Themes of this story include sex-trafficking, the illegal drug industry, a criminal underworld whose tentacles permeate all levels of society, police and political corruption and problems faced by second generation immigrants who are caught between two culturally-conflicting worlds. I thought that the author wove these themes together in a convincing way, credibly evoking the contemporary struggles which are a feature of most European countries. He used his own experiences as a criminal lawyer to add authenticity to his portrayal of not only the criminal underworld, but also of the Swedish justice system and I found this one of the strengths of his story-telling. However, there were times when I thought that the plot-development stretched my credulity just too far, particularly the one which involved a young Iranian girl and her boyfriend discovering a stash of ketamine and then falling foul of a local drug lord!
This is the follow-on book to “Stockholm Delete” and I think I would have felt much more engaged with the characters had I read that first because, for at least half of the book, I often felt irritated because I was trying to work out their background stories and the various interrelationships. There were lots of references to past events but, rather than clarifying the plot, I found that they often acted as more of a distraction. Eventually I did feel able to become more immersed in the developing story but, until this happened, there were several occasions when I was tempted to give up on the book! There are several strands to the complex storyline and although they do eventually come together, this doesn’t happen until quite late on in the book. Although some of the resolutions were quite predictable, there were a couple of unexpected, and very satisfying, twists which went a long way to making me feel pleased that I had persisted to the end!
This is the follow-on book to “Stockholm Delete” and I think I would have felt much more engaged with the characters had I read that first because, for at least half of the book, I often felt irritated because I was trying to work out their background stories and the various interrelationships. There were lots of references to past events but, rather than clarifying the plot, I found that they often acted as more of a distraction. Eventually I did feel able to become more immersed in the developing story but, until this happened, there were several occasions when I was tempted to give up on the book! There are several strands to the complex storyline and although they do eventually come together, this doesn’t happen until quite late on in the book. Although some of the resolutions were quite predictable, there were a couple of unexpected, and very satisfying, twists which went a long way to making me feel pleased that I had persisted to the end!