The Lost Woman

December 5, 2016
At the start of Danish author Blaedel’s disappointing sixth Louise Ricks novel to be published in the U.S. (after 2016’s The Killing Forest), a gunman outside a house in England takes aim through a window at a woman as she’s preparing dinner and shoots her dead. Back in Denmark, Eik Nordstrøm, Rick’s police partner (who’s also her lover), goes out with his dog to a store to buy cigarettes and vanishes—no phone call or text—leaving his dog tied outside the store. The murdered woman turns out to be a Dane, Sofie Parker, who went missing 18 years earlier. That Eik was involved in Sofie’s case may explain his disappearance. Flashbacks to 1996 chart Sofie’s efforts to persuade her mother, who suffers from an incurable illness, not to commit suicide. Blaedel explores the ethical implications of assisted suicide, making it clear where she stands on the issue, but she fails to inject enough urgency and drama into a tale whose plot contrivances demand a large suspension of disbelief from the reader.

Starred review from January 1, 2017

The Danish "Queen of Crime" returns with an intensely personal, character-driven sixth installment to her "DI Louise Rick" series (after The Killing Forest). Rick heads Copenhagen's Special Search Agency--the Danish equivalent of a missing persons unit--yet most of the action here takes place in England. A housewife shot to death through her kitchen window is identified as Sofie Parker, a Danish citizen who's been missing for almost 20 years. And the man who reported her gone two decades ago? It turns out to be Eik NordstrOm, Rick's police colleague and now lover (most days, at least), who's as impetuous as Rick is methodical and measured. Off to England to investigate Sofie's death, Eik becomes the prime suspect and is soon jailed on suspicion of murder. Rick is determined to get to the bottom of what is turning into an increasingly bizarre case. Sofie's reasons for disappearing not only lend emotional resonance to an already deeply fraught book but also weave the controversial subject of assisted suicide into a complex plot. VERDICT As one of the preeminent voices in contemporary Scandinavian crime fiction, Blaedel solidifies once more why her novels are as much finely drawn character studies as tightly plotted procedurals, always landing with a punch to the gut and the heart. [See Prepub Alert, 8/26/16.]

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016
Inspector Louise Rick, head of Denmark's special search agency, is anticipating happiness with her partner, Eik Nordstrom, at work and in life, even though they can't continue their personal relationship and also work together. Then Eik abruptly disappears. He's found days later in England, where housewife Sofie ParkerEik's girlfriend who went missing nearly 18 years ago and for whom he desperately searchedwas just coldly murdered. Eik's behavior leads to his estrangement from Louise and jail time as a suspect, before the same rifle that killed Sofie was found to have been used in similar recent murders in Denmark. Louise and colleagues follow mysterious money transfers to an account managed by Sofie before they uncover the link between victims and the root cause of the killings. Blaedel, Denmark's most popular author, is known for her dark mysteries, and she examines the controversial social issue at the heart of this novel, but ends on a surprisingly light note. Another winner from Blaedel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)