Until the 21st century, Sweden had remained relatively untouched by terrorism. Attacks in Stockholm and Gothenburg, however, brought the impact of global tensions to within Sweden’s borders. The government in Sweden has recently raised the threat level of terrorism and it’s telling that two recent book releases both feature radicalisation and terrorism in their plots. Anki Edvinsson’s The Mermaid and Pascal Engman’s The Widows look at the issue through very different lenses, but it’s a chilling insight into how world politics now impacts lives far away from the initial conflict.
The Mermaid by Anki Edvinsson
Who is the perpetrator and who is the victim? The question of who the guilty party is drives many a crime thriller, with authors enjoying employing plenty of twists and red herrings to throw the reader off the scent.
It’s a tool Swedish author Anki Edvinsson deploys in The Mermaid, her second book in the Detectives von Klint and Berg series, but there’s something deeper as we look into multiple layers of victimhood.
When a woman’s body is pulled from the river in Umeå in Northern Sweden, residents are quick to point the finger at a gang of Middle Eastern refugees who live in the town. The police suspect some of the gang of minor theft, but have they really progressed to murder? When eight days later one of the gang appears in the town square wearing a bomb vest and holding a detonator the city’s rumour mill seems to have been justified – there is indeed a ‘terrorist’ among them.
Edvinsson skilfully weaves us through the backstory of not only these refugees but the lives of those they meet, their families, acquaintances, and the police investigators themselves.
It’s a compelling picture of life in Umeå, of an undercurrent of misunderstanding on both sides. The residents of the city are suspicious of newcomers from a culture they don’t understand, and immigrants shaped by the horrors they have witnessed and the hostility they face. Edvinsson, however, doesn’t take the easy option of painting one side right and one side wrong – neither party in this picture is entirely innocent – but it’s the way in which those confrontations and suspicions interplay with an unfolding serial killing spree that makes this a gripping read.
Edvinsson is studying for a degree in Criminology at Umeå University in an attempt to understand her characters’ motives for committing the crime and that insight is clearly paying off; we’re given a richly detailed insight not just into the motivations of a serial killer but also the devastating impact on not only the victim’s families and friends but the community as a whole.
The Mermaid (a reference to the appearance of a victim found floating in the river) is a fast-paced, beautifully constructed work. As in any good Nordic Noir thriller, it toys with the reader, leading us down many false avenues; there’s plenty of twists but it never feels contrived. The inevitable reveal of the perpetrator is masterfully handled and, as the race to stop further killing unfolds, it is an action-packed finale.
As befitting any series, Edvinsson also wisely unravels more of a backstory to her central investigative protagonists. A visit to Stockholm paints us a picture of Detective von Klint’s wildly different lifestyle in the capital to the one she lives in the far north of the country, while the family struggles of Berg fills in more colour in that story arc.
Paul Norlen’s translation is paced perfectly, bringing a universal story of the struggle of not quite fitting into a wider audience. Short, punchy chapters entice the reader into a real page-turner that grips attention to the last, action-packed page.
There’s a filmic quality about The Mermaid that cries out for a screen adaptation but that’s not to detract from the book which becomes a compelling read, volume two in what will hopefully become a long-running series.
The Mermaid by Anki Edvinsson, translated by Paul Norlen, is published by Thomas and Mercer
The Widows – Pascal Engman
When an undercover policeman is found murdered in a Stockholm park, police think it’s gang related. When a second victim is found nearby, the initial view is it’s an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. The truth, though, is something much darker.
Pascal Engman’s The Widows, is the second Vanessa Frank novel, following on from the first book Femicide. There’s a feeling very much of a sequel here, so much so that there’s even a recap at the start of the novel of events two years previously.
While it does help set the context to have read the earlier novel, there’s enough exposition to be able to pick up the threads. And those threads are numerous and complex as Engman weaves multiple story arcs to a thrilling and nail-biting conclusion.
A father is wracked with guilt as his young son is knocked down by a hit-and-run driver, a bodyguard is trying to protect the family of the head of one of Europe’s largest online gambling businesses, the owner of that business is being blackmailed for unknown reasons, and a young escort stumbles across a secret that threatens not only her lifestyle but her own safety.
Against all this Detective Vanessa Frank and the Stockholm police are investigating the brutal murder of one of their own when the identity of the second victim causes Frank to question the very core of her personal life. Is everything she’s built her life on a lie and who is really telling the truth? As a terrorist cell plots a major attack on the Swedish capital, it’s a race against time to prevent mass slaughter.
While Engman pulls no punches detailing the plotting of the terrorist cell, tracing their routes back to Syria and ISIS, he does so against a portrait of a community in fear of anyone of ‘foreign heritage’. It adds dramatic tension to an already powder keg of emotions.
Those multiple plot lines do take effort to keep track of; a large cast of characters that take time to understand and discover how they slot into the bigger picture. It is, however, a rewarding complexity, offering readers a highly engaging, and by the well-paced climax, an edge-of-the-seat read. Engman’s background as a journalist is evident in his storytelling, providing a richly detailed narrative that knows how to hook the reader.
There’s plenty here to keep the reader engaged, international terrorism, domestic challenges, twisting crime procedurals and a climax that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Bond film.
Despite the hectic plot and the high stakes at play, at its heart The Widows is a deeply personal story, each of the characters having their own demons to face. Those characters are drawn in great detail with a real focus on the interaction between protagonists that is beautifully observed. Neil Smith’s fast-paced translations keeps enough detail of Swedish culture and location but makes it still accessible to an English-speaking audience.
If The Widows seems like a sequel, there’s also enough material here to see Detective Vanessa Frank spawn several more books in the series.
The Widows by Pascal Engman, translated by Neil Smith is published by Legend Press
