The Forgotten Girls (Louise Rick series (7)) Paperback – October 6, 2015

Louise Rick thinks she may have made a mistake leaving her job as a homicide detective to accept the newly commissioned position of technical manager of the Special Search Agency for Copenhagen. Her office is a couple of old rooms at the end of the hallway that have been named by her colleagues as the “Rathole”. And, although her new boss promised that she would be the one to hire her partner, she was set up with Eik Nordstrøm, who at first appearance, she deems incapable to perform the duties of the job description. Now her first case takes her back to old stomping grounds in mid-Zealand, a place she had run from long ago.Louise is just two weeks into her new position when a forest ranger happens upon a woman that has fallen to her death. Though Louise and Eik can find no matches in the missing persons’ files, they are called into the case to help identify the corpse. The woman is terribly scarred and dressed in threadbare, old-fashioned clothing. Matters become more interesting when semen is found on the woman but there is no evidence of sexual abuse or foul play and her death has been ruled an accident. When the autopsy turns up an indication of a broken forearm left untreated, a lack of dental care, and deep furrows in her brain confirming mental incapacity, Louise and Eik know they are dealing with a case out of their ordinary job parameters.A lucky break for positive identification comes when a former employee of a mental institution calls to say that she remembers caring for the woman and her twin sister as patients of the sanatorium. Delving deeper into the case, Louise and Eik discover death certificates for the sisters dated over 30 years ago. How is it possible that this woman died only days earlier and what has happened to her twin? The answers to these questions provide a harrowing tale that will keep readers steadfastly seeking answers.As the story moves through the investigation of the forgotten woman, more crimes take place in the same wooded area. Louise and Eik discover links between their investigation and the crimes that continue to occur. Spending so much time in the area Louise grew up is bringing back haunting memories she’s long pushed away. Louise is painfully private with a history she is not willing to share. Like Eik, the reader is eager to understand what Louise is feeling and what memories are causing her curious reactions to these feelings. While some events in Louise’s past are addressed, there are many questions that the reader will still continue to ponder. Research on the author of THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS, Sara Blaedel of Denmark, turned up the fact that this book is part of a series. Given this information, one would assume that Louise Rick, as well as her friend Camilla, (who presented her perspective in two chapters in the middle of the novel) have been developed much deeper than this book delves.This novel presented some horrific crimes, crimes that seemed quite unbelievable. Therefore, I was surprised to learn that while this book is a work of fiction for Blaedel, some of her events were actually based on true crimes.Though a bit predictable, readers will appreciate the heinous nature in which the story comes together. The story was indeed fascinating, but I believe that some thing has been lost in the translation. Nevertheless, readers will find themselves turning page after page of this engrossing novel to learn more about the mystery and its characters. Good news for Blaedel’s fans, the open-ended finish to the book suggests another story is yet to come.

I hate to give this book 3 stars, but I started reading this one right after Farewell to Freedom, which is the order of the books translated into English and felt like I skipped like 3 books. I don't understand why they would not be translated in order, it makes zero sense to me. These are strictly light pleasure reads for me and this one did not disappoint, but I couldn't shake the annoyed feeling I got trying to figure out where everyone from the previous book was in their lives. Jonas is practically driving, Camilla is shacking up with some guy she's engaged to (who is this guy?), the last relationship Louise had in the previous book has been over for YEARS, and she's starting a new job (why?). While the story was interesting, the skipping around in the series was disorientating and annoying. Hopefully she's not in an old folks home in the next book.

I liked the mystery part of the book -- who was responsible?I didn't like the fact it was so "dark".I actually read it twice, as there were so many characters to keep straight and I was curious if I missed hints of who the culprit was.

This book did keep me interested but thought it was slow moving..I also thought it jumped around a lot and characters could have been more interesting .

Good Read! Suspenseful and unusual story, with one twist after another. Easy to keep reading page after page. And the book has a strong multi-dimensional protagonist who cares. I'm on to the next one in the series.

I did not like this book. Yes, the content was disturbing but overall, it didn't make much sense. There was a major part of the story that was never explained at the end. The love interest came out of nowhere and never really went anywhere either. It seemed very scattered and very unrealistic as far as a crime story goes. The ending was very odd. I wonder if the translation to English was missed.

What a great and exciting book. It definitively kept you guessing all the way through. It was an exciting but depressing book at times (I should say the subject matter was).

When a woman is found dead near the woods it is really nothing unusual about that except she had already died a long time ago. This is the beginning of the horror that they find themselves in leading to the discovery of old mysteries that need conclusion and personal problems that have to be put to rest. Good read .

This is listed on Goodreads as the seventh Louise Rick novel and I've only read two others because not all are available in English or in the UK. I've enjoyed each one I've read and this one is no exception. In this one Louise is heading up a new unit in charge of searching for missing people. Her friend Camilla is about to get married but still manages to play an active part in the investigation! Louise and her new counterpart in the police unit, Eik, are investigating the discovery of a woman's body by a lake when they come across three children alone on the shore. This is just the start of a fascinating investigation into a case which spans decades. This was an easy and enjoyable read despite the subject matter

I am a big fan of dark Scandinavian mystery books, and the plot was original and a good one. There were a lot of digressions and I found the story choppy. The personal life of the detective, both past and present detracted from the case instead of enhancing the story. Too much time was spent on the upcoming wedding of her friend to a wealthy man. This friend,by the way, seemed to find out more clues in the case than our lead detective and her partner. Maybe some of the problems I had while reading it may have been due to the translation, as there was a grim, eerie mystery there which kept getting lost.

Good book

Great book.