The Boy in the Suitcase (A Nina Borg Novel)

Perhaps to capitalize on the enormous success of the Stieg Larsson trilogy, the publisher Soho Crime is introducing The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaberbøl and Agnete Friis. It’s a smart and timely move. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the two others by Larsson, this is an offbeat, pulse-quickening adventure into what may be new terrain for most readers.

Placed in Copenhagen and Vilnius, and quickly switching back and forth in cinematic cuts, the mystery develops deeper and deeper as the chapters fly past.

We are treated to a highly unlikely heroine in the appearance of Nina Borg, a human rights worker (a wife and mother) who is drawn into an unexpected dilemma by a long-time friend who produces a key to a train station locker. Nina is to collect the contents that turn out to be a heavy suitcase. The instructions warn not to open it in public.

When opened, still in the station but hidden, Nina is shocked to find a naked three-year-old boy, drugged and alive. There is a suitably scary man chasing after the suitcase and the story escalates from there into a Hitchcockian twist.

Readers may be amused or confounded by trying to wrap their minds around some of the Lithuanian place names and surnames, but that won’t slow the acceleration of excitement as the pages turn.

This is part of a series, the first to be published in English, and was the number-one bestseller in Denmark—and with good reason. It is now available in nine languages and has won several book awards. It’s an absorbing story, one that may cause feigned illnesses to stay home and read.