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The Boy in the Suitcase  By  cover art

The Boy in the Suitcase

By: Lene Kaaberbøl - author/translator,Agnete Friis
Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
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Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration - Female, 2013

Audie Award Nominee, Best Thriller/Suspense Category, 2013

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 estranged friend, Karin, leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, and begs her to take care of its contents, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous case yet.

Because inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive. Nina's natural instinct is to rescue the boy, but she knows the situation is risky. Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is hunting him down. When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too.

©2011 Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis (P)2011 AudioGO

Critic reviews

"This past-paced, suspenseful thriller intertwines several stories, gradually revealing the motivations of multiple characters and building tremendous suspense." ( Booklist)
"Warning! If you open this book, your life will be on stand-by." ( Elle, Denmark)
"The surprise ending is perfect. You won’t be able to put this down." ( Romantic Times)

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What listeners say about The Boy in the Suitcase

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not recommended

The plot devices in this thriller stretch credulity far too much to merit a good recommendation. A woman finds a drugged 3-year-old boy inside a suitcase that a friend asked her to retrieve from a locker in a railroad station. Instead of calling: the police, her friend, her husband, another friend, or anyone else who could possibly help her, she decides to drive around with the boy in her Fiat. She stumbles on a murder scene, at which she: handles the body, puts her hand in the victim's bloody head wound, pukes at the scene, and drops her cell phone, then dashes away in her Fiat again. Still she doesn't call the police, her husband, etc. having now heavily implicated herself in the murder thanks to her puke DNA, fingerprints, fibers etc that she has left all over the scene. I just couldn't get past this idiotic set-up to enjoy the book. I like Nordic noir, but these authors need to get their act together before they collaborate on another attempt to join this trendy genre. Also I found the female narrator irritating beyond belief. She frequently uses a shrill, sarcastic tone that is extremely off-putting. She needs to modulate her voice and just speak neutrally unless there is actually some exciting event happening.

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147 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not your next Scandinavian export.

The Boy in the Suitcase is an unsatisfactory mystery. The plot had a lot of potential, but the authors rushed it along seemingly without much conviction. Our characters are not very deep or written in a way to make them terribly interesting. The story’s locations were not developed and the halter-skelter organization of the first dozen or so chapters, made little sense to this listener.

I get the impression they intended this book to ride the popularity of Scandinavian exports. With a plot like this, it could have been worthy of being included in the category of Larsson, Nesbo and others. Unfortunately, this book does not live up to the promise or its own potential.

Also, this is the fastest paced narrator I have heard on Audible. The result of the entire experience was like expecting a five-course meal and ending up with a McRib from the drive thru. Like the McRib, I cannot recommend The Boy in the Suitcase.

If you’re looking for a story about rescuing a little boy and finding his family, try Learning to Swim by Sara Henry. Learning to Swim is a much better listening experience than The Boy in the Suitcase.

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80 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nice story set in Denmark

STORY (mystery) - This books starts off quickly. A young boy has been kidnapped, drugged and put in a suitcase which has been stuffed in a locker in a train station. Nina, the main character, tries to find who he is so that he can be returned safely home. The boy's mother is desperately trying to find who's taken him and why. The story rocks along as Nina and the mother (working separately) travel around the Copenhagen area following clues, until the final scenes where everything finally all comes together.

Some reviewers have commented that Nina is stupid, but I don't feel that common sense is thrown out the window in this story any more than most fiction. While this wasn't the most exciting mystery I've ever read or listened to, I was never bored and was entertained throughout.

PERFORMANCE - Katherine Kellgren is my favorite female narrator. Her performances are usually so awesome that I save my five-star ratings almost exclusively for her. This time, however, she just gets a four. I don't have any complaints about her performance. It just wasn't one of her more stellar ones.

OVERALL - This is Book 1 of the series, but it stands alone. There's no sex, but there's violence and some foul language. Recommended for mature adults.

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic thriller!

This tops my list of best thrillers of the year! I read a ton of mysteries, and am pretty good at guessing the ending - but this one, I could not, and that's always fun! The characters are realistic, the mystery complex, and the plot unravels a clue at a time. Definitely worth a credit (or more)! And Katy Kellgren is one of my all-time favorite narrators and she does not disappoint. BTW, I didn't like the Jo Nesbo books (too violent), so don't let the "scandanavian" category put you off this one.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

unexpectedly intriguing

I bought this audiobook primarily because I like the narrator and the premise sounded interesting, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the story and the characterizations very much.

I'll start with the protagonist Nina, the nurse and social worker with her own set of psychological problems, which makes her more real but also a little more confusing. Hampered by a pathological need to help and to try and solve everyone's problems, she gets herself involved in things that another person might have easily avoided - and she also has a strange obsession regarding knowing and monitoring the exact time. It causes as many problems as it helps, but in this book it at least helps the young boy in the suitcase.

The plot waxes and wanes in complexity, as at the beginning there are several threads in different parts of the world that must be woven together in the book and in our minds. At the beginning of the book, when the characters and their voices were all new to me, that took a little bit of persistence and patience, but later it made for a more interesting story.

I was worried briefly at the end that it would have a happy-ever-after implausible conclusion, but I was really pleased that the protagonist stayed true to her personality and to the character that the book had already created.

I'm glad I took the chance to try this new author. The names of people and places were unfamiliar, and that can be a bit jarring, but it was worthwhile.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This would make a great movie!

Any additional comments?

I think this book would make a great movie because the characters all have depth and are believable, the premise is realistic and frightening (child abduction), and there's an little twist at the end.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great plot, but too wordy

If you could sum up The Boy in the Suitcase in three words, what would they be?

Intriguing, clever,wordy

What did you like best about this story?

The plot

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but too long

Any additional comments?

Too much time was spent on feelings. The main characters went on and on about their feelings and then repeat the same feelings again and again.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's well-written and suspenseful.

What did you like best about this story?

The whole concept. It was different.

Which scene was your favorite?

The woman trying to cope with a young, frightened boy who couldn't speak her language.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but that wasn't possible.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, great performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook to a friend, especially to those friends who (like me) like Scandinavian thrillers.

What about Katherine Kellgren’s performance did you like?

Katherine Kellgren's performance was GREAT.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great thriller read

Don't expect great literature but a wonderful story, well narrated and compelling. Since I exercise when I listen, my books need to capture my attention and this one did. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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15 people found this helpful