The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
This book was popping up on mystery lists everywhere for the past couple of months. It is the first Nina Borg mystery to be translated into English and it’s the first Danish mystery I’ve read. I will ruin a little of the suspense for you: the boy in the suitcase is alive. When I read the title my mind went to doom and gloom and to places I don’t wish to explore. While the tension is created around the main character, Nina, who is a clueless as we are about why this young boy is in a suitcase and her mind goes to where ours would (human trafficking, etc.), what is really happening is so much more intriguing and twisty than I would have suspected.
Nina Borg, our heroine, is likable despite her habit of disappearing from her family for months on end. She’s saving lives in Africa so you can’t really fault her. She is a nurse who needs to make a difference in the world and she does so wherever and whenever she can: which is why she feels the need to figure out why there is a three-year-old left in a suitcase without going to the authorities.
Not nearly as dark, brooding or gory as the Swedish mysteries that have been getting all the press as of late, this is a great introduction to Scandinavian mysteries for those that want a taste without the attendant depression of the Swedish ones. (I don’t know about all of you, but I need to read something light and happy after getting through a Swedish mystery.)
