A very engaging and enjoyable Danish crime story. Detective Superintendent Konrad Simonsen returns to duty after a heart attack and is assigned a case to tidy up, a man found dead at the foot of his staircase that may not be accidental. Konrad is not the only officer who is recovering, another officer is recovering from being kidnapped and they two are on the case together. Konrad Simonsen investigates the case diligently and finds something in the dead man’s attic that opens up the case in a very unexpected direction. There is a sub plot regarding a school shooting that neatly intersects the main plot line and a issue about the death of a woman who had been involved in a previous investigation. All the plot threads are steadily drawn together and the conclusion is deeply sad.
The story is a slow burn, the investigation is slow because it was intentionally set up as a exercise in tying up a loose end rather than an active investigation. As the evidence of wrong doing slowly comes to light and the investigation starts to crystallize the investigation starts to gain momentum. This threads of the plot lead back into the past and a lot of people have every reason to resist them being brought into the light. The final unraveling is unexpected and sad, revealing a situation that has a sharp inevitability given the cast and the circumstances.
Konrad Simonsen is an engaging lead character, full of sharp edges he does not invite sympathy, his strong moral sense and deep competence draw the reader in. Lotte & Soren Hammer put him in a corner which they resolve with confident and very enjoyable skill, it is both credible and satisfying. Lotte & Soren Hammer are such capable and confident writers that they manage to make a group of very awkward and difficult characters deeply sympathetic. There is never any absolution , there is an unexpected depth of understanding that gives the story great depth and force.
The translation by Martin Aitken is transparent, the story is clearly Danish and the English is natural and unforced.
The Vanished is a slow burn story, it is unhurried and deliberate while never being slow, Lotte & Soren Hammer are confident in the strength of the cast and the emerging plot mechanics to be willing to give the story the room it needs to unfold to its full glory. Great crime fiction.
