Pen 33

Starred review from October 16, 2017
Roslund and Hellström’s blistering sixth series novel to be published in the U.S. (after Three Minutes) opens with the vicious rape and murder of two nine-year-old girls by a psychopath, Bernt Lund, who has escaped from custody. The authors explore the ramifications of Lund’s crime from multiple viewpoints, including those of 60ish Det. Sgt. Ewert Grens, who’s disillusioned and cynical; Grens’s 40-year-old assistant, Sven Sundkvist, who’s burning out; and Fredrik Steffansson, the father of one of the victims. Steffansson, who was abused as a child, kills Lund and is put on trial for murder. In one of Sweden’s most high-profile trials, ambitious prosecutor Lars Ågestam feels he must demand life imprisonment for Steffansson, even though doing so will likely end his career. In addition to subjecting readers to the stomach-wrenching minutiae of prison life, Roslund and Hellström force them to consider who in this denunciation of governmental policies and practices are the victims and who are the criminals. The authors’ most chilling observation: these characters “are all somewhere among us.” Hellström, an ex-convict, died earlier this year.

Starred review from October 15, 2017
Swedish writing duo Roslund and Hellstrom earned the 2005 Crime Writers of Scandinavia Glass Key award for this provocative tale of vigilante justice that pushes the authors' series detectives Ewert Grens and Sven Sundkvist to question their allegiance to the job. Bernt Lund, a pedophile serial killer convicted of the murders of two nine-year-old girls, escapes prison. Within hours, Lund has lured Fredrik Steffansson's five-year-old daughter from a suburban Stockholm nursery school and murdered her in his vicious signature style. While Ewert Grens' manhunt is spinning its wheels, grieving Steffansson draws on his journalism training to track Lund and kills him outside another school. As the public celebrates Steffansson for rescuing Lund's future victims, prosecutors have him arrested for murder. Throughout Sweden, a furious movement against sex offenders swells, culminating in vigilante killings. And, in Aspas prison, the internal dialogue of a violent, pedophile-hating career criminal provides sharp-edged but compelling insight into the mindset fueling the violent mobs. This Grens and Sundkvist entry (the seventh, after Two Soldiers, 2014) isn't for the faint of heart, but the masterful writing and cleverly constructed layers make a handsome reward for those who can bear the graphic, first-person descriptions of Lund's murders.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)