Ms. Alsterdal weaves together her characters’ private and professional concerns in a manner reminiscent of such Swedish masters as Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö and Henning Mankell. When Eira’s boss GG disappears without a trace, You Will Never Be Found, translated by Alice Menzies, kicks into higher gear and races with tremendous velocity toward a euphoric resolution.
These are ingredients for a slalom-paced police-procedural, but if you’re expecting to get that in these pages, this is clearly your first go-round with the weird sub-genre of Scandi Noir. Like its predecesso...You Will Never Be Found puts out all the ingredients for a feast, works up both the hunger and the interest of its guests, the readers, and then goes for a long, ruminative, and solitary walk ... At least the ingredients are high-quality ... Readers already addicted to the half-light and lowering snow of Scandinavian Noir will eagerly consume You Will Never Be Found, the latest from a rising star of the sub-genre. Everybody else might want to think about taking a reading vacation to the French Riviera or sunny Italy.
If you’re a fan of Nordic noir, this dark mystery, the second in the High Coast series, should suit your taste for the shivery. Everything is dystopian to the nth degree ... Some readers may find the relentless bleakness over the top, but noir fans should savor it all, especially for the bite that Alsterdal brings to Eira’s dauntless character.
Often gripping but haphazardly plotted ... A strong sense of place—in particular, the remote, sparsely populated north of Sweden—helps compensate for the meandering narrative and the author’s sometimes clumsy efforts to impose profundity and unearth big themes about societal change ... Scandi noir fans will hope for a tighter plot next time.
