I’ve been on a kick of needing complete escapism, and for me, that means mystery, thriller, murder, scary, and what the hell am I reading.
To quench my thirst for murder mysteries, I borrowed a stack of books from Karin, and among them was The Forgotten Girls.
The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the language barrier. Though it’s written in English, it’s set in Denmark and is fraught with proper Danish names for people and places that are impossible to pronounce. Aside from the gobbledygook of my poor pronunciation, The Forgotten Girls was a fantastic read.
Detective Louise Rick is assigned a case to identify a woman who was found dead in the woods near Hvalso, where Louise grew up. The familiarity of the area is already troubling, so when a second woman is found dead, and a third goes missing, and then a fourth is raped, Louise is hell-bent on finding out what’s going on in her hometown.
The primary case rests with the first body – a woman identified as Lise. Paperwork uncovers that this woman, along with her twin sister, Mette, was reported dead decades ago, when the girls were just three. The mystery is two-fold: Who killed Lise, and if she didn’t actually die as a three-year-old, is it possible that neither did her twin?
What transpires is a deeply woven history of secrets that Louise and her partner, Eik, unravel as the other crimes occur. The plot is so well crafted that I didn’t figure out the end until the end was upon me, which is the best way to wrap up a crime novel.
Though I didn’t love much of Louise’s back story and personal drama, it didn’t detract from how much I enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it for someone who wants a weekend on the couch with a good read.