A Heavens Cry by Mons Kallentoft

ON A SWELTERING SUMMER DAY, A BABY BOY IS FOUND DEAD IN A CAR.

When Malin Fors arrives at the scene, the boy’s mother is sitting under a tree clinging to her limp child. Her desperate screams have faded into a shallow wail.

The police investigation is wrapped up quickly as the circumstances appear clear: the mother, Fanny Andersson, forgot the sleeping boy in the car on her way to work. This is not the first time a child has passed away under such tragic circumstances, awful as it is. The mother had recently been suffering from memory lapses after a psychological burn out, which would explain how she could forget that her son was in the car. Her husband Anders appears crushed but supportive of his devastated wife. Now they must make it through this tragedy together.

During the weeks following the boy’s death, the grieving mother receives hateful messages and online threats. A wave of internet trolls come out of the woodwork to terrorize her. How can someone get away with causing the death of a child without punishment? Malin Fors knows easy answers are hard to come by, and that the distinction between right and wrong can be thin as a spider’s thread. And how can you possibly judge someone who has already experienced the worst thinkable punishment? But when Fanny turns up murdered in cold blood, Malin and her colleagues are forced to look at the case with fresh eyes. Sometimes the most difficult answers hide in plain sight…

Meanwhile, Malin’s daughter Tove is arrested for assault. She beat a man senselessly, claiming that he groped her in a bar. Malin recognizes her own broken spirit in her daughter’s blind rage – but what has Tove been through to make her react so strongly? This time, Malin may not be able to save her daughter, from conviction – or from herself.

A Heaven's Cry is the twelfth book in Mons Kallentoft’s critically acclaimed series about the flawed but brilliant police detective Malin Fors, and the third in his suite inspired by the five senses.