October 31, 2016
Someone is targeting Stockholm’s Jewish community in Ohlsson’s taut fifth Fredrika Bergman novel (after 2014’s The Disappeared). The first to die is a preschool teacher, gunned down in front of horrified parents and children outside the Solomon School. Bergman, back helping the police after an absence, joins Det. Chief Insp. Alex Recht on a newly formed special task force, which requires them to work alongside a former colleague, who was fired for an act of violence and now heads security for the Solomon Community. Right after the crime, two 10-year-old Jewish boys disappear on their way to a tennis lesson, their bodies turning up displayed in a disturbing manner in the snowy woods. The killer left paper bags with faces drawn over the boys’ heads, bringing to mind an old Israeli myth of the child-snatching Paper Boy. It’s one of many tenuous leads that point to Israel, and Fredrika soon heads there to try and sort out what’s become a dangerous mess in Sweden. Ohlsson’s characters are compelling, and the tragedies she traces finely wrought. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).