Three Seconds

Fantastic, fast paced, compelling,

An outstanding Swedish thriller. The best book I have read in 2014, I was unable to put it down. Great characters, especially Hoffman, the under-cover cop & Grens, the persistent detective. Hope I can find more books by Roslund & Hellstrom.

Deciding to become a police informant puts Piet Hoffman in the position of having to hide his criminal past and lie to his wife and sons. But his increasingly successful infiltration of a Polish drug ring operating in Sweden puts him puts him in a position where he is unable to prevent a murder. When the opportunity comes for Piet to be temporarily arrested and placed in a Swedish prison, the danger he faces rises. He strikes a deal with a certain team of the Swedish police and government agency that is to provide certain guarantees towards his safety within the prison and immunity from the murder. However, Ewert Grens, a tenacious detective who is called out to the murder scene starts to unravel the victim's identity and stumbles on the Polish drug angle, but is frustrated by the lack of evidence. As he continues to grow closer to identifying Piet, violence breaks out at the prison with unforeseen consequences. The tension in this thriller is built steadily throughout the novel and comes to a surprising end.

Piet Hoffmann is an ex-con who has been enlisted by the Swedish police to infiltrate a Polish criminal organization, which he does to the extent that the Polish mafia wants Piet to set up drug distribution in Swedish prisons. At the same time, Detective Supervisor Ewert Grens is investigating the murder of a Danish infiltrator, with the growing suspicion that Piet was involved - and the investigation has people in high places getting nervous.This book is one of the best crime stories I've ever read (it won the Sweden Crime Novel award). Roslund and Hellstrom set up an extremely plausible plot line and run with it. The tension is continuous (it's the second book I've read recently that I had to put down on occasion because it is so taut and unrelenting I could only take it in small doses), and twists and surprises wait in the most unexpected places.Roslund is a journalist who is familiar with the social problems facing Sweden's prison system, and Hellstrom is a former criminal who brings deep experience of the Swedish prison system to bear. If you like intelligent, well-researched books, if you like crime novels with suspense that never lets up, you'll love this book. I highly recommend it.

Stupendous Book! a wonderful read of an exciting well told story.

I could not get in to this and it took me forever to finally finish. The last 100 pages were good and rather fast-paced, but it was just so incredibly slow getting there. Also, I did not like any of the characters, which really distanced me from the story. I have decided that Swedish crime fiction is just not for me.

a little confusing with the Polish names and the Swedish names, plus "fake" names for the undercover guys. Plot also confusing. More of an excuse for violence than telling the story.

This is a relentless thriller of a book. Piet Hoffman is a police informer who has worked his way up in the Polish mafia as it seeks to take over the drugs trade in Sweden. Shortly after he watches a man be shot at close range, he is introduced to the top members of the criminal group and is given a job by them that will allow the Swedish police to close down their Swedish activities. He is to go into a high security prison as an inmate and take over the drugs trade for the Polish mafia. This will provide the Swedish police the chance to catch the bad guys and to destroy the drug supply to the prison. The problem is that the detective assigned to solve that initial murder is getting close to the truth, which would expose a lot more than the identity of a murderer. The book then follows Piet, as he navigates increasingly perilous waters and Grens, a troubled but relentless investigator. The success of one means a failure for the other, but I was rooting for both of them. The plot is intricate, but doesn't rely on coincidence or leaps of logic. Lastly, the book itself was bound with unusual care, with decked edges, smooth, high quality paper and beautiful end pages. It was a pleasure to read.

A book that I thoroughly enjoyed having heard good things about both it and its predecessor "Box 21". It does come tagged inevitably with the "new Stieg Larsson" label attached but aside from locations doesn't actually share too much with the Millenium trilogy as it is less overtly political and consequently tighter overall and becomes one of those books that you don't want to put down and makes me want to read more from this writing team. Possible spoilers below.Piet Hoffmann alias Paula is living a double life - one as husband & father and a second as an undercover informant for the police seeking to infiltrate the Polish mafia. When a drug deal goes bad and an undercover policeman is killed, Piet reports it but while one detective leads the murder inquiry, Piet's handler is fully aware of all the details and together with the upper echelons places the truth under wraps in pursuit of the bigger fish. As Ewert Grens leads the inquiry he manages to discover a link to Piet which leads those in power to decide that the situation is too risky and to leak Piet's activities to the Polish mafia and let them resolve the problem. A tense finale ensues as Piet has to stay alive long enough to escape prison, capture & murder in order to get his life and family back. Luckily he is a resourceful character who manages to stay one step ahead of a sniper's bullet amongst other things. But who will pay the price?

Initially I was not impressed with this novel because it began with unpleasant descriptions of the drug trade and criminal activities. As I continued to read, Piet Hoffman became a more complex character and his situation became more suspenseful. As an undercover Swedish police informant he is deeply embedded in the drug trade and committed to going to prison in order to gain control of prison drug trade and his own freedom. Witnessing a murder puts him in the sights of Ewert Grens, a police investigator determined to bring him to justice even after Grens is warned off the case by corrupt higher ups. I ended up wanting Piet to be successful and hoping Grens wouldn't be able to catch him. There are many characters to keep track of, many plot twists, and a bit of fantastic ballistic calculation that kept me turning pages. I would recommend the book to people who like Scandinavian crime writing, grim portrayal of the criminal world, and intricate plots with details of shrewd police work.

In the latest thriller to entice readers and in the mode of Steig Larsson's Milenium trilogy, "Three Seconds" provides a ride through terror.Piet Hoffman is the Swedish police's most valuable undercover operative. He poses as a lieutenant in the Polish Mafia which is bringing in amphetamines into Sweden by using Polish people who swallow baloons filled with amphetamines and then cross the border into Sweden. These "mules' must then unexpunge the bags by vomiting them up.Hoffman is at the scene when another undercover officer is unmasked and murdered.Detective Inspector Evert Grens leads the investigation into the man's murder.The story is written in short chapters as if the reader was glancing at photos of the scenes as they flash by.Hoffman is in a difficult position with a young family who are unaware of his undercover activities. We see him as a tough guy while with the other Mafia members but then he transforms into the tender husband and loving father to his two young sons.Grens continues to investigate and this puts Hoffman in a precarious position, not knowing who to trust. In one of the scenes that is memorable, Hoffman admits his other live to his wife and tells her how to protect herself if anything happens to him.This is a well done, frightening story with scenes of extreme violence.

THREE SECONDS is about a sting set up at the highest level in the Swedish police system to eradicate a Polish drug mafia operating in Sweden. Central to the sting is Paula alias Piet Hoffmann, recruited in gaol some 10 years earlier, a criminal who has been infiltrating the company set up by the Polish mafia.A botched drug deal that results in the death of a Danish police officer is designed to put Paula inside prison, to begin infiltration at the highest level. As with all such covert operations there are those who know what is going on and those who don't. There is always the danger that one of those who is "not in the know" will stumble across information that does not add up. One of those excluded from the insider information is Detective Inspector Ewert Grens of the Stockholm City Police. Grens is a dangerous man to leave out of any secret, and he begins in his bulldog fashion to sniff deeper when the facts simply don't tally.THREE SECONDS wasn't easy reading. The plot seems to be heading in one direction, and then darts off in another. More than once I consulted the Cast of Characters page at the beginning of the novel, and more than once I was glad that the chapters were broken up into digestible bits. But by the middle of what is really quite a long book, I was hooked. I couldn't work out for the life of me how the plot was going to devolve. In the long run it was all very clever. In addition it felt very authentic and credible.

This is one of those books you have to work through the first part to get to the parts that are really engaging. I think Stieg Larsson does a better job of engaging the reader more quickly, but overall I enjoyed the book. The main character is not very engaging, but the story line makes up for him and for the cliches that are plentiful throughout the book.

THREE SECONDS - Roslund & Hellstrom - Published Jan 2011 LT Early Review - translation from Swedish - Kari DicksonWon best Swedish crime novel award.5 STARS```Three Seconds`` is a fabulous crime novel to read!! Well deserving of the Swedish Crime Novel award, Roslund & Hellstrom`s novel of the Swedish underworld has a great plot and intriguing well developed characters.Piet Hoffman, the main character, is an ex-con, who has rather recently built a normal undercover agent, in order to break up an underworld drug dealing ring. Once inside the Swedish prison, however, his police contacts mean absolutely nothing, and suddenly Hoffman`s whole carefully laid out plan begins to unravel. Another essential character in ``Three Seconds``, Detective Inspector Ewert Grens of the Swedish police force, suddenly finds himself trying to solve multiple cases with odd missing pieces and answers hidden at every turn. With his own hidden demons, Detective Grens keeps pushing to solve the cases.``Three Seconds`` by Roslund & Hellstrom uncovers the many devious tactics police may use in order to gain their eventual arrests, as well as laying visible the criminal underworld and how it is quickly gaining control in prisons throughout the world. Piet Hoffman, however, is an extremely intelligent man in his own right and does everything he can think of to protect himself and ensure his eventual release from a jail cell. As the plot builds, so does the reader intrigue in how it will all turn out!Translated to English by Kari Dickson, ``Three Seconds`` grabs your attention quickly, and with many underlying twists and turns, captivates you throughout. I received this book for free to review from Goodreads, First reads. I am a member of Goodreads, Librarything, Bookdivas and the Penguin book club. DBettenson

This is a fantastically well-constructed mystery-thriller. A drug deal goes wrong and the buyer is found dead by police, who are tipped off by an anonymous caller. Unbeknownst to the investigating detectives, the anonymous tipster is a police informant who is establishing himself with the Polish mafia as part of their trade in methamphetamine in Sweden. The novel follows the investigation and the undercover operation as they converge. The narration shifts from head to head quite a bit, which takes some getting used to, and sometimes makes it a little difficult to remember who knows what, but it also allows for a much tenser narrative, where the tension comes not just from wondering what will happen next, but also whether and how the other characters will figure it out. The two main characters, the detective and the informant, are both intelligent and really well-drawn, and it's a thrill to watch them work out what's happening.I found it basically impossible to put down, though the opening was a bit slow, and I'm really interested now to read the other books in the series. It's really, really well done.

The story is well-written. Lots of details and a believable plot. Trouble is that it is VERY slow to get going. There are nearly 100 pages of setting up the story/characters which dragged on to the point where I wanted to skip ahead to when things actually started happening.It's not a North American setting (duh) so most of the place names/geography were not familiar so I had no idea if smuggling from Poland to Sweden is a long distance, or just a quick bus trip. The names are also foreign, which was confusing until the characters are more developed (ie page 100+).It is clear that the book is part of a series... there are "hints" around the main detective having a history that affects his current work/life but there are no details on this past so it's a bit confusing... we know he's troubled and that bad things happened to make him so, but we have no idea what or when. Is it interesting enough to go back and read the earlier books in the series? Perhaps, if you don't mind non-North American politics/criminal activities and/or enjoy mafia criminal activity stories. Personally I like a bit more action and fewer characters to figure out.

I felt bad about this book, I really wanted to like it. I have read a lot of Swedish crime novels in Swedish (and some of them translated) and also many in English, and this book I couldn't even finish. My main problem is not the plot, but the writing style. The incomplete sentences, one sentence per paragraph, long dialogues of wordy exchanges without any indication of who says who, and some repetition just got to me. I also thought it wasn't that well translated, often I could 'see' the Swedish shining through in expressions that didn't sound perfectly English. I haven't read the Swedish version of the book, which received many awards, but I am curious if it is a lot better in its native language. However, the characters of the book is also not that well-developed, and while some things are repeated over and over in detail (Siw Malmqvist's music, which for an English-speaking reader would make little sense at all), other details and descriptions are lacking. It was hard to follow the plot, it didn't draw me in like most books do. It didn't engage. There are so many great Swedish crime novels, so I would suggest another book than this for the person that want to explore this genre.

Three Seconds - Roslund and Hellstrom I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!I don't know if it is because I am still recovering from my addiction to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc. or if it is because Swedes are expert authors.The book is divided into five sections and covers a period of two weeks. At first the days are indicated using their proper names but at the end the days are simply called "a day later", "another day later", "yet another day later", and finally, "and yet another day later". I believe this is done in order to reflect the protagonist's detachment from society's ordering and naming of time and maybe also to illustrate his separation from the life he had been leading.The story is set in modern day Sweden and is packed with suspense. Although the Swedish names of the people and places are unfamiliar and were difficult for me to remember, the fault lies with me as they are necessarily Swedish and add to the realism and exotic nature of the novel. Suspense is created not only through the use of the unfamiliar world of drugs and prison but also through graphic description which is detailed though not burdensome nor over poetic. The first lines begin,"An hour to midnight. It was late spring, but darker than he thought it would be. Probably because of the water down below, almost black, a membrane covering what seemed to be bottomless. He didn't like boats, or perhaps it was the sea he couldn't fathom. He always shivered when the wind blew as it did now and Swinoujscie slowly disappeared. He would stand with his hands gripped tightly round the handrail until the houses were no longer houses, just small squares that disintegrated into the darkness that grew around him. He was twenty-nine years old and frightened." p. 5The reader is immediately gripped by the references to the night's unnatural darkness, a sea without bottom, houses that disintegrate and a young man who for some reason is frightened.Ya, ya, many novels are packed with suspense -- what makes this one exceptional?I really like and respect the two central characters: Ewert Grens and Piet (Paula) Hoffman.When we meet Ewert Grens he is struggling with his grief."He missed her so much. The damned emptiness clung to him, he ran through the night, and it gave chase, he couldn't get rid of it, he screamed at it, but it just carried on and on...he breathed it in, he had no idea how to fill such emptiness." (p. 13) He is a walking wounded -- trying to carry on, trying to cope. He is real.Further, he is loyal and driven to do what is right. "The inner strength he had, the one that was always there and forced him to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it until he had an answer, he knew exactly where it was coming from this time. The older warden. If the two people who had been taken hostage were both fellow prisoners, he wouldn't have been so motivated, he wouldn't have felt the same driving edge...He didn't care much about one of the naked bodies on the workshop floor, he felt nothing for the prisoner who in theory could be in cahoots with the hostage taker. It wasn't something that he was proud of, but that was how he felt. The warden, on the other hand, who wore the uniform and worked there, an ordinary representative of the workplace that the general public hated, an older man who had given his life to this crap, shouldn't have to deal with such deep humiliation, a person who believed they had a right to take his life, a gun to his head." (p. 323) Once again Grens is real. He self-aware and although he doesn't like everything about himself, he doesn't sugar coat it or pretend that his flaws don't exist.He is also a man of integrity. When the people around him are selfishly more concerned about saving and even promoting their personal careers regardless of the cost to those around them, he stands up and calls others out on it."'Lie to your colleagues. Burn your employees. Give some crimes immunity so that others can be solved. If that is the future of policing...then I'm glad it's only six years until I retire.'" (p. 460) He recognizes that there are some things that he can't change but refuses to become complicit.Piet (Paula) Hoffman is really the protagonist of the novel. Like Grens, he too faces inner turmoil and is flawed -- he struggles with guilt and self-contempt because he is lying to his wife and sons whom he dearly loves."Zofia had not stopped talking when he put down the phone down. She had continued to talk to him in his head...and was there beside him with her frustration on the seat in the empty car. She wasn't to know that he was the sort who lied. He shivered. It was always cold in these sterile garages, but this particular chill came from within, a chill that neither clothes nor movement could change. There is nothing that chills like self-contempt." (p. 113) Like Grens, Piet is introspective and self-critical. There is no self-deception. He recognizes his flaws and although he sometimes second-guesses the difficult choices he makes, he strives to redeem himself through the dangerous risks he takes in order to build a better future.Hoffman is also street-smart and extremely intelligent. On the street, it is these qualities that prevent him from being killed as an informant."Everything had gone wrong. A person had been shot through the head. He studied Mariusz; the man with the shaved head and expensive suit had killed someone only a couple of hours ago, but showed nothing. Many he couldn't, maybe he was being professional. Hoffman wasn't frightened of him, and he wasn't frightened of Jerzy, but he respect the fact that they had no limits; if he had made them nervous, suspicious of his loyalty, the shot that had been fired could just as easily have been aimed at him. Anger chased frustration chased dread and he struggled to stand still with all the turmoil inside him. He had been there and he hadn't been able to prevent it. To prevent it would have meant death for him." (p.29) He is a survivor and he uses his intelligence to his advantage. His intelligence also allows the writers to weave a very complicated, suspenseful and entertaining plot.Nonetheless Three Seconds is more than just plot and character. The theme of the destructive effect of deceit is pervasive. Hoffman personifies this with the very nature of his life."A lie that was never ending. He, if anyone, knew all about it. It just changed shape and content, adapted to the next reality and demanded a new lie so that the old one could die. In the past ten years he had lied so much to Zofia and Hugo and Rasmus and all the others that when this was all over, he would have forever moved the boundary between lies and truth; that was how it was, he could never be entirely sure where the lie ended and the truth began, he didn't know any longer who he was." (p. 181)Lies lead to death.So what is it that I like about this novel? The exotic setting? The continual suspense? The realistic, flawed, struggling characters? The intricate plot? The nobel theme?Simply put, all of the above. An awesome read!

Three Seconds is a book about an ex-con who turns police informant. He is now working with the Swedish Police to try and bring down the Polish Mafia. He has to commit a crime in order to be thrown back into prison to try and blow the drug-trade out of the prison system. It is a very suspenseful and fast paced book. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and reading into the wee hours of the morning. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes intrigue and suspense.

International bestseller and winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel, Roslund and Hellstrom web a tale of deceit, intricate planning, prison life, drug trafficking and good cops tracking bad cops in this story of a man [Piet Hoffman] who is an infiltrator of the Polish mafia.This novel amazed me. The beginning went slow for me, as the authors introduce the characters and set the scene. But by Part 2 I was hooked! Fast paced, mastery at it's best with intricate planning on Piet Hoffman's part as infiltrator. Pieces start to click together for the reader and the police by then end of Part 3 and you just sit back and marvel at the cleverness of both the main character and the writers of this incredible story.

When I first started reading I was unfairly comparing these authors to the other Swedish aurhors. Big mistake. These writers are in a league of their own. The novel started slow, then it took off that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The characters all was full bodied and believable. The character of Ewert Grens struck a chord with me as one of the most interesting detective in crime fiction. The only other book that I could get was 'Box 21'. I want more! I hope the rest of the series will be published.This is one of the better books that I have read this year. I place these writers right up there with RJ Ellory in the thriller department.

Riding high on the wave of Scandinavian novels breaking on our shores, comes this first rate thriller from the award winning team of Roslund and Hellstrom. Names we will definitely be hearing a lot more of in this country. Superb plotting and in depth characterizations highlight this novel. It details the relations between the Swedish police and the informants they use to help stem the rising tide of the Polish Mafia in Sweden. The book is shared by two main characters. Ewert Grens, an old school homicide detective inspector and Piet Hoffman, a former criminal turned informer, code named, Paula. Hoffman, unbeknownst to Inspector Grens, has been chosen by the police to infiltrate the Polish Mafia which is attempting to control the smuggling of drugs into the Swedish prisons. Hoffman witnesses a murder during a botched drug buy. Even though he reports this to his handler, Hoffman realizes that he is alone between a rock and a hard place. Sandwiched between the homicide investigation lead by the doggedly determined Grens and the ruthless Polish Mafia which will not hesitate to kill a snitch. Hoffman moves skillfully, like a chess master who anticipates his opponent's moves and plans his strategy accordingly. This book was provided for review by the good folks at Barnes & Noble First Look Book Club.

Three Seconds is a great suspense/ crime novel. It tells to story of Piet Hoffman, an ex criminal turned undercover informant for the Swedish police. This book was very hard to put down. This is a novel that is easy to immerse yourself in. The characters and detail make it all the more enjoyable. There was great chracter development in Piet as well as many side chracters. the emotions were tangible. Likewise the descriptions on places and events were sufficiently detailed to really come alive but not too onerous to take you away from the story. I only hope that the earlier novels in the series get translated soon.Buy it. Read it. You will love it.

Ex-convict Piet Hoffman has long since switched sides and is worked as an informant for the Swedish police. His latest operation is to get into the drug dealing operations of the Polish mafia: specifically, his handler wants him to infiltrate one of Sweden's toughest prison's, take over the drug dealing operations there, and pave the way for a police crackdown. This would turn him into a dead man in the eyes of the criminal element, needless to say. But with the promise (he gets it on tape, literally sub rosa) of a new life for himself and his beloved family abroad, he's willing to take that chance. But before he even gets into prison (on faked charges, with a faked record, all courtesy of the government), things go wrong with the murder of a drug mule. Enter Detective Ewert Grens, who takes an unsolved murder rather personally, to say the least, and who is unwilling to let the matter drop quietly. When the prison operation goes drastically awry, Grens is unwittingly pulled in again, and his dogged persistence begins to make the whole scheme unravel.It's a complicated, highly suspenseful plot that reveals the dirty underbelly of the government and shows how agencies that should be working in tandem are actually working against each other. The drug world is also shown in all its depravity. And in Piet Hoffman and Ewert Grens, we see two masters at their own games at work, each highly calculating and willing to do whatever it takes to stay one step ahead. Though one is an ex-criminal who plays the part of a criminal for a living and one is a dedicated detective, the two actually have much in common, and, in the shifts between their points of view, it's hard to say who's to admire more for their dedication to the task before him.This is a suspenseful novel, but it can be a bit slow to get off the ground. Not until we're actually inside the prison do things really take off. But once they do, it's impossible to put the book down. I found the shifting of viewpoints between Grens and Hoffman not disconcerting but rather a device that served to heighten the suspense, as I found my focus abruptly yanked away from a critical point in one man's story and refocused elsewhere, leaving me charging through chapters to find out where his story would pick up next.I wish the characters of Grens' two police comrades had been a bit more developed. Perhaps they are in other novels in the series; this was the first book I'd read by the authors, so perhaps I'm just missing something. In this novel, though, I felt like they were mostly props to do footwork when Grens wasn't able to do it himself: like they were there more out of plot convenience than as actual characters. Reading this novel did make me want to read others in the series; Grens' psychology was sufficiently complex that I wanted to know more about his backstory, what makes him tick. There are enough allusions to past events to drive the interested reader back into the mythology of the series.As for myself, I'll retrace the past novels and tune in to see what happens next.

Three Seconds is an engrossing read about the Swedish legal system, the influx of Eastern European criminals, and use of informers, delivered by a plot with many twists and turns.The characters are well developed personalities that made the story current and believable. I was very drawn to Ewert Grens, the quirky Detective Inspector that starts off investigating a drug murder and ends up with a case of deep intrigue and political manoeuvrings. Piet Hoffman, the informer, earned my respect and care, his was a life of such extremes, a loving family man on the one hand, a desperate, betrayed informer on the other, living a lie, where one misstep could result in death. The POV switches between these two and many other characters giving insight into the events as they happen. There is a lot of information and development to take in but the story is broken into many small segments which made for easy reading. The plot is laid out slowly at the beginning but the pace soon quickened and eventually drew me along at breakneck speed.I found Three Seconds to be an intelligent, absorbing and dark thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed.

My opinion: This book was a little slow to get into, but the second half definitely got a lot more interesting. Piet is an informer for the police and he's got a big mission to complete: infiltrate Aspas prison and take over the drug trade in order to bring it down. His handler, Erik, begs him to back out and think of his family (his wife and two sons), but he presses on with it. After much planning and an assurance from a lot of higher ups that they will have his back, a false charge is entered against him and he is put in prison to complete his mission. Everything goes well at first, but then he is found out as a snitch...and when everyone who is responsible for him being there in the first place denies even knowing him, how will he ever survive? Like I said, it was really hard to even get into this book. It is a Swedish novel, so all of the place names are super hard to even try to sound out. It bugs me when I don't know how to properly pronounce something, so that slowed me down, but that's not to be held against the book. All of the background at the beginning sets a slow pace and I found it slightly difficult to get past, but once Piet enters the prison the pace really picks up. You really feel for this guy who had to leave his family, and is not sure if he will ever see them again. The people who were supposed to have his back and pull him out if he was found out as a snitch bailed on him. I was definitely rooting for him to pull through. It wasn't heartstopping action but there were some twists and turns that keeps you on your toes and the story was actually quite good. My rating: 3/5 stars(less)

I am a big fan of Scandinavian thrillers so I was delighted to receive this book from Early reviewers. It didn't take me long to read it. TO BE CONTINUED

Excellent, excellent book. Inspector Grens has all of the introspective angst of Mankell's Wallander, while the story has the authenticy of Bunker, the lyricism of the Red Riding trilogy, and the plot turns of the Departed. What really sets the novel apart is the authentic portrayal of the interplay of the criminal system and law enforcement. Whereas Larsson's "Girl" series are supercharged comicbooks; this book offers a gritty glimpse into reality with a deft plot and an objective slice of criminality from both sides of the fence. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Swedish crime novels.

Harrowing, finely tuned suspensePiet Hoffman, Swedish undercover police informer, has climbed very high in the ranks of the Polish Mafia when he helplessly witnesses a murder during a drug deal gone terribly wrong. While Inspector Ewert Grens investigates the murder, Hoffman's Mafia masters want him in prison to take over drug operations there. A secret arm of the law agrees, and offers him and his family protection and new identities for breaking the drug operations of the Mafia in the Swedish prison system. But they reckoned without the indefatigable Grens, intent on solving his case all unaware of the secret agenda. This stunningly well-written police procedural meets thriller meets psychological suspense novel succeeds in all three genres. At times the suspense was so well drawn, and had so drawn me in, that I had to put the book aside for awhile to regain my composure. Only Alfred Hitchcock had managed that previously. The details of the drug trade in the early chapters, while distressing to read, nonetheless set the story up perfectly.

I really enjoyed it. At first it was difficult keeping the characters names straight since I was listening to the audio book so I wrote them down with descriptions of who they were and that helped. The various locations, towns and streets, were all unfamiliar to me and I would recommend that you ignore them unless they signify events or meeting places important to the story.
The characters are well developed and complicated with some fascinating twists and turns that unfold as the story continues. My only minor criticism was that it wrapped up all the loose ends too neatly so that neither you nor the characters were left wondering which seemed unlikely for such a complicated story. I intend to listen to another by the same authors.