The Lost Boy

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Läckberg, Sweden’s bestselling “queen of crime,” explores near-unspeakable grief in her stunning seventh novel set in the town of Fjällbacka (after 2015’s The Drowning). Several mothers suffer in body and soul after losing their sons, in contrast to the happiness that detective Patrik Hedström and his wife, Erica, a true-crime writer, enjoy with their twin infant boys. Patrik is investigating the murder of Mats Sverin, the town’s finance officer, who was involved with the restoration of a dilapidated old luxury hotel as a ritzy spa, a man many people liked but no one really knew. With her trademark impeccable psychological insight, Läckberg intertwines subplots that personalize the devastation wreaked by Sweden’s drug trade, its biker culture, and its far too prevalent domestic abuse. Ghostly shadows from this searing entry will surely linger long in the reader’s imagination. Agent: Joakim Hansson, Nordin Literary Agency (Sweden).