Poorly written and drawn-out Cold War spy thriller set in Sweden - very hard going!
Geiger opens with possibly the most exciting moment of the book as seventy-year-old Agneta Broman and the wife of former Swedish television legend, Stellan, waves off her daughters and grandchildren. The landline rings, Agneta answers and hears just one word: “Geiger”, indicating that it is time for her to set in motion a potentially devastating plan that has been fifty years in the making. Proceeding to shoot her eighty-five-year-old husband in the back of the head she makes a hasty escape and, with the preparations made years in advance, sets out to finish the job she has undertaken. But when Stellan’s body is discovered, well ahead of Agneta’s expectations, the story of his murder fixates a nation that grew up watching him dominate Swedish television. With Agneta presumed to be either in hiding or kidnapped, the race is on to find what could possibly have motivated someone to kill ‘Sweden’s Stellan’.
Sara Nowak is a forty-four-year-old mother of two and a Swedish detective in the vice department with an aggressive manner and uncompromising attitude. She also grew up alongside Stellan’s two daughters as her Polish refugee mother was the Broman’s cleaner and was afforded a privileged insight into the celebrity parties they were renowned for hosting. For feisty Sara, who struggles to keep her temper in check as she deals with the punters who repeatedly use and abuse prostitutes, the murder of Stellan is personal. Doing her own digging she uncovers a shocking rumour that Stellan was an ex-Stasi informant and responsible for ruining hundreds of lives, but the allegations don’t stop there with a far more damning one gaining traction. As Sara speculates on what could have happened to Agneta she is joined by two members of the former German security service ahead of a long-awaited denouement and last-gasp twist.
The plot is highly convoluted and entails a large number of indistinguishable individuals with Swedish names that don’t quite slip of the tongue and went in one ear and out the other for me. The scope of the conspiracy is seriously unlikely, not only in regard to the number of eminent figures involved but also the specifics of an outrageous plot. One big question mark surrounds the identity of Stellan’s handler and despite having minimal interest in the story I was still able to guess correctly as it is pretty obvious. Geiger is obviously intended as a fast-paced thriller however it is much too wordy to convince and long periods of the narrative are filled by Sara’s largely irrelevant internal dialogue on her marriage, relationship with her children and the effective policing of prostitution, and thus prevent the unfolding story from building momentum. Whilst the book is readable I found it lacking in coherence and occasionally confusing and would be hard pushed to recommend.
Sara Nowak is a forty-four-year-old mother of two and a Swedish detective in the vice department with an aggressive manner and uncompromising attitude. She also grew up alongside Stellan’s two daughters as her Polish refugee mother was the Broman’s cleaner and was afforded a privileged insight into the celebrity parties they were renowned for hosting. For feisty Sara, who struggles to keep her temper in check as she deals with the punters who repeatedly use and abuse prostitutes, the murder of Stellan is personal. Doing her own digging she uncovers a shocking rumour that Stellan was an ex-Stasi informant and responsible for ruining hundreds of lives, but the allegations don’t stop there with a far more damning one gaining traction. As Sara speculates on what could have happened to Agneta she is joined by two members of the former German security service ahead of a long-awaited denouement and last-gasp twist.
The plot is highly convoluted and entails a large number of indistinguishable individuals with Swedish names that don’t quite slip of the tongue and went in one ear and out the other for me. The scope of the conspiracy is seriously unlikely, not only in regard to the number of eminent figures involved but also the specifics of an outrageous plot. One big question mark surrounds the identity of Stellan’s handler and despite having minimal interest in the story I was still able to guess correctly as it is pretty obvious. Geiger is obviously intended as a fast-paced thriller however it is much too wordy to convince and long periods of the narrative are filled by Sara’s largely irrelevant internal dialogue on her marriage, relationship with her children and the effective policing of prostitution, and thus prevent the unfolding story from building momentum. Whilst the book is readable I found it lacking in coherence and occasionally confusing and would be hard pushed to recommend.