Tres mujeres deberán afrontar su destino con un coraje propio de heroínas: Terese, quien descubre en una playa el cadáver de un hombre africano; María, que inicia una nueva vida tras entrar de forma clandestina en España; Ally, que busca a su marido desaparecido durante una investigación sobre las formas modernas de esclavitud.

I recently read We Know You Remember by this Swedish author and I quite enjoyed it (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/07/review-of-we-know-you-remember-by-tove.html)
so decided to read The Forgotten Dead, a standalone novel she wrote a few years ago.

Patrick Cornwall, a freelance investigative journalist, goes missing while working on a story in Paris. His wife Ally flies to Europe to find him after she has not heard from him in a while. She learns that he has been investigating illegal migrants being used for slave labour. As Ally retraces her husband’s movements, she realizes that he has learned that people at the highest levels of government and society are involved in human trafficking and exploitation and that they will do anything to protect their interests. Interspersed with Ally’s search for Patrick are sections set in Tarifa, Spain, where a Swedish tourist discovers the body of a black man presumed to be an African migrant.

What most interested me is the author’s tackling of an important social issue: “The figure 30 million was an estimate of the number of slaves in the world today . . . compared . . . to the 12 million slaves transported across the Atlantic – and that was over a period of 300 years.” “There were more slaves in the world than ever, in spite of the fact that all nations had passed laws to ban slave labour. Actually, the price had never been as low as it was now, just $90 on average. It was even possible to get a good slave from Mali for only $40. . . . In the 1880s, during the transatlantic slave trade to America, a slave cost $1,000. In today’s currency, that was equal to $38,000, which meant that now 4,000 slaves could be bought for the price of only one back then.”

I had some issues with the plot. Ally discovers the nature of Patrick’s investigation and easily identifies the main villains, though she is a set designer, not a detective or investigative journalist. Ally’s language comprehension is confusing: she claims not to understand much French and when she tries to “conjure up some words in French,” she can’t. But then her knowledge of French “resurfaced like a repressed memory”? She can speak Spanish but not read it? I also take exception to the ending which would be more appropriate in an action movie.

I preferred Alsterdal’s police procedural to this standalone, though the latter has motivated me to research further into the plight of migrants in Europe.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

Ally Cornwall, a theatre set designer in New York, has not heard from her husband, Patrick, for nearly two weeks now. Patrick, a highly respected investigative journalist, had gone to Paris to investigate reports of human trafficking, he may be undercover. When Ally, who btw has discovered she is pregnant, can’t reach Patrick by all the usual channels, she flies to Paris to look for him.

Ally’s search for her husband is relatively methodical and resourceful. Much has to be done in secret, so as not to comprise both the people who are in the country illegally, and those who shelter them. But, also those who exploit such vulnerable people and the thugs they employ.

Alsterdal has written an excellent mystery about a complex subject, it’s intelligent, detailed and engrossing. The reader is soon well-invested in Ally’s plight, just as the plot thickens and the suspense moves in like a dark cloud. In the end, the author deftly brings the story, more or less, back to the beginning.

Note: For those who may be sensitive, there is a rape in the book. There’s also a bit of revenge fantasy. I think the former is necessary to move the story forward to where the author ultimately takes it, while the latter is more gratuitous (but damn, it felt good….).

This is the Swedish author's first crime novel. I read her 2nd book, [We Know You Remember], last year, and enjoyed it (a first book in a proposed series) . ( )

Helt ok spänningsroman om ett aktuellt och skrämmande ämne. Människors girighet och vad man kan göra mot andra utsatta människor förvånar mig inte längre. ( )

The Forgotten Dead – Brilliant, Reflective of Europe Today

Tove Alsterdal’s The Forgotten Dead, has been translated in to English, and it is easy to see why this thriller won Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. Alsterdal has broken away from the Swedish, Scandi backdrop and scenery, even though a Swedish female does appear and Sweden does appear, to America, France, Spain and Portugal. While the setting is in more sunnier climes the thriller is just as dark as you would expect and want, and is a highly addictive thriller set in the dark underbelly of Europe’s dark secret, people smuggling, and ‘illegal’ immigrants.

Patrick Cornwall almost won the Pulitzer Prize, but that put his name out there as one of America’s top investigative reporters. He has set himself to garner the big prize in American journalism and knows he will really have to dig deep. His latest project is to investigate the plight of migrants trying to start a new life in Europe, some of whom never reach the shores of Europe. His desire is to expose the people smuggling, the corruption that runs at the highest levels of society.

Ally Cornwall, Patrick’s wife, is a set designer for theatres across New York, and she has just discovered she is pregnant. She wants to get in touch with Patrick and let him know the good news, but he is incommunicado and even his editor does not know where he is. Her last phone call was a rushed affair as he had to dash off to a fire.

A package arrives for Ally at the theatre she is working at and it is from Patrick telling her to keep it hidden, and she slowly becomes concerned about the welfare of her husband. She raids their savings and flies out to Paris, the last known place she knew her husband was. The more she delves into Europe’s dark underbelly the more she realises how much of an evil web he has been trying to expose. The more she realises that the criminals running this web will go to any extent to keep their secrets and profits hidden, and human life is considered cheap.

As Ally heads from Paris to Lisburn and then on to Spain, she seems to be chasing shadows, while at the same time as putting herself and her unborn child in danger. Ally as she discovers what is happening, is worried that she will not be believed in spite of the evidence that has been found, more importantly will she be able to find Patrick?

This is an excellent crime thriller, which Tove Alsterdal, has managed to condense a complex subject into a captivating story and asks all us Europeans to look a little closer at what is happening. This shows that trafficking people is highly profitable especially when their lives are so cheap. The Forgotten Dead will keep you engrossed from beginning to end, take a step in to the darkness, will you be able to escape? ( )