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15th out of 141 books
—
221 voters
The Boy in the Suitcase (Nina Borg #1)
by
Lene Kaaberbøl,
Agnete Friis (Goodreads Author)
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a thr...more
Hardcover, 313 pages
Published
November 8th 2011
by Soho Crime
(first published 2008)
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Remember "it was a dark and stormy night ..." the headline that grabs your attention and leaves you a little jumpy, wondering what's around the next corner? That's THIS book! I loved this book literally AT THE TITLE.
I wanted to know - what boy? Why was he in a suitcase? Alive? Or Not?
This book is John Hart meets Stieg Larsson! Even though this book started out a bit confusing - the characters are jumbled together and introduced a little haphazardly, I found that part of the intrique! It does st...more
Mar 18, 2012
Syahira Sharif
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
like thriller and the "hattar kvinnor" dark world in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
6 likes · like · see review
I liked the story line but that's about it. I don't think it was executed well enough for my tastes or maybe I am judging this book rather harshly after just reading two great books. This is a list of problems I had with this book:
1)I did not like the way the characters were introduced in the book.
2)I do not like keeping track off too many characters that just kept cropping out at the beginning of the book without any idea of how they related to one other.
3)Every chapter was a new character w...more
1)I did not like the way the characters were introduced in the book.
2)I do not like keeping track off too many characters that just kept cropping out at the beginning of the book without any idea of how they related to one other.
3)Every chapter was a new character w...more
15 likes · like · see review
I've just finished reading The Boy in the Suitcase and boy what a book, what a thriller, what a story.
The characters are very well described and it's pretty easy to understand who is who despite some of the reviews I read here.
The action and the atmophere are very well described too and it's full of suspense, twists and turns.
But the thing that I liked the most is the fact that many of the actions described in the story seem to be motivated out of love, even the actions that are all but noble. O...more
The characters are very well described and it's pretty easy to understand who is who despite some of the reviews I read here.
The action and the atmophere are very well described too and it's full of suspense, twists and turns.
But the thing that I liked the most is the fact that many of the actions described in the story seem to be motivated out of love, even the actions that are all but noble. O...more
Dec 02, 2011
Aubrey
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Liz Mathews, Ingrid Powell, Ron Hogan, Guy Gonzalez, Trudy Russell & Jenny Arch
Recommended to Aubrey by:
Juliet Grames
First I have to say---what a tremendous book! I don't usually read thrillers---I usually find them too stressful to read on top of everything else I have to deal with in life---and also the title threw me off initially because reading about atrocities done to children is not something I want to read about (if the last bit throws you off too, take it from me as someone who can't read that sort of stuff, you will be surprised when you open this book what it actually turns out to be---I can't say m...more
17 likes · like · see review
Another entry in the Scandinavian mystery/thriller category. This one was very good and not nearly as violent as Steig Larsson's first book (I prefer the lower violence levels). Will read the next book then see if this is a series I want to stick with. This book had lots of characters moving in and out. I did not pay close enough attention to this in the beginning, so sometimes was confused about who was related to whom. I'll do better on the next book!
7 likes · like · see review
Really 3.5 stars. Very interesting and with an ending not at all what you might expect from the title. The plight of immigrants in their own countries or new countries was subtly woven in a page turning thriller. I will say the beginning was slightly confusing jumping from place to place and it took a bit to see the threads and motivations start to come together but ultimately there was a satisfactory - and very surprising ending.
I had the good fortune to meet both authors recently at our local...more
I had the good fortune to meet both authors recently at our local...more
Dec 26, 2012
Kathleen Hagen
added it
audible.com.
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is trying to live a quiet life. The last thing her husband wants is for her to go running off on
another dangerous mission to help illegal refugees. But when Nina's friend, Karin, asks her to help her, and gives her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train
station, begging her to collect its contents. Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous case yet. Because inside the suitcase is a three-year-old
boy: naked and drugged,...more
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is trying to live a quiet life. The last thing her husband wants is for her to go running off on
another dangerous mission to help illegal refugees. But when Nina's friend, Karin, asks her to help her, and gives her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train
station, begging her to collect its contents. Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous case yet. Because inside the suitcase is a three-year-old
boy: naked and drugged,...more
Feb 26, 2013
Pr Latta
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Pr by:
via Audiofile Magazine
Shelves:
audio,
europe,
families,
momlit,
multiple-viewpoints,
medical,
murders,
realistic-fiction,
scandinavian,
strong-women,
suspense,
violent,
translated
I'm very conflicted about this audiobook and I don't know how much is my own lack of knowledge of the Scandinavian and Eastern European political /cultural situation and my unfamiliarity with names and accents. I don't know if this would be as big an issue in print, since I could go back, look up, etc. I found myself too often lost, not knowing what country I was in or who was actually talking through no fault of the talented narrator. Unlike Sigita (mother of the boy), the main character of the...more
A wealthy businessman is stuck on an airplane on the tarmac in a foreign airport, at the mercy of 'regulations'. There is no way he will be home in time. He calls his secretary with instructions, confidant she will follow through.
Nina reluctantly decides to answer her somewhat estranged friend's plea, she retrieves a heavy case from a rail station locker. When she finds a private spot she opens it. A small naked boy is folded inside. After a moment, Nina realizes he is alive. Now what is she sup...more
Nina reluctantly decides to answer her somewhat estranged friend's plea, she retrieves a heavy case from a rail station locker. When she finds a private spot she opens it. A small naked boy is folded inside. After a moment, Nina realizes he is alive. Now what is she sup...more
Nina, the heroine nurse of the story, is asked by a friend of hers to pick a suitcase for her. She discovers a young boy in the suitcase, and instead of acting like a logical person (such as, calling the police for finding the owner of said drugged three year old), she decides to play a detective and find herself where the boy belongs. She discovers early on that there are some really bad guys after the toddler too, so she flees.
A great start, but it takes forever to get to real action (like mat...more
A great start, but it takes forever to get to real action (like mat...more
The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis is a spellbinding tale of eastern European child trafficking and its impact on Nina Borg, a nurse with a manic compulsion to save the world regardless of danger to herself and the psychological cost to her own family.
A very young Lithuanian boy has been stolen from his mother for mysterious purposes. The mother is frantic. The boy has been put into a suitcase and the suitcase put into a locker in Denmark. The three year old child has be...more
A very young Lithuanian boy has been stolen from his mother for mysterious purposes. The mother is frantic. The boy has been put into a suitcase and the suitcase put into a locker in Denmark. The three year old child has be...more
I tend to like books that have no more than 3 to 4 well-developed characters. Any more and I get lost unless the characters are extremely distinct. Most of the characters in this book were well developed and easy to follow but a few were not easy to fit into the plot. However, this book had enough good writing and interesting characters to keep me reading it, but by the end, when everything was explained, I still felt a little confused. It isn't a book I would read again or buy as a gift, but I...more
Kaaberbol and Friis's The Boy in the Suit Case got a lot of advance publicity, nice to see in a new (to the US market, anyway) author. Coming so soon after Larsson's Dragon trilogy, I was a little skeptical that this Danish writing team was going to be just a knock-off, like what happened after Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.
Was I wrong. Kaaberbol and Friis delivered a good read. And for some of the same reasons that Steig Larsson did - the complacent Danish populace, secure and righteous contrast...more
Was I wrong. Kaaberbol and Friis delivered a good read. And for some of the same reasons that Steig Larsson did - the complacent Danish populace, secure and righteous contrast...more
A three-year old Lithuanian boy is kidnapped;his single mother tries desperately to find him. Meanwhile, in Denmark, a nurse named Nina Borg finds him in a suitcase and sets out to find his family. Will mother and child be reunited?
The point of view skips between various characters and countries. The effect is to create suspense: how will all these characters be brought together? The multiple perspectives also humanize the characters, even the villains.
My problem with the book is the character...more
The point of view skips between various characters and countries. The effect is to create suspense: how will all these characters be brought together? The multiple perspectives also humanize the characters, even the villains.
My problem with the book is the character...more
14 likes · like · see review
Nina Borg is a Red Cross nurse working in a refuge centre in Copenhagen where she tries to keep the vulnerable safe from those who would use and abuse them. A job that is often futile and frustrating, especially since Nina is in the habit of taking every case personally and getting involved with them on an emotional level.
She has just witnessed a young Ukrainian woman go back to her Danish fiancé who almost certainly abuses her, when she receives a call from her old friend Karin. Although contac...more
She has just witnessed a young Ukrainian woman go back to her Danish fiancé who almost certainly abuses her, when she receives a call from her old friend Karin. Although contac...more
The authors met at a Master Class, Ms. Kaaberbol the teacher and Ms. Friis the student, and the relationship developed into the two collaborating on one of many relatively recent Scandinavian novels which have become a sensation in the US and around the world. With good reason.
As the book opens, a young woman, Karin Kongsted, opens a locker at the Central Station on instructions from her employer, and pulls out the suitcase which had been placed therein. When she opens it she finds inside it a s...more
As the book opens, a young woman, Karin Kongsted, opens a locker at the Central Station on instructions from her employer, and pulls out the suitcase which had been placed therein. When she opens it she finds inside it a s...more
Nina Borg a Danish Red Cross nurse, just can not say no to helping friends. So when her friend Karin ask her to pick up a suitcase in a locker Nina reluctantly accepts. The suitcase contains a naked drugged boy. Nina instinctively knows she can not take the boy home and when she tracks down Karin at her home, Karin is dead. Beaten to death and Nina knows the killer is looking for her and the boy. She also knows the boy is not Danish and she knows what happens to children lost in the Danish socia...more
Nina Borg (our protagonist) is employed as a nurse by a secret organization offering (against the law) medical care to illegal immigrants. Asked by a friend to run a simple errand and pick up something from an airport locker Nina suspects immediately that something is wrong when her friend warns her not to look into the suitcase until she is out of the airport. As a reader we know that cannot be good! Sure enough what she discovers is a boy. Knowing something is wrong Nina is reluctant to turn t...more
This is one of the few books which defies conventional categorization; while still managing to present a flawless work. It may appear to be a thriller at first glance, but the further one reads into the story the more elements such as mystery and even contemporary drama become apparent.
This story is very dark and gritty, but the things that make this a fact are not as straight forward as one would think. Though the foremost story-line concern the questions which surround the boy in the suitcase...more
This story is very dark and gritty, but the things that make this a fact are not as straight forward as one would think. Though the foremost story-line concern the questions which surround the boy in the suitcase...more
While Scandinavian mysteries have been popular for some time now, The Boy in the Suitcase stands out because of the female lead, Nina Borg. A "do-gooder" who can't say no even when she knows better captures her exactly. She's cares quickly and a little too much but fortunately she also has investigative skills to support her good Samaritan actions.
The other characters fall closer to the type. Kaaerbol and Friis deliver clear, crisp language and a well crafted story. Through descriptions and acti...more
The other characters fall closer to the type. Kaaerbol and Friis deliver clear, crisp language and a well crafted story. Through descriptions and acti...more
“The Boy in the Suitcase,” by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis is continually compared to Steig Larson’s trilogy, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Both are Swedish authors, both have similar titles, both are action packed. But that’s pretty much where the similarities stop. While I was not a fan of Larson’s trilogy, mainly for its jumbled writing, and needless violence, this book, “The Boy in the Suitcase” was much more a triumph.
The reader is engaged into the story immediately by the author’s...more
The reader is engaged into the story immediately by the author’s...more
The Boy in the Suitcase is yet another Scandinavian crime novel (this one from Denmark), and it's a solid thriller, but there's nothing that makes it too terribly memorable with the exception of the nearly unbelievable stupidity of one of the main characters, Nina Borg.
Nina is an educated woman, a nurse, but time after time in this novel, she makes unbelievably stupid decisions. Of course, had she made common-sense choices--nothing requiring great wisdom, just simple common sense--then there wou...more
Nina is an educated woman, a nurse, but time after time in this novel, she makes unbelievably stupid decisions. Of course, had she made common-sense choices--nothing requiring great wisdom, just simple common sense--then there wou...more
8 likes · like · see review
When Nina Borg, a nurse, agrees to do her friend Karin a favor and pick up a suitcase from a locker in the Copenhagen train station, she thought it would be a simple errand. The errand turned out to be far from simple and extremely dangerous. When Nina opened the suitcase, she found a small boy, naked and drugged. Should she call the police and turn the child over to the authorities? This is the question she kept asking herself but finally determined that the authorities might not do what was in...more
From start to finish, the only word that I could use to describe this book is intense. From the first paragraph, you are drawn into the life of Nina Borg as she enters a station to retrieve a package for a friend and comes away with a young boy who has been drugged and lying near lifeless in a suitcase.
No, that is not giving away too much since that is pretty much the title of the book, but what the title does not tell you is what got us to this point. Is there more to this story than the obviou...more
No, that is not giving away too much since that is pretty much the title of the book, but what the title does not tell you is what got us to this point. Is there more to this story than the obviou...more
“The boy in the suitcase” by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis is a Scandinavian mystery, following the lives of different characters as a little boy, Mikas, is kidnapped, put in a suitcase, and picked up by the unsuspecting Red Cross nurse, Nina Borg. While Nina has no clue what to do with the boy, one thing is clear as she sees an enraged man with a Nazi haircut beating the locker where the suitcase had lain: they are both in danger.
The same danger is felt acutely by Sigita, Mikas’s mother, afte...more
The same danger is felt acutely by Sigita, Mikas’s mother, afte...more
4 likes · like · see review
This was my introduction to authors Kaaberbol and Friis, and it was a wowser! Their intricate plotting, clean, tight, sometimes visceral prose, and characters about whom we care all combine to form an unforgettable thriller, the first in the Nina Borg trilogy.
A Red Cross nurse, Nina is an inveterate do-gooder with an unshakable belief that she can make almost anything better, much to the chagrin of her husband. This combined with her role as a wife and mother often presents her with frightenin...more
5 likes · like · see review
I read this book WHILE I WAS AT DISNEY WORLD, and if you know me, and you know how much I love Disney World, you'll know that's pretty darn significant.
This was not a story I devoured all in one go, like a box of Sugar Babies. I found myself stopping every few chapters, not because I wanted to think about it consciously, but it kind of felt like the story was simmering way back at the base of my brain, like when you put on a batch of ham-and-potato-and-cheese soup in the slow cooker allll day s...more
This was not a story I devoured all in one go, like a box of Sugar Babies. I found myself stopping every few chapters, not because I wanted to think about it consciously, but it kind of felt like the story was simmering way back at the base of my brain, like when you put on a batch of ham-and-potato-and-cheese soup in the slow cooker allll day s...more
I love this book so much I'm afraid my review will sound skewed, so instead I'm going to quote Sarah Weinman's piece on it from Publishers Lunch: "Among the best crime novels of the year.... The Boy in the Suitcase doesn't rely on flash and slam-bang twists, crafting suspense and pace from careful attenuation to how people really behave in extremely stressful situations.... Nina Borg, in her first outing as a series character, is a Red Cross nurse who suffers from one key problem of such jobs: s...more
A social worker who spends more time helping the downtrodden than her own family picks up a suitcase in a travel locker for a friend only to find it contains a little boy. The police aren’t a good choice because of what happens to children in such situations and she sees an angry man who found the locker empty right after she emptied it. She goes off-grid to find out what happened. The book is a little confusing at the beginning with flashbacks and multiple characters at different ages, but soon...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Has anyone read this book? What did you think? | 56 | 267 | May 05, 2013 06:05am | |
| Kindle Book Club ...: SPOILER ALERT: Discussion, The Boy In The Suitcase, Completed Reading | 22 | 45 | Oct 09, 2012 06:30am | |
| Book Worms: The Boy in the Suitcase - Chpt 56-60 (pg 277) | 6 | 37 | Oct 01, 2012 08:50am | |
| Book Worms: The Boy in the Suitcase - Overall | 7 | 18 | Sep 30, 2012 01:52pm | |
| Book Worms: The Boy in the Suitcase - Chpt 41-45 (pg 219) | 5 | 36 | Sep 30, 2012 08:03am | |
| Book Worms: The Boy in the Suitcase - Chpt 46-50 (pg 240) | 5 | 31 | Sep 30, 2012 07:55am |
Jeg kom til verden på Rigshospitalet i København d. 24.3.1960. Overlægen var i kjole og hvidt - han var blevet afbrudt midt i en gallamiddag - men min søster siger, at det er da ikke noget, hendes fødselslæge var i islandsk nationaldragt. Nogen vil mene at det således allerede fra starten var klart at jeg var et ganske særligt barn. Andre vil sikkert påstå at min mor bare var god til at skabe plud...more
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“She felt as if she was standing at the edge of an abyss, but she was in no way counting on God to rescue her. On the contrary. I don’t believe in any of it. Not anymore.”
—
2 people liked it
“If the boy did have a good and loving mother somewhere, surely they would find her.
God only knew how she wanted to believe it. Every single day, she practiced her detachment skills, trying not to care about everything that was wrong with the world. Or rather...to care, but in a suitably civilized manner, with an admirable commitment that might still be set aside when she came home to Morten and her family, complete with well-reasoned and coherent opinions of the humanist persuasion. Right now she felt more like one of those manic women from the animal protection societies, with wild hair and ever wilder eyes. Desperate.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
God only knew how she wanted to believe it. Every single day, she practiced her detachment skills, trying not to care about everything that was wrong with the world. Or rather...to care, but in a suitably civilized manner, with an admirable commitment that might still be set aside when she came home to Morten and her family, complete with well-reasoned and coherent opinions of the humanist persuasion. Right now she felt more like one of those manic women from the animal protection societies, with wild hair and ever wilder eyes. Desperate.”
updated May 19, 2013 06:26pm