Young lawyer, Emelie, has started her own practice and takes on as a client a young woman, who’s been horrifically abused for a number of years, but is ready to testify against the perpetrators. Emelie is swiftly drawn into the dark underbelly of the city, the part we never normally see. She enlists the help of her friend and former lover, Teddy, who operates in the drug fuelled world. This unlikely team appeared in earlier books by the Swedish author, Jens Lapidus, and this brings to the end the trilogy which has become a popular cult read, so much so that plans have been announced for them to be made into a TV series to be shown next year. It can be quite confusing in the way it darts from one side to the other and lacks the clarity of writing the best of which has been Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. But it brings alive the racism and drug fuelled activities of much of Stockholm’s young. The poverty at the heart of the story is set in the immigrant parts of the city as many of the new arrivals have been unable to find work in legitimate activities. The sex ring Emelie and Teddy are threatening to expose is backed by the some of the most powerful in society, so the barriers she has to fight against seem almost insurmountable. Alongside all of this is a long running investigation by the police into possible financial crimes which only later is it realised that those rich and powerful men are also involved in the sexual abuse. The characters are well drawn but, and I’m not sure if this is the translation, can get very mixed up. For instant, Emelie’s best friend is called Josephine, until suddenly someone called Jossan arrives in the tale. I not sure that many will know this is a familiarity of Josephine in Sweden. This is one of the many confusing things of the book, which is not particularly appealing. There is a viciousness and nastiness to the book, which is well suited to the tale. I found my mind spinning out of control at times as it flits form one situation to another in a never ending spiral, which I’m still not sure goes up or down, or is it both?