but it rapidly expands to draw in a bewildering array of different characters; a famous author convicted of killing her husband who hasn’t spoken since; a university professor accused of raping a student; a young lad with every motive for the recent murder… but who is hard to connect to the older bodies which soon follow the girl’s out of the ground. It’s a complicated tale but one which makes satisfying sense when you reach the conclusion.

My only real criticism is that too many of the detectives become embroiled in the case on a personal basis. There are two staggeringly huge coincidences which defy the laws of nature – and, sure, they ramp up the drama, but just one of them would have been hard to swallow.
There's more comments on the plot and characters over at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/the-disappeared-substantial...

Solid, but not astonishing. A good book to get engrossed in at an airport lounge which will last a long-haul flight.
7/10 ( )