Hostage

Starred review from September 7, 2015
Ohlsson’s nail-biting fourth Fredrika Bergman novel (after 2014’s The Disappeared) teams Fredrika, a former police detective now temporarily working for Sweden’s justice department, with two legendary crime solvers: Alex Recht, Fredrika’s former police boss now with the National Bureau of Investigation, and Eden Lundell, the aggressive new head of the counterterrorism unit of Säpo, the Swedish security service. The trio face a huge crisis when Karim Sassi, the captain of SAS Flight 573 en route from Stockholm to New York, reports that a note found in one of the plane’s lavatories threatens to blow up the Boeing 747 unless the Swedish government stops the scheduled deportation of Zakaria Khelifi, a suspected terrorist, and the U.S. shuts down a covert operation called Tennyson Cottage. The copilot happens to be Recht’s son. Meanwhile, the Americans are determined to shoot down the plane if it enters U.S. air space. In an illuminating afterword to this breathtaking thriller, Ohlsson mentions her fascination with the United States, a country she loves, though she questions some of its post-9/11 counterterrorism policies. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

October 1, 2015
In a slight departure from the police procedurals featuring Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht, Ohlsson takes her two leads in new directions. The action here takes place in the present but is based on the 2010 Stockholm terrorist attack (an event with a personal connection Ohlsson addresses in an afterword). Bergman is now working for the justice department, and Recht has moved to the National Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into several bomb threats throughout Stockholm. No bombs are found on the ground, but it appears there may be one in the airon board a flight from Stockholm to New York that happens to be captained by Recht's son. Working with Eden Lundell, the head of the counterterrorism unit of Sweden's security service, Recht must negotiate with both Swedish and American officials about strategy. The two governments need to find a way to work together before the plane's fuel runs out or it enters U.S. air space. This is a tense, complex story that will satisfy fans of the series and of Scandinavian crime fiction in general.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)