Hostage by Kristina Ohlsson

  Hostage by Kristina Ohlsson catches me up on this series.  An intense thriller that is quite different from the other books in this series, Hostage takes advantage of the author's experience as a  "political scientist who has previously worked for the Swedish Security Service and as a Counter-Terrorism Officer at OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)."

After The Disappeared, the previous book in the series, Fredrika Bergman left the police and joined the Justice Department.  When a series of bomb threats disrupt Stockholm, Fredrika ends up as a liaison between the police, the Justice Dept., and Sapo   In the midst of this investigation comes another complication--a bomb threat to a Boeing 747 heading for New York.

Hostage also introduces Eden Lundell of the Security Service's counter-terrorism unit.  Eden plays a part in the next book as well.  (I read The Chosen, Ohlsson's latest book first, and then went back and picked up the earlier books in the series.)  

A riveting plot that addresses some of the fears of terrorism that exist  for countries world-wide, Hostage has a twist at the end that is a bit unsettling, but realistic.  Ohlsson avoids a definite sense of closure in most of her books.  Life rarely allows endings wrapped tight with a bow, and while Ohlsson prefers to close a specific case, she tends to include a twist implying that sometimes solving a case does not solve the problem.

Some readers were not happy with the switch from purely police investigation to a plot that involves terrorism, but by doing so  Ohlsson opens up the opportunity to introduce new characters and examine contemporary problems.  This is especially true because Sweden has long had a reputation for its humanitarian acceptance of refugees, but in the last few years has begun to face huge problems as cultures and ideologies clash.

Library copy.

Suspense/Thriller.  2012.  trans. 2015.  400 pages.