We love reading... staff picks for August

The forgotten girls by Sara Blaedel ; translated by Signe Rød Golly
This is a disturbing, disturbing novel. Louise Rick starts her new job as the head of the Missing Persons Unit in Hvalso, her home town in Denmark. Her first case is to identify a middle aged woman found dead in the forest. She thinks this will be easy because of the shocking scar down one side of the woman's face. But Louise has no success until she releases a photo of the woman to the media and a former employee of state mental institution rings to say that she cared for Lismette many years ago.

Although nobody wants to talk and people keep putting obstacles in her way, Louise eventually discovers that Lismette is actually called Lise, and that she has a twin sister, Mette. They were taken into care after doctors convinced their father that he was incapable of looking after them. Lisemette, like the other children in the institution, was branded a ''forgotten girl.The doctor at the mental institution, long since dead, had signed death certificates when the girls were 17, reporting the cause of death as pneumonia. How is it then, that 30 years later Lise's barely cold body is found in the forest?  Where has she been all this time?  And where is Mette, who appears to still be alive?  And how will Louise explain all of this to the twins' traumatised father?

At the same time Louise is trying to solve this mystery, bodies of local women keep turning up and a suspicious white van is seen in the vicinity of the forest around the time of the attacks. Translated from the Danish, this is the first Scandinavian crime novel that really disturbed me. As the author races you towards the conclusion, Louise finds more secrets buried in the forest and the horrifying conclusion left me stunned.
~Deb H