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2000s: Someone they call the paperboy is targeting Jewish children in STockholm
The Chosen (Bergman & Recht 5)
What you need to know before your trail
A teacher is shot to death in front of children at a Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. then two Jewish boys go missing. Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht of the Stockholm police are fast on the case and it’s going to be a tough case to crack particularly as the city is then blanketed with snow, erasing any kind of evidence.
With all Jewish children and a teacher at the local Jewish congregation, could this be a series of hate crimes? The parents are unwilling to talk and the police have trouble making sense of any of it.
But the man they call the paperboy is about to make his next delivery..
Travel Guide
The Scandic scene is set from the very first page. Snow covering the city of Stockholm and a horrific shooting of a teacher at a Jewish school. There is a sizeable Jewish community in Sweden and this community comes into the spotlight in a way it never would have wanted to. The fear of hate crimes circulates amongst its people and with the snow literarily covering the perpetrator’s tracks, it’s not going to be easy.
The Jewish links take you to Israel and inside the work of the Secret Services from one country to another. The fact that the author has worked in this herself makes for a very realistic and scary atmosphere, which is a whole other notch above regular crime fiction. Secret worlds, the dark underbelly of society and those waiting in the shadows…
Then there is the story of the paperboy – a child’s job and innocent name for a first job, now something much more sinister:
Told his about the boy who hated children, and who waited for them in the barren landscape around the village where they lived. the paperboy.
Someone in a tale of legend told in a kibbutz in Israel who is now stalking the streets of Stockholm? The security links and the Israeli connection to a hideous series of crimes in sweden is a unusual and high level crime which has the police and the Sapo (Swedish security services) stepping on some very dangerous territory.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I love a good Scandi thriller and this one set in Stockholm is jam packed full of intrigue and mystery. What starts off as a murder of two young boys turns into something of international importance. This case turns out to be an issue of national security, terrorism and religion. And that’s not all.
The Paper Boy—a mysterious old Israeli legend of a nighttime killer— was something I’d never come across before in a novel and this brought the novel to a new level to me. Chilling, brilliant and complex. There are twisty twists and pulsating plots which interweave, seemingly randomly,but which are actually threaded with skill so you don’t see the overall pattern until the end.
Another one for your Scandi TBR pile I think!
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