First Sentence: Gone
is coming, Gone is coming!
Detective
Louise Rick has accepted the position of heading a Special
Search Agency, responsible for unsolved missing-person cases.
Believing she could appoint her own team, she is dismayed
to find a partner, Eik Nordsrom, has been assigned to work
with her. Their first case involves the body of a woman, with
a large burn scar on one side of her face, is found in a local
forest. With no way to identify her, the police release her
photo to the media asking for the public’s help, only
to learn that she was on of a set of twin sisters who were
supposed to have died 30 years previously in a sanitarium.
Working the case becomes much more involved, and much more
personal, than Rick every anticipated.
The story
begins with a very intriguing and compelling prologue that
is a true prologue. This is not something which is lifted
from a later section of the story, but is an introductory
chapter that immediately elicits a sense of dread.
Louise
Rick is an interesting character and cleverly created. One
initially isn’t certain they like her as she is very
defensive and prickly in her demeanour. At the same time,
there are hints at reasons for her attitudes and a feeling
that the author will make these reasons known. Most can, however,
also empathize with her frustration of being made to working
with someone who has created a negative first impression.
Even here, however, one wants to see how things will develop.
It is
interesting to see how Louise and her partner do learn to
work together and build a trust.
Blaedel includes powerful, and rather depressing information
as to the number of people who go missing in Denmark every
year—1,600 to 1,700—and brings home the reality
of institutions everywhere where people are sent and simply
abandoned by their families. Suicide is a very common theme,
along with the disappearances.
One small
thing, as an American reader, is that it would have been to
have known/learned more about Denmark and how property laws
function there. Readers might find some of the information
related to that a bit confusing, but not enough to severely
detract from the story.
“The
Forgotten Girls” has a plot which is fascinating with
amazing, well-done twists all along the way. What starts as
three separate cases are linked by DNA into one case, and
ends with startling revelations right up to the very end.
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