CELL 8

by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom - to be released January 2012

John Meyer Frey was sentenced to death at the age of 17 in Ohio.  Tried as an adult, he was convicted of brutally murdering his girlfriend Elizabeth Finnigan.  John steadfastly proclaims his innocence and is befriended by guards and fellow prisonsoners during his decade on death row.

Edward Finnigan, Elizabeth's father, longs for the day when he can watch John Frey die.  He feels cheated when Frey dies of heart disease before he can be executed, and he's unable to let go of the grief and hatred that have consumed his life.

Fast forward a few years and John Schwarz, a singer on a ferry between Finland and Sweden is arrested for violently attacking a drunken ferry passenger.  Detective Inpsector Ewert Grens of the Stockholm Police is intrigued when the police begin to realize that Schwarz has been living in Sweden under an assumed name.  As dogged an investigator as he was in THREE SECONDS, Grens won't rest until he knows Schwarz's real identity.  As the facts come to light, reaching all the way to the United States, Grens finds himself in the unusual position of trying to keep a criminal from being extradited to a country that condones and enforces the death penalty.

Inspector Grens is almost as solitary as he was in THREE SECONDS, but it's heartening to note that Roslund and Hellstrom have given more depth to this likable character in CELL 8, as he begins to enjoy life a little more.

CELL 8 is a fine mystery, but it's more than that.  It's also a thought provoking discourse on the death penalty and of the politics and machinations involved in extradition between countries with differing views of this form of punishment.

ISBN 978-1-4027-8715-7
Pub. Date:  January 3, 2012
376 pages
Hardcover and eBook

THREE SECONDS

by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom - to be released in the U.S. January 2011

Translated from the Swedish by Kari Dickson

Ex-con Piet Hoffman is a covert informant for the Swedish police.  He's infiltrated the Polish mafia and is working his way to the top bosses when someone is murdered during a drug deal gone bad.  Eric Wilson, Piet's handler, now wants him to go deeper into the mafia to uncover their plan to take control of illegal drug distribution within the Swedish prison system. 

Years earlier when they recruited him, Piet had nothing to lose and was willing to take on any assignment despite the danger.  Now that he's married with a family, he's more reluctant but agrees to take on his deadliest mission, despite the fact that using criminals for police investigations is not actually approved of in Sweden.   Meeting with his handler and a very secret group of government officials, he extracts the promise that if he is successful, he'll be free of his commitment to the police and he and his family will be relocated outside the country, similar to our Witness Protection Program.

Problems arise when Detective Inspector Ewert Grens, a sad and lonely colleague of Eric Wilson, is assigned to investigate the murder.  Grens works doggedly despite the roadblocks thrown in his way to keep him from finding out Hoffman's identity and destroying Hoffman's chance of success.   Hoffman's life hangs in the balance between the Polish mafia and the government group that's supposed to be protecting him that now wants him dead.    

If you're a fan of the late Stieg Larsson and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO series, this book won't disappoint.  The interesting duo of journalist Roslund and ex-criminal Hellstrom has created an intense and intelligent Swedish police procedural that gives the reader a glimpse into the Swedish criminal world and prison system.  

If you're only going to read one book in January, THREE SECONDS should be the one!