Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Börge HellströmGoing through Swedish crime fiction withdrawal since Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has come to an end? Then I have the cure! Three Seconds, the winner of the 2009 Best Swedish Crime Novel Award, is an edge of your seat mystery/thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end.
In Sweden the police can use infiltrators, civilians working under cover, to get inside gangs and other groups of organized crime. Piet is an infiltrator. In exchange for a lesser prison sentence on a personal drug charge he has been working on infiltrating the Polish mafia, and his years of work are finally paying off. He’s been chosen by his mafia bosses to take over the drug trade within the Swedish prison system from the inside. Once the system is in place the police will give Piet and his family new identities and protection. Of course, things go horribly wrong.
This is a well-crafted edge of your seat crime novel. Piet is one of the most intelligent characters I’ve met on the page in a long time, and he gets himself in one of the most unique situations I’ve read about too. Well worth the read. I understand why it won a major award and I hope this duo’s next book is translated into English soon!
(Last year, Box 21 by Roslund and Hellström was released in the United States. We own a couple copies and I’m on hold for it right now!)
