Product Description

In The Grand Hotel, a homeless woman charms a businessman into paying for dinner and a room. When his dead body is discovered the following morning she becomes the prime suspect. When a second person is killed in similar circumstances, Sybilla, having left her comfortable middle class upbringing for the anonymity of the streets, becomes the most wanted person in Sweden ...Missing is a totally compelling read and a classic thriller that confirms Alvtegen as a crime writer worth comparison with Henning Mankell. But at its core, the book also explores the terrifying isolation for a woman who has rejected the values of her background and intimacy of her family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81399 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
KARIN ALVTEGEN is the most exciting new crime writer in Scandinavia. Missing was awarded the premier Scandinavian crime writing award and was also nominated for the Poloni Award and Best Crime Novel in Sweden.

Customer Reviews

Homeless, but not a victim...
Karin Alvtegen is the niece of Astrid Lindgren, but this is not a tale involving pigtails in any shape or form. Instead this gripping crime novel gives us an in-depth portrait of the life of Sibylla Forsenstrom, a homeless Swedish woman.
Sibylla's ambition is someday to have a sanctuary, a home of her own, and she is assiduously saving money to reach this goal. Her plans for the future are thrown into disarray when she is framed for a murder that she didn't commit. With the help of a schoolboy, Patrik, who becomes her friend when he discovers her sleeping in the attics of his school, Sibylla turns detective and solves the crimes. The author sensitively handles the traumas in Sibylla's background, and it is a relief to find a crime novel that doesn't automatically relegate a homeless person to the role of murder victim.

A page turner
I took this book on a long haul flight and read it in one sitting, but I'm sure that if I wasn't stuck on a plane I would probably have done the same. The plot is gripping and story moves along at a frenetic pace. I know it's an over-used cliche, but the best description I can come up with is this: Missing is a real page turner.

Set in Stockholm, Sweden, it tells the story of a 32-year-old homeless woman, Sybilla Forsenstrom, who is accused of murdering a businessman in a city hotel.

When a second victim shows the same mysterious signs of mutilation that characterised the first murder, Sybilla becomes the most wanted woman in Sweden.

With a little help from an old friend and a teenage boy, Sybilla is able to avoid arrest. But her rising sense of panic coupled with a strong desire to clear her name begins to affect her judgement and the reader is left wondering why the police are taking so long to track her down. Surely, at some point, she's going to make a major cock-up that will lead to her imminent arrest?

Intertwined with this woman-on-the-run narrative is a second storyline that examines Sybilla's childhood. Raised by two emotionally remote parents, devoid of warmth and any real love, we find out what makes this resourceful woman tick.

Without wishing to spoil the ending, I can only say that it satisfyingly draws together all the elements of both narratives into one neat conclusion.

My only real quibble is that the news stories (about Sybilla's alleged crimes) that Alvtegen intersperses throughout the novel do not ring true from a journalistic perspective - they're not structured properly and lack attribution. I could forgive this oversight once, but when the book is littered with dozens of examples it begins to irritate.

Still, don't let this put you off. Missing is ultimately a quick, entertaining read, much in the same vein as a Nicci French thriller, and you could do worse than read this little gem, which was awarded the premier Scandinavian crime writing award. It was also nominated for the Poloni Award and Best Crime Novel 2000 in Sweden.

Oh, and trivia buffs might like to know that Alvtegen is the great niece of Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking, so writing obviously runs in the family!

Excellent thriller
Sibylla Forstenstroem is the daughter of a rich but insensitive merchant and his wife. After a depression and an unwanted pregnancy she flees as an 18 year old girl from her family and the institution where she is kept. She starts to live as a homeless person and is capable of taking rather good care of herself for 15 years. But then things go wrong: she is wrongly accused of murdering a businessman and while she hides from the police three other murders follow. In the end she is capable of unravelling the true cause of these murders with the help of 15 year old Patrik, who she meets when hiding in the attic of a secondary school.

This was a very entertaining introduction to the work of yet another excellent Swedish author of thrillers. Definitely worth a read.