An audio book, set in North Sweden.
Lina disappeared 3 years before, when she was 17. Her father Lelle (a teacher) left her at a bus stop. He still drives at night looking for her, searching out-houses and hunting cabins, carrying a gun, hallucinating her voice beside him. The mother Annette has left him for her therapist Thomas. She deals with socal media and remembrance events. Lelle discovers Varg, Lina's boyfriend, in her bedroom. He has nude photos of her.
Meja, 17, has arrived in a town with her mother Celia (an artist with mental problems) who's found online a man, Togen, to stay with. Meja discovers his porn collection. He has a local reputation. He also has locally taken photos. The couple want Meja out of the way. She meets 3 brothers who live 10km away. She sleeps with one of them, Karl Johan, a non-drinker/smoker.
We switch between Lelle and Meja's storylines often. Meja moves out to Karl Johan's farm. The family don't trust organisations - she has to give her mobile phone to the father, Birger. They have a bunker ready with a year's supply of food.
Another girl goes missing. Hassan, Lelle's Muslim police friend, suspects he might be involved. Lelle hears that 2 youths with a bad reputation are saying that Varg confessed to Lina's murder, so he interrogates Varg at gun-point. He gives in his gun after. He sometimes gives Meja a lift from school.
Togen has burnt his porn. Annette is pregnant. She and Lelle had sex after the split, so the child might be his.
A girl is being kept locked up by a balachava'd man. Meja sees them when they are briefly in the open. Meja reports them to Birger and his wife who says "not again". Meja is locked up with the girl. Lelle turns up at the house when Meja's been absent from school for a week or so. Birger traps him too, tells him how he and his wife were both fostered, describing those who looked after them as "legitimised sadists". He tells Lelle that they knew that one of their sons had mental problems, but it wasn't until 3 years before, when they found he was holding a girl captive, that they realised how bad the problem was. The girl was Lelle's daughter, and she'd been held for 2.5 years. Birger tells Lelle that they'll bury him by his daughter. Birger and the 3 sons take Lelle to the site. Birger's wife shoots Birger just in time. Meja and the other girl are released. Meja becomes a substitute daughter for Lelle.
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