*Two Soldiers, by Roslund and Hellstrom

9780857386847
Quercus, 2013
603 pp
originally published as Två Soldater, 2012
translated by Kari Dickson

paper, UK

I've sort of been weaning myself away from Scandinavian crime, which at one point I would have said was the best crime written anywhere, but that just doesn't seem to be the case any more. Seriously, I've slowly been watching it lose that edge that used to elevate it over crime from other countries, slowly being replaced by top-notch writers from South America, Italy, Poland and elsewhere.  There are a few notable exceptions, including the books by the writing team of Roslund and Hellstrom, the authors of today's book, Two Soldiers.   These two writers have consistently put out some incredible books that throughout the entire series have remained edgy, gritty and contemporary.  Although this installment is a bit long and could have used some paring down, Two Soldiers remains true to form and is consistent with the fine writing and focus on important issues that these authors bring to the table. 

The "two soldiers" are two teens (18 to be exact), Gabriel Milton and his gang "brutha" Leon Jensen of what was formerly the Råby Warriors, now changed to Ghetto Soldiers. They see themselves as a family unit of brothers, and once you're in, you stay in until you're dead.  Leon is in prison, but still runs things from his cell; outside, Gabriel and the other members of the gang carry out their usual business with the help of even younger kids, one of whom in this novel is only 12 and longs to be a true gang member and will do what it takes to become full fledged.    The gang sets fires in their own area of Råby; when firefighters respond, they often find themselves forced by violence to just let things burn without being able to intervene.  They have zero respect for others outside of the gang,  demand protection money from local businesses without really providing protection, and have absolutely no fear of authority. As one character notes, "This is our everyday reality, a lawless country ruled by a mere few, and no one out there must fail to understand that."  All come from families where dad is non-existent and in some cases, where mom has been behind bars herself -- and they are not the only gangs that the stretched police force have to contend with.  In fact, Jose Pereira, who is the head of the Organized Crime and Gang Section, keeps his walls "decorated" with pictures of gangs, arranged in hierarchical order -- and Leon is seething at the fact that his group is not at the top of that wall.  To get to the top, he realizes that the gang has to step up its game and do something no one else has done -- but first he has to get out.  His escape from prison, carefully planned down to the last detail, brings Detective Superintendent Ewert Grens into the picture, after a young female guard (also 18) is kidnapped and later killed as part of the escape plan. He is brought in because of the kidnapping, and has a very difficult time with this case because of an intervention he was part of years earlier.  His guilt eats away at him, causing even greater angst than normal, and he takes this particular case very personally, willing to pull out all the stops  to get things under control, going up against the constraints of the law and authority:  As he notes in a heated debate with the prosecutor,

"There are no laws in Råby right now. Certainly not our laws, as they mean nothing here. So we have to find new ways ... ones you won't find in your law books, we have to do what they do."

Grens realizes that time is running out -- not only does Jensen have to be captured, but evidence pointing to the making of a bomb has been discovered in one of the Råby apartments.

The first part of the novel takes the reader through the lives of the gang members -- a no holds barred, graphic and grim look at various facets of gang life on the streets and also in prison.   There are the young children who are so disconnected from any reality except that powerful need to belong to something more like a family than they already have, and there are convicts in prison who want to be part of  the group as well. One of the most haunting scenes in this book that will stick with me long after I put the book away is a conversation between the "two soldiers," when one finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and the other reminds him about fatherhood:

"Your dad was burned alive...My dad disappeared...Alex's dad kicked the shit out of him and Reza's dad drank himself to death and Uros's dad sits on a bench on Raby Torg and shouts cock at anyone who passes and Marko's dad ... blew his brains out...And you...you say that you're going to be a dad?"

An omg moment if ever there was one, truly.  The second part of the book focuses on the police investigation into the prison break and the murder, and the race to find the location of the bomb before it's too late.


In reading over reviews of this novel, I came across one that noted the following:

"... I do wonder why so much modern literature coming out of Sweden has to portray, or consider, the darker side of life."

Yes, well...crime fiction may be a form of entertainment, but in the hands of these two authors and others,  crime fiction has definitely become another medium for examining what's wrong in society -- a huge factor behind why I read any book.  In this case, the problem is not localized to Sweden, but an issue that touches everyone pretty much everywhere.   So, why bother to read crime at all if you don't deep down inside want to "consider the darker side of life?" Should it be all happy endings and sweetness all around where you refuse to believe that your little corner of the world doesn't have the problems that are portrayed here?

Personally, I feel like this novel could have been pared down without losing its shock value and portrayal of the "darker side of life," but overall, it's an amazing read, one I'd recommend without hesitation.

crime fiction from Sweden

Cell 8, by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström

9781849161473
Quercus, 2011 (UK Edition)
originally published as Edward Finnigans Upprättelse, 2006
translated by Kari Dickson
458 pp
(not yet available in the US)

Sliding in between the Roslund-Hellstrom writing duo's Box 21 and their award-winning Three Seconds at number three in the Ewert Grens series,  Cell 8 is by far much different than anything else these authors have yet produced.   For one thing, a great deal of the action takes place in the U.S.; for another, the subject matter is extremely controversial, and will keep crime-fiction readers  debating the main issue for a long while, especially here in America.

John Schwarz is a family man, living with his wife and young son in Stockholm.  He is employed as a band singer on the Åbo ferry between Stockholm and Finland, and one night while he's at work, in the middle of a song, he sees a drunk passenger give some unwanted attention to a young woman on the dance floor.  Thinking about the two women in his life (one from an earlier time, one his wife), he sees red, loses his temper, and before he knows it, he's beating up the passenger, ending with kicks to his head, landing the guy in the hospital.  Security is called; the  Stockholm cops are there to meet him as the ferry docks in Stockholm.  He manages to avoid them and to get back to his apartment and his wife, and he knows it's only a matter of time before the police catch up to him.  When they finally have him at the station, he refuses to talk, but ultimately, routine identification procedures identify him as John Meyer Frey, an American citizen using a Canadian passport.  But there's a slight problem: John Meyer Frey died some years ago, while awaiting his execution on Death Row at a prison in Ohio.   Ewert Grens is very interested in the case, interested in seeking justice at first because he knows all too well what may lay ahead for someone suffering injuries to the brain, but later because of the sad and frustrating circumstances surrounding  the events that he had unwittingly set into motion.   There's another person interested in the Schwarz case as well -- a man who has lived an empty and tormented life  after missing the retribution he had waited on for years.

While the history  of John Schwarz is an interesting story on its own,  Roslund and Hellstrom also use this novel as a platform to explore several topics related to  state-sponsored executions: the behind-the-scenes politicking involved in fanning  the flames of popular support for the death penalty; the problems inherent with the death penalty, especially the possibility of innocence in a capital case;  the obligations of nations regarding extradition policies and the politics of the national players at the highest levels, and putting all of these components together, the human toll on both sides of the issue.  The criminals in this case, really, are the politicians; the authors spare absolutely no effort getting their points and politics across.

Cell 8 is very intelligently written.  The story flashes back to the past, alternating with the present both in Sweden and the United States.   The book has obviously been very-well researched, and some of what these authors have discovered as far as their medical knowledge was amazing.   And this is a timely story as well, with the latest US execution of someone who had been convicted of killing a cop based only on the most circumstantial of evidence at trial, and whose appeals had all been exhausted prior to his death.   My problem here is with the character of Vernon Eriksen -- I did not find him to be all that credible, and when all is said and done, even with good intentions, he's probably one of the sickest examples of humanity I've ever encountered. 

This book is guaranteed  to cause a stir when it's released here in the U.S. -- in a country so divided in its opinions about the death penalty, I'm not sure how this novel is going to be received.  Be that as it may, even though this is not the authors' usual crime-fiction fare, I liked it -- beyond the story set around John Schwarz, what really impressed me was the behind-the-scenes look at  politics involved in capital cases here in the U.S., as well as the rather dodgy actions of international governments where extradition politics are concerned. While this book may be a case of  preaching to the choir, so to speak, it's still a very worthwhile read.  Don't give up on it... when it begins it's a bit confusing for a while, but hang in there.

The Murder Farm, by Andrea Maria Schenkel

9781847247650
Quercus
181 pp.
Translated from German by Anthea Bell

The Murder Farm begins with a few introductory words from an unnamed narrator:

I spent the first summer after the end of the war with distant relations in the country.

During those weeks, that village seemed to me an island of peace.  One of the last places to have survived intact after the great storm that we had just weathered.

 Years later, when life had gone back to normal and that summer was only a happy memory, I read about the same village in the paper.

 My village had become the home of 'the murder farm' and I couldn't get the story out of my mind.

And the narrator is correct: you won't get the story out of your mind any time soon. The Murder Farm  is one of those novels that once you begin reading you shouldn't plan to do anything else until it's over.

The book is set in the 1950s, after the end of World War II in Germany and the American occupation.  The central focus of the novel is the Danner family, who live on their isolated farm in the woods.When they are not seen for a few days, a few of the villagers go to the farm to check things out and find the entire family dead -- someone has taken a pickaxe and killed the entire family -- Mr. and Mrs. Danner, their daughter Barbara, her two small children, and a young maid who has just begun to work at the farm. Throughout this dark and gloomy book, the unnamed narrator mentioned above gathers the stories of the people who live and work in the village, and through their narratives  it becomes quite apparent that the family was not popular and not very well-liked. But there are some things that not even the narrator is privy to -- interspersed with the testimonies of the villagers are other third-party narratives which leave you to wonder a) how much you're reading is simply gossip and how much is the truth, and b) who might have wanted this entire family dead.

It is truly difficult to believe that this is Schenckel's first book.  The bleak tone of the novel is set at the beginning and although the prose is sparse, it only accentuates the air of gloom that follows through the entire novel. The Murder Farm offers a psychological portrait of a family living in isolation as well as a brief glimpse at how the war affected the people in the village. But what it offers most is a crime which is at once both  realistic and believable, making it all the more creepy the further you go into the story.

Very atmospheric and bleak, The Murder Farm is a very good read, one I would recommend without hesitation to any reader of crime fiction.  It will keep you turning pages until the very end.

Fiction from Germany