Slugger

May 6, 2019
Set in the summer of 1936, the solid if grim conclusion to Holmén’s Stockholm Trilogy (after Down for the Count) finds ex-boxer and struggling private detective Harry Kvist making a meager living beating people up as a heat wave smothers the city. Downtrodden yet defiant, Kvist hopes the young boxer he’s training can make it in the ring. He dreams of traveling to America to meet a daughter he hasn’t seen in years, the product of a rare heterosexual encounter. But first he wants to avenge his onetime lover, the priest Gabrielsson, found crucified with railroad spikes—which means dealing with rival gangs and corrupt cops, and dodging occasional hails of bullets. There’s a lot of talking and walking around the mean streets, where starving dogs hopelessly meander, but the narrative occasionally explodes with action: a riot between Communists and Nazis, a gory takedown for hire, another trouncing intended for the gangster Rickardsson that turns suddenly into a session of rough sex. Holmén has taken out a trademark on truly downbeat noir.

June 1, 2019
The final installment of the Stockholm trilogy is a gut-wrenching ride as Kvist, ostracized after being outed as homosexual, answers Stockholm's intolerance with his fists, fighting his way toward a touching, screen-worthy conclusion. On the eve of WWII, the city is enduring a heat wave as fascists and communists battle it out in the streets. Kvist, once a renowned boxer, is dead set on finding and punishing the murderer of his old friend, Reverend Gabrielsson. Unfortunately for Kvist, his violent interrogations draw the attention of a fearsome organized-crime matriarch, who is determined to secure her gang's position before her imminent death. Her ultimatum leaves no options: Kvist can either help her win the gang war she's planning to kick off and then join his daughter in the U.S., or he can die in Stockholm. Kvist's reluctant dive into gangland politics takes him to Nazi Germany and leads him to the love of his life, but the looming gangland apocalypse dims his prospects for happily-ever-aftering. A gritty noir pleasure for fans of James Ellroy and George Pelecanos.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)