We in the United States begin 2018 with more Sara Blaedel. Regarded by many as the queen of Danish crime fiction, Blaedel made major waves in the U.S. with the unforgettable novel THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS, featuring Copenhagen Detective Inspector Louise Rick and her friend, journalist Camilla Lind. Blaedel has been actively writing and publishing for a number of years; as a result, there is some catching up to do. Thus fans will have much to look forward to thanks to her publisher and the journeyman translations of Thom Satterlee.

The first week of the new year brings us THE RUNNING GIRL, which was originally published in Denmark in 2009. Louise finds herself involved in two cases that, as mystery aficionados have come to expect, dovetail into each other. But Blaedel doesn’t keep us waiting too long for that to happen, and makes it occur in such an interesting way that the repercussions echo in an unexpected manner throughout the remainder of the novel.

"Sara Blaedel is amazing. She is in no particular hurry to get things moving in the first part of THE RUNNING GIRL as she begins to set things up, but as secrets and schemes unravel, you will find that you simply cannot read fast enough."

The first investigation concerns the murder of a man during a home invasion. It quickly develops that the victim had ties to a local biker organization that is thought to be involved in some shady dealings. Indeed, the investigation reveals that the deceased had quite a gap between his declared income and obvious expenses that only a secondary and unrevealed source of income could account for.

The second case is far more tragic. A children’s party, attended by Louise’s foster son, is horribly interrupted when a group of teenage hooligans invade the proceedings and assault the hostess. The attack directly results in a subsequent accident that claims the life of a child. The police identify the attackers, but while they are in the process of locating them, two are found deliberately burned to death in a local warehouse where they had been squatting and from which they had been previously evicted.

The mother of the young victim is immediately considered to be a suspect, and evidence is discovered that indicates she may well have decided to acquire a measure of revenge by taking the two doers off the map. Louise is reluctant to follow the evidence, even as she feels duty-bound to do so, and is all but positive that the real murderer roams free.

Meanwhile, Camilla is vacationing in the United States with her son, Markus, following the events back home from afar, even as she is moving ever closer to a seemingly minor but extremely important clue that will blow everything open. Things happen explosively as the novel’s conclusion bounces with startling rapidity across a number of revelations, some of which may play out over the course of future installments in the series.

Sara Blaedel is amazing. She is in no particular hurry to get things moving in the first part of THE RUNNING GIRL as she begins to set things up, but as secrets and schemes unravel, you will find that you simply cannot read fast enough. It should not be long before her commercial and critical success in the U.S. equals that which she has achieved abroad.