Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
This may be the debut novel for Lina Bengtsdotter, but it immediately slots her into the pantheon of Scandi Noir greats. She is a seamstress. She weaves a wonderful, embracing picture of life in a down-at-heel, dying, remote and rusty, Swedish industrial eyesore; and gradually unpicks the different threads, laying each out, its sparse clarity giving the reader a myriad of separate storylines.
Like so many former engineering and mining towns, the people of Gullspang have a burning desire to escape: physically, or through sex, drink and drugs.
Into their midst returns a detective from Stockholm with more than enough bad memories of early life in the failing town. Her task is to find a missing teenage girl; her fear is being recognised as a former resident; her fate is to have her inner demons exposed to the glaring light.
For The Missing begins with the speed and power of a hydrofoil on the dangerous lake, and delves deeply into a sea of contradictions: not just involving the search for the missing girl, but the enthralling personalities and twists that Bengstdotter creates.
Annabelle is a teenage rebel, the offspring of a firm, strict mother and a more laidback father. She lies, goes to a forbidden party and meets someone on the way home, and disappears. She knows who he is: the reader is left tantalisingly ignorant.
Charlie Lager is now a police inspector in Stockholm, and she’s seconded to lead an investigation that is going to stretch her abilities as a detective and, at the same time, tear her angst to breaking point. At what stage will she snap? It is inevitable.
Bengstdotter uses third party dialogue, and direct speech alongside each other. It could be unsettling, but deft writing moves the story along quickly and descriptively. It is a literary trick that skilfully achieves its aims: the pace is fast and unrelenting, but the style allows the reader to relax and absorb the plot.
This debut has already won an award. I will be looking out for more by Lina Bengstdotter. For The Missing takes crime fiction to a disturbingly personal, high level.
