2009, ISBN: 9781402785924

Dark, suspenseful, and more riveting than any thriller at the local cineplex, THREE SECONDS is the latest novel from best-selling Swedish duo Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström-heirs appa… More...

Dark, suspenseful, and more riveting than any thriller at the local cineplex, THREE SECONDS is the latest novel from best-selling Swedish duo Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström-heirs apparent to Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell as the masters of Scandinavian crime. Piet Hoffman, a top secret operative for the Swedish police, is about to embark on his most dangerous assignment yet: after years spent infiltrating the Polish mafia, he's become a key player in their attempt to take over amphetamine distribution inside Sweden's prisons. To stop them from succeeding, he will have to go deep cover, posing as a prisoner inside the country's most notorious jail. But when a botched drug deal involving Hoffman results in a murder, the investigation is assigned to the brilliant but haunted Detective Inspector Ewert Grens--a man who never gives up until he's cracked the case. Grens's determination to find the killer not only threatens to expose Hoffman's true identity-it may reveal even bigger crimes involving the highest levels of power. And there are people who will do anything to stop him from discovering the truth. Winner of the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' 2009 award for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, and a #1 best-seller there, THREE SECONDS captures a nefarious world of betrayal and violence, where a wise man trusts no one and even the most valuable agent can be "burned." Award-winning journalist Anders Roslund and ex-criminal Börge Hellström are Sweden's most acclaimed fiction duo. In 2009, Three Seconds was awarded the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award for Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, previously won by both Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, and it was a top 10 best-seller in Sweden for eight months. The shady dealings between the Swedish police and their deep-cover informants propel the latest thriller from the writing team of Roslund and Hellström (Box 21). Ex-con Piet Hoffman, now a "covert human intelligence source" for Stockholm City Police, is close to breaking up the Polish Mafia's attempt to control drug distribution in Sweden's prisons. When the operative is involved in a botched drug deal that leads to murder, investigating detective Ewert Grens inadvertently threatens to derail the mission. Afraid that Hoffman will disclose the government's illegal involvement in his assignment, his handlers blow his cover while he's trapped in a maximum-security lockup. With the police, Mafia, and prisoners all wanting him dead, Hoffman makes Grens an unwitting tool in his desperate plan for escape. VERDICT Readers who persevere through the glacial pace of the book's first third will be rewarded with a terrific, nail-biting climax that demonstrates why it won the prize for Sweden's best crime novel in 2009. Give this to Stieg Larsson fans and any reader fond of morally complex thrillers. [Silver Oak is the new fiction imprint of Sterling and Quercus.-Ed.]-Annabelle Mortensen, Skokie P.L., IL-Library Journal Media > Book<