Julia Davidsson tried to recover from the greatest tragedy
in her life, but she couldn't seem to stop grieving. When
her five-year-old son disappeared 20 years ago, she was
never able to find any sort of peace. Not knowing what
happened to Jens was devastating.
When Julia's father, Gerlof, received a small boy's sandal
in the mail -- one that looked remarkably like Jens', Julia
knew the time had come to confront her past. She wanted to
know what happened to her son, even if it meant returning
to her hometown of Oland and the ghosts that awaited her
there.
The town was much as she remembered it and being there
brought comfort along with the bad memories. Julia and her
father, who spent his days in a retirement home, begin to
ask questions and delve into Jens' disappearance, all the
while struggling with their own disjointed relationship.
Then one of Gerlof's friends dies and the two wonder if it
was really an accident as the police think. Julia is
frustrated that her father seems to keep pieces of the
story from her, but even despite that aggravation, she is
beginning to feel some acceptance of Jens' fate. Maybe she
should have come home sooner.
And yet, what really happened to her son? Julia and her
father keep digging -- and what they uncover will shock
their foundations.
The story of what happened to Jens will compel you to turn
pages of this Swedish mystery/suspense novel. Theorin
builds a strong, tightly pulled tension with back-and-forth
storytelling that visits 20 years ago when Jens disappeared
and returns to the present to track the steps of Julia and
Gerlof. A smoothly intertwined look at two time periods,
without losing the suspenseful pace, is a gift from
Theorin. An excellent read.
On a gray September day, on an island off the coast of
Sweden, six -year -old Jens Davidsson ventured out of his
backyard, walked out into a fog, and vanished….Now twenty
years have passed, and in this magnificent debut novel of
suspense—a runaway bestseller in Sweden—the boy’s mother
returns to the place where her son disappeared, drawn by a
chilling package sent in the mail… In it, lovingly
wrapped, is one of Jens’ sandals—sandals Julia Davidsson
put on her son’s feet that very last morning.
Now,
with only a handful of clues, Julia and her father are
questioning islanders who were present the day Jens
vanished—and making a shocking connection to Öland’s most
notorious murder case: the killing spree of a wealthy
young man who fled the island and died years before Jens
was even born. Suddenly the island that once seemed so
achingly familiar turns strange and dangerous… Until Julia
finds herself facing truths she never imagined—about what
really happened on that September day twenty years ago,
about who may have crossed paths with little Jens in the
fog, and how a child could truly vanish without a trace…
until now.