Foreign Mystery Authors
Review Courtesy of Megan Ingegno
Author: Alvtegen, Karin
Main Character: Sybilla
Title: Missing
Setting: Stockholm, Sweden
Point of View: First person
Style/Pacing: Current events occur over about a week's time. Flashbacks in alternating chapters help to move the story along. There is no action until the concluding chapters.
Main Character Traits: 32-year-old homeless woman. Grew up privileged, but ran away at 17. She is a self-described outsider.
Language/Writing: Compelling, quick read
Emotional Impact/Degree of Violence: Violence and descriptions of gore are minimal. The main character never encounters the victims directly, only reads about what happened to them in the paper.
Humor?: None. Focus is more on the psychological drama.
Vulgarity/Sex?: Again, minimal. Sex is referred to using gentle/ vague metaphors.
Issue Driven?: Homelessness, adoption, grief, homosexuality, organ donation. Psychological study as much as a murder mystery.
Special Points: Karin Alvtegen was dubbed Sweden’s “Queen of Crime.”
