Silenced: A Novel
Frederika Bergman returns in the latest installment from Swedish author Ohlsson. Frederika is the only civilian working with Alex Recht’s federal investigation unit, but you wouldn’t know this was her book until the very end. The novel opens with the rape of a teenage girl in Frederika’s own backyard. Then we fast-forward several years to a priest and his wife, who are killed in an apparent murder-suicide; in a seemingly unrelated incident, a man is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Alex and his team, including the very pregnant Frederika, start investigating, and things are not at all how they first appeared to be. Human trafficking is going on, from the Middle East through Bangkok and then to Sweden. OK, but then things really get twisty. The story slowly unfolds, revealing layer upon layer of deception. The interplay between the detectives adds another level of interest to this intriguing puzzle, as do the inner workings of a foreign police department. This Scandinavian procedural, though less gristly than most of the genre, should appeal to international-mystery fans. --Stacy Alesi