Missing by Karin Alvtegen

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.”