Lying at the bottom of his apartment stairs, a postman is found dead.

At first glance, his death appears to be a simple fall, a straightforward accident and the perfect case for Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen to return to after a severe heart attack. But when he is called to investigate, new forensic evidence comes to light and something doesn't add up. Did the postman fall or was he pushed?

When life-size images of a girl are discovered plastering the walls of the dead man's attic, the case takes a new and sinister turn. Who is she? Could she be alive?

Soon the homicide team find themselves delving into the past, but as they approach the truth, Simonsen discovers long-hidden skeletons in his own closet.

Lotte and Søren Hammer are a sister and brother from Denmark who began writing crime novels together in 2004. To date, they have written six books in this series. The Vanished is the third.

Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, winner of the 2012 American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Translation Prize. Recent translations include fiction by Jussi Adler-Olsen (A Conspiracy of Faith: A Department Q Novel), Dorthe Nors (Karate Chop), and Janne Teller (Nothing).