Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off toward town. A good-natured, happy girl, she is looking forward to her tenth birthday. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother starts to worry. She phones store owners, Idaโs friendsโanyone who could have seen her. But no one has.Suspicion immediately falls on Emil Mork, a local character who lives alone and hasnโt spoken since childh ...Full description
Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off toward town. A good-natured, happy girl, she is looking forward to her tenth birthday. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother starts to worry. She phones store owners, Idaโs friendsโanyone who could have seen her. But no one has.Suspicion immediately falls on Emil Mork, a local character who lives alone and hasnโt spoken since childhood. His mother insists on cleaning his house weeklyโalthough sheโs sometimes afraid of what she might find there. A motherโs worst nightmare in either caseโto lose a child or to think a child capable of murder. As Idaโs relatives reach the breaking point and the media frenzy surrounding the case begins, Inspector Konrad Sejer is his usual calm and reassuring self. But heโs puzzled. And disturbed. This is the strangest case heโs seen in years.