The Boy in the Suitcase

September 12, 2011
In this riveting first in a new Danish crime series, hard-working Copenhagen nurse Nina Borg can’t say no to nursing school friend Karin’s cryptic request to pick up a package at the train station. There, stuffed in a suitcase inside a locker, Nina finds a three-year-old boy, drugged but alive. A near altercation with a violent man, who arrives at the locker soon after and is furious to find the suitcase empty, quashes Nina’s instincts to call the police. Child in tow, she tries to track down Karin to understand her involvement and discover whether the boy, Mikas, who speaks only Lithuanian, is a victim of sex trafficking. Meanwhile, others are searching frantically for Mikas, from his mother in Vilnius to the men who’ll stop at nothing to recover their “cargo.” Without flashy plot devices, Kaaberbøl and Friis let Nina’s particular blend of stoicism and vulnerability guide the story.

February 27, 2012
Kaaberbol and Friis’s latest installment in the bestselling Nina Borg series finds Nina—a nurse, mother, and wife—working with women and child refugees. One day she receives a call from an estranged friend named Karin who asks her to pick up a suitcase from a public locker. When Nina finds the locker, she discovers a naked three-year-old boy—drugged but alive—inside the case. Thus begins Nina’s effort to help the boy and discover his identity. But when Karin is beaten to death, Nina is sure that her life—and that of the young boy—is in danger. Katherine Kellgren turns in a winning performance in this audio edition. Her gritty, nasal, and vaguely ominous narration perfectly captures the essence of this bizarre thriller. Additionally, she lends Kaaberbol and Friis’s characters a wide range of unique voices and European accents. A Soho hardcover.