Never Coming Back

October 22, 2012
Blockbuster-ready pacing combines with a psychological manual’s clinical tone to make Koppel’s thriller, a bestseller in his native Sweden, almost too chilling for its own good. When Ylva Zetterberg fails to come home one evening, her husband Mike’s painful memory of her infidelity causes him to initially assume that she’s abandoned him and their seven-year-old daughter. As the period of Ylva’s absence lengthens, he starts to correctly suspect she’s been kidnapped, even as police and community scrutiny falls on him. Unknown to Mike, Ylva is across the street, kept in a soundproofed basement by a husband and wife who taunt her with a video feed of her own house’s exterior. Ylva’s only hope rests on two old schoolmates’ realization of the long-festering vendetta being played out. Previously a children’s author under his real name, Petter Lidbeck, Koppel bluntly and expertly mines very adult themes of male sexual insecurity and female victimization to page-turning but off-putting effect.

October 1, 2012
Swedish suburbia is the setting for this thriller about an abducted young woman who is imprisoned and abused--in a house across the street from hers--by the psychiatrist her husband turns to in his fear and despair. When Ylva doesn't come home one night, her husband, Mike, can't help but assume she's having a fling. She had one known affair and has been known to flirt with countless other men. When hours and then days pass and she doesn't return to him and their 7-year-old daughter, he and the police fear the worst. One place they don't think to look for her is the neighbor's house, where Ylva is locked in a specially rigged panic room, raped by the shrink and systematically demeaned and starved by him and his wife. A camera inside her house also allows her to gaze upon her family as they cope with her disappearance. Resisting efforts to brainwash her, Ylva plans her escape. A shaky personality prone to weeping, Mike finds solace, and ultimately more, in her work mate. A speedy, efficient thriller, this book was a best-seller in Sweden and England. Koppel (actually Swedish children's book author Petter Lidbeck) does a skillful job of putting the pieces of this creepy puzzle together. He's not so good at creating adult characters that leave an imprint on the page. And the revenge factor at the heart of the novel isn't very convincing. It involves a youth gang that cruelly hazed kids years ago and resulted in the suicide of the psychiatrist's daughter. An abducted-woman thriller with a twist, but Silence of the Lambs it's not.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2012

In this psychological thriller by Koppel (a pseudonym for Swedish children's author Petter Lidbeck), Ylva's new neighbors offer her a ride home but take her to their house instead of hers. Held hostage across the street from her home, Ylva is able to see inside her house and watch her husband and young daughter via a closed-circuit television system. While the police search for her, the principal story is the one of her confinement, as the kidnappers force her to perform degrading, vividly described acts. Gradually a previous situation from years ago involving Ylva and the kidnappers' daughter and some high school friends unspools to explain the motives behind the kidnapping. While the ending is probably the only just way the situation could be resolved, it comes as a surprise. VERDICT Fans of Karin Alvtegen or Stieg Larsson will want to read this crime thriller, but they should be prepared: this is not for the squeamish. Although set at a fast pace, the graphic sexual acts and psychological torture are distracting and disturbing.--Frances Thorsen, Chronicles of Crime Bookshop, Victoria, BC

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
Ylva Zetterburg tells her husband she's going for drinks with coworkers, tells her coworkers she's heading home for a family night, and then disappears. Her husband, Mike, afraid to acknowledge that she might not return, waits several days to report her missing. After the report, Mike is under the scrutiny of the police and the community in Helsingbord, Sweden. Everyone is convinced he must have murdered his wife. They are mistaken. Ylva has been snatched by a couple from her past bent on exacting an elaborately cruel revenge. She's held in a basement cell just across the street from her home, forced to watch live camera feeds of her family's activities while her captors attempt to destroy her with violence and manipulation. Koppel heightens suspense by withholding Ylva's decades-old offense until the last chapter and cultivating the equal possibilities that she will be rescued, escape, or be completely forgotten. The scariest kind of thriller, with brutality delivered matter-of-factly and painfully realistic characters, this is both excruciating and irresistible. Endless discussion avenues for book groups.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)