Without A Trace

An investigative journalist, missing for two years without a trace.
A large quantity of drugs, adrift in the archipelago.
Three officers, two petty criminals, and a yellow labrador.

Dagge can’t believe his eyes when he tears open one of the six packages he found floating in the water. The white powder might as well have been diamonds. His partner in crime Branne doesn’t seem to understand the gold mine they have stumbled upon, and the labrador Dog obviously doesn’t understand jack shit, but Dagge does. Three million worth of cocaine. A Godsend. Or is it?

Detective Demian Vide would probably not say that he fled Stockholm and the Violent Crimes Unit, but when he saw that his childhood home in Luleå was up for sale, he jumped at the chance to get away from the brutality of the capital. Yet, the distance doesn’t erase the scars; by day, he is plagued by a sharp pain in his leg, and by night, his nightmares constantly pull him back to his last case when his partner was killed. However, taking a step down the ladder and choosing the quiet grind of routine police work may just be the savior.

Once in Luleå, Demian is appointed as mentor to two of Luleå police force’s younger detectives, Julia Berg and Khaled Zaki: a compromise where Demian himself no longer needs to be in the line of fire, but where his years of experience still comes in handy. Julia is the rookie talent who is driven by a thirst to prove herself, sometimes at the expense of her colleagues, while Khaled is the hothead who has worked as a police officer for years. Demian is tasked with keeping an eye on them both, but especially on Khaled – he has a few blunders on his record, and he is rumored to be involved in corruption and cover-ups.

Julia immediately gets a cold case on her desk: the disappearance of local journalist Lisa Wegelin. It doesn’t take long for Julia to see that the initial investigation is… lacking, to say the least. The initial theory was that Lisa either left of her own will or took her own life, but Julia isn’t buying it. As she digs deeper, a different picture begins to emerge. Was Lisa onto something dangerous… something someone didn’t want uncovered?

Meanwhile, Khaled has landed a high-profile case where two men have been arrested in the archipelago with several kilos of cocaine in the cargo of their boat. Though, a part of the shipment seems to be missing, and now the high-quality drug has started to surface on the streets of Luleå. Khaled is determined to figure out who is smuggling heavy narcotics into his town, but the closer he gets to the truth, the further he must go to protect those closest to him.

When Demian’s childhood friend Dagge keeps resurfacing in multiple investigations, Demian finds himself at his own moral crossroads. In a town where everyone seems to know everyone, loyalties run deep, and the three police officers must navigate in the murky waters of their own morality. Who is protecting who, and at what cost?

Without A Trace is the first installment of Anders Sundkvist’s new series Crime Scene North, where humor and intricately layered, yet realistic, criminal investigations are woven together. Here, Sundkvist has crafted likeable characters and a compelling trio, drawing the reader into a dynamic that is just as riveting as the steadily unfolding suspense. Solid, suspenseful and deeply rooted in the barren Nordic environment – this is Scandinavian noir at its best.