- this edition published by Scribe 2017
- translated by Paul Norlen from Norwegian
- ISBN 978-1-925322-06-4
- source: review book from publisher
- 336 pages
‘Death, death, death,’ she whispered to herself. But it was already too late. The panic was growing inside her.
On a cold and stormy Friday in May, a young girl disappears without a trace from outside Stockholm’s Royal Tennis Hall.
The missing girl is Lycke, and assigned to report on her story is TV4’s hot-headed crime reporter Ellen Tamm. As the police begin their search, Ellen starts her own investigation, delving into Lycke’s life: her family, the nanny, the kids who taunted her at school.
As Ellen is drawn deeper into a tangle of secrets, lies, and betrayals — and frustrated by the odd behaviour of Lycke’s family, as well as corrupt police, her upstart new boss, and the disturbing threats being made against her — she becomes more and more possessed by the task she has been given, tortured by the echoes of her own past, of the darkness that haunts her.
Will she find Lycke before it is too late for either of them?
Mikaela Bley’s debut, Lycke, is the haunting first novel in the Ellen Tamm thriller series, and is an exciting new voice in Swedish crime writing.
My Take
Ellen's mother thinks she should never have taken on this assignment. It will remind her too much of the tragedy in her own life when she was the same age as the missing child. Ellen is the crime reporter for a TV station and a missing child is not really a crime story - not, that is, until a body is found or an abduction suspected.
For Ellen though finding the child becomes personal. She feels that the police are not taking the situation seriously enough. She has her own paid source within the police but even he at times gets it wrong. Ellen works extraordinary hours, trying to come up with new angles to follow up.
As Ellen interviews the mother, the father, the stepmother and the nanny, she gets uncomfortable vibes. This is not a child who experienced a lot of love. But she is only 8 years old, from a middle class family, and already she has been the object of a custody battle.
As the investigation continues Ellen herself becomes to object of hate email, and a vendetta by viewers commenting on her presentations. Her own past is thrown in her face.
My rating: 4.4
About the author
Sweden’s new Queen of Crime. Mikaela Bley is a new star among the Swedish crime stars, and with her debut, Lycke, she sweeps the floor with many of them.’
Mikaela Bley was born in 1979 and lives in Stockholm with her husband and two children.
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