Wow! An
unforgettable crime thriller with heavily political themes covering
the period of 1975 to 2000. Persson winds us through events such as
the blowing up of the West German embassy in 1975 by supporters of
the Baader-Meinhof gang, the murder of a previous “sleeper” spy
in 1989, the still unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in
1986 and the upcoming appointment of a Swedish citizen involved in
these events to a seat in the Government.
It is a
very incisive and insightful exploration of the workings of
government - here, obviously the Swedish Government- during the
break-up of the Soviet Union and its machinations in East and West
Berlin immediately post Cold War. It illustrates the involvement of
the Secret Services of both East and West in “cleaning house”
while keeping doors open in order to manipulate one another.
Persson
draws his characters with the minimum of physical attributes but you
feel that you know them intimately from the wry, cutting and cynical
asides each gives. Jarnebring and Wiklander are the detectives with
Johanssen the Deputy Chief of SePo, the Secret Police. Holt, Mattei
and Martinez are the hand-picked talented policewomen employed to
crack the unsolved murder of Eriksson and discover its ramifications.
Not to forget Bäckström, the bête noir of the police force, who
has an interesting outlook on the world! To go into more detail would
spoil the story – I leave readers to their own journey of
discovery.
I
thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to all readers of
detective fiction…or is it???
Reviewed by Liz.
Thanks Liz and thank you to Transworld publishers for sending us a copy to review.
OOOOOH this sounds right up my street! I'll definitely have to go and check this one out, thank you! I love a good thriller, especially with a political dimension. Wow!
ReplyDeleteWow, this one sounds gripping--the setting alone is enough to intrigue me!
ReplyDeleteStephanie @ Read in a Single Sitting