When a mother is found dead in a Stockholm suburb, Annika Bengtzon, with her journalist's instinct, immediately associates it with other similar murders from the past few months - and is off on the track of a serial killer. She hasn't got far with the story before a much bigger one breaks - her husband Thomas, along with other EU representatives on a fact-finding mission in Kenya, has been kidnapped.
Borderline is a tense two, or even three, storyline thriller following Thomas' suffering with his abductors, Annika's desperate attempts to raise the ransom money to free him, and the background thread as Annika's fellow journalists pursue the serial killer story.
Having read several of this series, I've come to know Annika and Thomas like friends, following their marital ups and downs, their falling-outs and making-ups, over several years. During that time, Annika's had more than her fair share of being kidnapped or held captive. Now it's Thomas' turn, and it's all together more frightening than anything Annika has faced - mainly, I think, because the reader expects the lead character of a series to survive, and Thomas doesn't share that guarantee. Following Annika and Thomas alternately, the author captures Thomas' despair and terror in the hands of his kidnappers, the humiliations and brutality the hostages have to cope with, and Annika's disbelief and helplessness.
A book that truly kept me on the edge of my seat, reading through the night and desperately hoping for a happy ending. Does all end well? For that,you'll need to read it!
translated by Neil Smith
Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Corgi/Transworld
Genre - adult crime thriller
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