50. The Keeper of Lost Causes

This book is pretty much about one of your worst nightmares come true.

Here we go...this takes place in Sweden (or somewhere Scandanavian). This police department starts a new detective department "Q". And it has one detective and one assistant. They are in charge of cold cases. They choose one about the disappearance of Morada (more aid ah) Lundgren. You really don't want to be Morada!

Summary: When Morada is 14 and her brother Oofa is 12, they and their parents are taking a leisurely drive one day. They end up getting into an accident and both of their parents die and Oofa ends up somewhat  brain damaged. The family in the other car is on their way to the hospital because the mom is in labor with twins. Well their car ends up in a tree and catches on fire. The dad dies, the 11 year old sister dies, the mom starts to give birth to the twins as the fire is beginning. Her leg is of course caught and she can't get out of the car, so she gives birth. One of the twins dies and the other is burned but lives. The mom lives too. The only other survivor the the 14 year old brother.

I am only just getting started!

15 years or so later...Morada is successful as a political aide and she cares for her brother Oofa. One day they decide to go on a trip. While on the ferry, Morada is kidnapped and Oofa wanders around for days until someone finds him and puts him in a "home".

Let the nightmare begin.

Morada wakes up in the dark and finds herself in a  room about 10 x 10. Roughly 3 days pass and then a voice comes over a speaker system telling her that 2 buckets will be passed in to  her twice a day. One will have food and the other should be used as her toilet. She asks why she is here and the voice says she has 30 minutes to think of why she has been taken. Well, she doesn't know of course. She guesses because of something in politics because she works on government. Wrong answer. The voice tells her that she has one year to think of the right answer................what??

So she lives in complete darkness for one year with the buckets coming and going. One year later the lights come on full blast. Same question and she still doesn't have an answer. So her punishment is that she has to live with the lights on 24/7 for the next year. Oh yeah, she is in some sort of hyperbolic  chamber and they are increasing her "atmosphere" by 2 times. So it is like she is diving under the ocean permanently.

Repeat on years 3 & 4 & 5 with each year the "atmosphere" increasing until it is 6 times normal.

Meanwhile the detectives in dept. Q. are working on finding out what happened to her. They end up finding her and saving her through a series of good detective work.

Who kidnapped her? The surviving family of the twins. The 14 year old son, the mom, and the burned twin. They blame her for the accident because they say she was goofing off with her brother Oofa and distracted her dad, who then caused the accident.

We get a happy ending but who would ever be normal after being kept for over 5 years in a small room, never taking a shower, never changing clothes, brushing her hair or teeth, being TOTALLY ALONE etc...........

Who thinks of these things??????