Another Time, Another Life

January 2, 2012
The real-life 1975 siege of the West German embassy in Stockholm by six young terrorists drives Persson’s ambitious second installment in his crime trilogy focused on Swedish politics (after 2010’s Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End). In 1989, inspector Anna Holt and assistant detective Bo Jarnebring investigate a Swedish civil servant’s murder, but their corrupt boss thwarts their efforts. In 2000, Lars Johansson, newly appointed to the Swedish Security Police (aka SePo), reopens both cases and uncovers a link. The author’s straightforward journalistic approach makes the historical events seem remote and unapproachable, akin to a documentary-style police procedural. But the look at the fictional individual detectives and their fates through the years enriches the story. Good cops continue to be honest; some bad cops get their comeuppance, while other dishonest cops are promoted. In the end, politics trumps justice. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency.

March 15, 2012
Dark, politically charged thriller from Swedish crime writer Persson (Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End, 2010), one of many literary heirs of Stieg Larsson. Anyone who was alive and kicking in 1975 is likely a much different person today, if in no other way than that the platform shoes and disco ball are now in storage. Certainly a person's politics might be different--and attitudes about others, too, especially if you are, say, a Norwegian put into contact with Germans within living memory of the Nazi occupation. Persson's newest starts off smack in the middle of a not uncommon scene in the Europe of 1975: a cadre of terrorists has seized the German embassy in Stockholm, demanding the release of prisoners, including members of the Baader-Meinhof gang. Things get ugly quickly; as the head of the homicide squad idly thinks, "The promised effects of the Stockholm syndrome, this good, consoling cigar, seemed more remote than ever." A few hours in, and hostages and terrorists die. Or did they? The operation was so carefully planned that, it stands to reason, someone well placed both inside and outside the embassy had to have been in on it. Red herrings--perhaps better, Red Brigades herrings--ensue, as Persson unfolds a carefully plotted story that jumps to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, then to the near-present, crossing generations of investigators and government officials in the quest to find out who knew what--and who covered up what, and who killed whom. People change with the years--and they don't. Persson himself figures in the proceedings, in the sly way that Alfred Hitchcock figured in his films. And while there's humor, if mostly black--let "The one who had ended his life by his own hand and with the help of his service revolver to save society unnecessary nursing expenses and himself an undignified life" stand as a fairly typical example--Persson writes with unrelenting grimness, as if needing a strong dose of Mediterranean sunshine to cure the police-beat blues. It helps to know something about the time in which the story is set, and who Olof Palme was, to appreciate the book. Still, a practiced, Larsson-worthy procedural.

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December 1, 2011

The second novel in Persson's trilogy featuring Swedish cop Lars Johansson is as exceptional as his debut, Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End. This tangled tale of high crime and flexible morals begins with the 1975 occupation of the West German embassy in Stockholm by members of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist gang and culminates in a retrospective investigation 25 years later to determine who helped the terrorists. In the process, an unsolved 1989 murder is reexamined. Are the two events connected? Persson, a noted criminal profiler, writes with a sure hand and sharp insight. His detectives are human, interesting, and fallible. Some of them really want nothing more than to catch the bad guys, but others simply want to avoid doing work. The lead detective in the 1989 investigation is utterly incompetent and as unpleasant a homophobe as you will meet. But as for Johansson and his dogged and highly capable team of investigators--well, to know them is to approve of them. VERDICT Another winner from Persson. If anything, it's even better than the first book. Fans of Scandinavian crime fiction will eat it up. [20,000-copy first printing.]--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2012
Persson, an award-winning Swedish author, psychological profiler, and member of Sweden's National Police Board, follows Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End (2010) with another crime novel based on historical events. This time the focus is on the the 1975 terrorist takeover of the West German embassy in Stockholm. No one in Sweden was ever arrested for collaborating with the terrorists, yet there had to be inside help. Persson gradually lays out his version of the full story, from the initial police attack at the embassy to the strange and hastily shelved murder of a civil servant in 1989 (who may have been involved in the embassy takeover) to the security vetting of a new cabinet member in 2000. Bo Jarnebring was a young officer in 1975, who narrowly avoided being shot by the hostage takers, and the lead detective in the 1989 investigation. Eleven years later, Anna Holt is part of an elite team inside the Swedish secret police that is working to uncover the truth from layers of cover-ups and incompetent police work. While the documentary-style narrative is a bit of a departure from what Scandinavian crime fans have come to expect, it works quite well here (better than in Summer's Longing). In fact, this may be just what fans of Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson are looking for.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)