An audio book.
Malim, a mid-twenties female detective engaged to Max, is investigating a cold case back in the swedish village where she grew up. Indeed, she had found the skeleton of the child whose murder hasn't been solved. Her boyfriend then, Kenny, stayed her boyfriend for 2 years until he died in a car accident. It's a small village, where everyone thinks they know what's going on. Factories and the post-office have closed. Hanne (60) and Peter (50) are in her team. They disappear. Hanne is found in woods, reportedly by a woman, but we know that she was found by Jake, a schoolboy who was wearing his dead mother's clothes at the time. Hanne recalls almost nothing about recent events. She has been covering up her memory problems by recording everything in a notebook. Jake has taken the notebook, which we see extensive extracts from.
The PoV continues to switch between Malim, Jake and Hanne (via her notebook that Jake's reading).
Malim's father is dead. Her mother is struggling. She has a cousin Marmoose, 43, who seems mentally defective. He lives with his mother. He's bullied. Malim tried to help. Jake is bullied too. He's friends with another outsider, Saga, a girl. They kiss.
A woman's corpse is found - murdered when Peter and Hanne disappeared. Jake's father (an alcoholic with an unregistered gun) is taken in for questioning. Jake reads Hanne's notebook hoping to find evidence to acquit his father.
There's an immigrant's refuge in the area. There's always been opposition to it. Malim has doubts too. The murdered woman left it 20 years before, with a child (the cold case victim). She was pregnant.
Jake realises that things have been happening at Marmoose's house. Malim thinks so too, from clues Hanne drops. Jake goes there, finds Peter's corpse in a fridge. He saves Hanne from being murdered. He becomes a local hero.
Malim has a one-night stand with a chauvinist colleague.
Marmoose and his mother had been keeping the immigrant mother in their cellar. When Peter and Hanne discovered the cellar, Marmoose killed Peter. The mother escaped so he killed her too.
A twist I hadn't anticipated is that the immigrant mother had given birth to a child while in captivity - Malim.
I liked this book more than many others, though this book too has "She sighs audibly". Maybe it's just the translation. Maybe I'll just have to accept that it's ok.
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