Synopsis from amazon.uk:
"In The Grand Hotel, a homeless woman charms a businessman into paying for dinner and a room. When his dead body is discovered the following morning she becomes the prime suspect. When a second person is killed in similar circumstances, Sybilla, having left her comfortable middle class upbringing for the anonymity of the streets, becomes the most wanted person in Sweden ...
Missing is a totally compelling read and a classic thriller that confirms Alvtegen as a crime writer worth comparison with Henning Mankell. But at its core, the book also explores the terrifying isolation for a woman who has rejected the values of her background and intimacy of her family."

From the book:
"Karin Alvtegen is regarded as one of the most exciting new crime writers in Scandinavia. Missing was awarded the premier Scandinavian crime writing award and was also nominated for the Poloni Award and Best Crime Novel 2000 in Sweden. It is currently being translated into sixteen languages. Alvtegen lives in Stockholm.
Anna Paterson has worked as a literary translator from Germanic languages for over a decade. She won the prestigious Bernard Shaw Prize for Literary Translation in 2000."

Here is the thread in the forum:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/3637496/1

This is a page turner!
I like this book so much that I would like to share it with you.
So I bought this English copy and want to send it out in a bookring around the world.
If you would like to take part in this ring, please send me a PM with your shipping preferences.

Please journal the book when you receive it.
This bookring is not a race! I don’t like stress, so if you need to keep the book more than four weeks, please just make a journal entry to let us know when you can send the book to the next person on the list. And, of course, make a journal when you have read the book and sent it. It’s alright to use surface mail.

List of participants:
booklady331 USA (pref. USA)
azuki USA (pref. USA)
Kaetzchen-GA USA (intl) asked to be skipped
queensknob USA
spaceystacey USA (intl)
eicuthbertson Canada (intl)
kinedi Scotland (pref. Eu.)
Nell-Lu Scotland (pref. UK)
Necroscope UK (pref. UK)
beekeeper40 UK (intl)
dutchbooky Netherlands (pref. Eu.)
chich France (intl)
Icila France (intl)
bluefenix211 Brunei (intl)
to Alvhyttan <--- the book came back home from being out in the world on a bookring

This book was mailed today to booklady331, it will arrive in a week.

Happy reading everyone!

Arrived today. Thank you so much for the postcard. I feel like I know you. I am currently finishing up a couple of books. I'm placing this on my night table.

Off to azuki as part of the bookring. Interesting thing is that I am sending her a book she won for my RABCK for registering over 900 books. I will put the three books together.

Received book in the mail thanks. Thanks also for the pretty bookmarks included in the book. As this and Gosta Berling's Saga will continue to travel together to Kaetzchen in GA, I will finish both books and mail them together.

I enjoy the read, though to me the book doesn't really feel like a crime novel till well into the second half. It is entertaining enough, though I don't feel that it's fast paced. Maybe there are too many fast-paced novels out there now. Or probably it's more because of the many flash back scenes (though they didn't take away fm the story, and I actually prefer this book which delves more into the characters rather than one that reads like an action movie with no substance).

Waiting for Kaetzchen-GA's address to move the book on. She will be the last stop before Missing and Gosta Bering part way. I am curious whether the books will meet up again some where down the road?

Kaetzchen-GA asked to be skipped. So this book and Gosta Berling had a little farewell party, with lots of hugs and kisses and tearful promises to meet again, some day in the future, and finally parted way. Queensknob should be receiving this in a week or two. Enjoy!

Received book today.

9/22/06...I really enjoyed this book - interesting, mind provoking. Sending along to spaceystacey tomorrow.

Received in the post today. A bit of a travel but not weathered at all. Will be reading shortly and then posting back on the journey.

I really enjoyed this book. What a tale about a young mentally ill young woman, who is framed for murdering several people who are all connected in a way that she must find out to free herself from the clutches of the police.

I loved this novel and will be posting it out today to Canada. Thanks for sharing this great read.

Thank you to spaceystacey for sending this book on & to alvhyttan for starting this ring.
I can start reading it right away.

Well, I thought this was excellent! Great characters, interesting & suspenseful plot with lots of action & various settings & an unexpected ending. Read this straight through once I started.

I've already added the author, Karin Alvetagen, to my wish list.

This book is now ready for its trip to Scotland.
Thanks, everyone!

"Missing" is now on its way to kinedi in Scotland.

Arrived safely in Scotland. Thanks for posting all the way from beautiful BC.Thanks also for the card from your hometown.

I must admit being a bit disappointed with this book. I do like Scandinavian writers very much and was very keen on reading a new one. I found the story line too articifial (for lack of a better word) and rather unconvincing how Sibylla goes out trying to catch the killer herself. I was expecting something deeper I guess as the flashbacks to Sibylla's childhood and the relationship to her parents led me to believe but in the end she gets the money to buy her cottage in the country and lives happily ever after ?? Still, thanks very much for this opportunity to read another Swedish author. I have PM'd Nell-Lu for her address and will post it out after Xmas - the queues at the post office are horrendous at the moment anyway.

Well, what a small small world this is. I PM'd Nell-Lu for her address and it turns out she works in the same building as me, how cool is that ? I can therefore handdeliver the book tomorrow and say hello to her in person too.Great !

RELEASE NOTES:

Passed on to Nell-Lu

I picked this up at lunchtime. Thanks, Kinedi, for leaving it in my pigeonhole - sorry I missed you. I hope we can get together in the New Year.

Thanks also to Alvhyttan for sharing - I'm looking forward to reading this. I'll get onto it later this week.

I read this in one sitting last night, so I guess you can say it was a page-turner! I enjoyed it - I don't often read thrillers, but this had plenty to offer beyond the search for a murderer. I was interested, although a little bit unconvinced, by Sybilla's life and enjoyed the structure of the book.

Thanks again, Alvhyttan, for starting the bookring, and everyone else for getting the book to me. I haven't heard from Necroscope so I will PM again and get this on its way as soon as I have an address.

I haven't heard anything from Necroscope, so have just PMed again. I'll post an update as soon as I receive his/her postal address and can get this book moving.

I have Necroscope's address, so this book is going out in today's post!

just received, don't you just know it, three bloody bookring books arrived together.
This is labelled second to read.

just not enough time

What an excellent book, with a vivid view into the homeless, even if it was by choice. I love novels that slip back and forth, as we get a great insight into sybilla's past and the torment's of her parents and upbringing. The characters are written so well that I wanted to strangle the mother for her treatment od her daughter. I have seen this behaviour before and it really touches a nerve with me. The book is slow paced but this is no loss as you develop real feeling for sybilla as her hopes are dashed and her future becomes so uncertain. This was such a great book that I am going to try and get hold of the other books written by her.

An excellent bookring. Thank you so much !

Sending to the next person beekeeper40

Arrived safely - thank you!

I really liked this book and once I had started to read it I couldn't put it down. The pace kept up until the end.

Thanks Alvhyttan for the chance to read this one. Pming next reader.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to Dutchbooky in The Netherlands.

Caught in the mail today. It will have to wait a while, the ring books are piling up here. Will try to finish it within the next month, though. Thanks for sharing Alvhyttan and Beekeeper for sending it. The package got torn a bit, but luckily the book was still inside!

Finished this book in two days, travelling to and from work! Loved the book and found it to be a page turner too! It was my first by Alvtegen, but I will definitely look out for her other books.

As soon as I receive Chich's address, I will mail it on.

Edit March 4: I will mail the book out this week!

Book received today, thanks a lot dutchbooky! Thanks for the lovely postcard too:)

This is one of two rings I received today but I should be able to read it within the next month. Thanks for sharing Alvhyttan!

A good crime novel:) The plot is well-constructed, if not very original, and keeps the reader turning the pages until the very end:) Thanks for sharing Alvhyttan!

I already have Icila's address and will send her the book later today.

---------
This is letter A for my ABC Challenge 2007.

Received today. Thanks. I have already several bookrings to be read, so please be kind to me. ;)

I enjoyed my reading, wanted to slap Sybilla's mother.
Thanks Alvhyttan for sharing.

bluefenix211 is Pmed in Brunei.

This book is home again! :)
Thanks to Icila, who sent it to me!

And thanks to all the participants!
I think this has been a successful bookring.
It has been fun and interesting to read all the journals.

The book will soon travel again.

Tomorrow this book will be in the mail again.
I hope you will enjoy it Cassiopaeia! :)
And thank you for my wings!!! :D

Thank you so much, arrived in today's post. I'm really looking forward to reading this book. So far the only other Swedish author I have read is Henning Mankell, I really enjoyed his 'Firewall'. Thank you for the chance to read a different writer. The stamps were wonderful, particularly the Astrid Lingrens!

Enjoyed this book very much. The unveiling of the murders themselves were fairly straight forward, but what I found most engaging was the character of Sybilla, her situation, her state of mind and her mother; and yes I wanted to slap her too, like many previous readers. Actually slap is probably too mild a term for what she made me feel like doing! Many thanks Alvhyttan for sending this book to Wales, I will release it again but it will have to wait a little while for the right occassion.

Wow this book has travelled!! I picked it up from the book buffet table at the convention.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

If you're reading this, you've caught a book! Congratulations, and welcome to Bookcrossing. You've come to a friendly place. Hope you enjoy the book, and the free no-spam website. Please make a short note to let me know what you thought of the book, then feel free to keep it or set it free to continue its journey. If you choose to join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see where the book goes on its travels!