Review: Silenced by Kristina Ohlsson

Title: Silenced

Author: Kristina Ohlsson

Series:Fredrika Bergman & Alex Recht, #2

Published: December 2013, Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Format: Paperback, 352 pages

Source: Personal copy

Summary: 

Fifteen years ago: A
teenage girl is viciously assaulted as she picks flowers in a field one
night in midsummer. The crime is never reported. Present day: A man with
no identification on his person is killed in a hit-and-run. He is never
reported missing. Across the city, a priest and his wife are found dead
in an apparent suicide.

Fredrika Bergman is assigned to the
case. What she and her colleagues discover is that a sinister evil, the
roots of which date back decades, is the link behind these seemingly
unrelated crimes. There’s a reason why none of them were ever reported,
and it has to do with a shocking and horrendous cover-up unlike anything
Fredrika could have possibly imagined.

Skillfully crafted and
highly suspenseful, “Silenced” is a gripping thriller in which the
consequences of past tragedies continue to haunt the present, reaching
further and deeper than anyone ever expected.

My thoughts: This is the second book in Kristina Ohlsson’s Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht series and I am really enjoying it. It’s a good mix of police procedural and psychological thriller, keeping you on your toes as the police work to solve the case.

What I’m really coming to enjoy in this series is that it seems as much attention is paid to the case the team is solving as the characters themselves, including the detectives. They are well-flushed out and we get really into their back stories and what is going on with them in their personal lives. I feel that this is an integral part of this series…it’s not just about the cases this team works on, but also about the team and their stories. I really like this aspect – I feel that I am really coming to know these characters inside and out, rather than just having a superficial understanding of who they are.

The case itself was quite interesting. What at first appears to be a murder-suicide keeps the team busy as the clues are few and far between. There are plenty of twists and turns in this case, keeping you wondering just who is telling the truth. As the detectives get further and further into the case, they untangle quite the web of secrets, making it more and more complicated!

I really love crime fiction and Scandinavian crime fiction is definitely a favorite of mine. Kristina Ohlsson is slowly becoming a top author for me and I cannot wait to continue on with the series, especially as it ends with some major developments in the main characters’ lives and I cannot wait to see where Kristina takes all this!

Books in this series:  

1. Unwanted
2. Silenced
3. The Disappeared
4. Hostage
5. The Chosen