THE LOST BOY Fjallbacka, Book 7

Simon Vance is in his element voicing this complicated Swedish police drama, which includes a portrait of a whole interconnected society familiar to readers of Lackberg’s very popular earlier audiobooks. Lackberg’s elaborate multilayered plot shifts scenes suddenly and often. Vance doesn’t always make these jump cuts clear, and while his distinctions between male and female, young and old, are very good and very entertaining, it’s less easy to tell apart individuals within these categories (this old man from that one.) This only matters because there are so many characters, and it doesn’t matter much. It’s a story and a performance that very much rewards attention; you care about these people and what is happening to them and the wrap-up is satisfying and not too tidy. B.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2017]