Resenhas - The Disappeared

Lina DC 03/09/2019

"Disappeared" is the third book in the "Fredrika Bergman & Alex Recht" series and brings another horrifying case to the Criminal Investigation Division team. The story is narrated in third person, just like the previous two books, but it has a differential from the outset: excerpts from the team's interrogations, which makes it clear that the results of this particular investigation will cause great disruption to the team.

The beginning of the book is called "Past - Premiere" where a woman of unknown identity finds a murder movie that was apparently filmed in the gazebo of her parents' house. In identifying the masked man in the shoot, "she" makes a drastic decision.

Soon after the reader is taken to the present, which takes place in 2009, when a man walking the dog, who begins to excavate the site and comes across a corpse. Quickly the body is identified. The victim is Rebecca Trolle, a college girl who mysteriously disappeared two years earlier, with Alex one of the lead investigators.

The team went through some tough times in the previous book and this is the first case after months of leave that Alex will lead. Also, Frederika is now a mother and has a baby to take care of, so she hasn't returned to work in full and Peder is for the first time putting her life on track.

As the team tries to retrace Rebecca's last steps, they need to re-examine the main investigation and one name keeps repeating itself: Hakan Nilsson. Nilsson was a student who stuck to Rebecca, who actively participated in the search two years earlier and who has a peculiar behavior. Everything points to him as the prime suspect.

But the situation gets complicated when Frederika begins to investigate Rebecca's academic life and Spencer's name comes up. Spencer, his daughter's father and current companion, who is currently having trouble at the University where he works and keeping Frederika's secrets ...

Rebecca's record was impeccable: a good daughter, the first in the family to attend college, volunteer in various causes, sang in the church choir. There is nothing to indicate trouble in your life but a terrible rumor that began to circulate shortly after your disappearance.

"She kept standing in the hall for a long time after hanging up the phone. It would never be free. Certain debts could never be settled. Simple as that." (p. 42)

The only thing that stands out in Rebecca's life is the subject of her dissertation: Thea Aldrin, a famous children's book writer in the 1960s, who was convicted of killing her husband and is still suspected of killing her own son. Thea is currently in an asylum and has not spoken a single word since the day she was arrested.

As in previous books, the plot is very well written and developed so that the reader sticks to the details provided during the investigation, thus trying to find the culprit. The central theme of this third book has a heavier theme and an unexpected outcome.

"She still felt sick when she remembered his appearance when he left her, after holding her prisoner for twenty-four hours: clearly content with herself and what she had accomplished." (p. 89)