Nine-year-old Ida has gone missing, and Sejer and Skarre head up the hunt, even as everyone, including Sejer and his own mother, suspects a local man, Emil, who never speaks. Details of Sejer’s investigation are interspersed with scenes from the lives of Emil and of Ida’s grieving family. Fossum follows her successful formula, providing the reader with insight into the victim’s family as well as the suspected and actual criminals, making the story as much about understanding the various characters as about the investigation. Yet this time, the story lacks some of the punch of her previous novels; the identity of the real killer is so clear early on that having Sejer overlook it comes across as an uncharacteristic mistake.