Annabelle

Crimetime Specsavers Award for Best Debut Crime Novel 2017.

On a warm summer evening, 17-year-old Annabelle disappears from the small town of Gullspång on the border of Västergötland and Värmland. The girl’s parents are devastated, the local police are clueless, and the Missing Persons Association’s search is proving fruitless.

Detective Inspector Charlie Lager is sent from Stockholm – a skilled policeman who has found a routine in his work that his inner chaos demands.

Charlie is reluctant and unwilling to drive, but in the end he does as he always does and obeys the order. This becomes a journey into the past – Charlie is forced to return to the place he left when he was 14, to the past and the childhood he has tried to leave behind.

As Charlie investigates the circumstances surrounding Annabelle, he discovers terrifying details about his origins…

“Lina Bengtsdotter’s debut is a superb, dense crime novel… like a Swedish summer night, relentlessly intrusive, with deceptive shadows and overgrown undergrowth. It’s got it all.” - Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter