Scandinavian crime fiction has been hot for many years now, but in the wake of the unexpected success of the Steig Larsson books, it appears to be even more ubiquitous. This latest example (the third in a series, following The Beast and Box 21) takes a very straightforward and familiar plot about an undercover operative working for the Swedish police, and manages to milk it for more than 400 pages of not particularly engaging prose. The premise is that former drug addict and ex-con Piet Hoffman was recruited by the cops while still in jail to become an informant. He has since risen to a fairly prominent position with a Polish gang, and is on the brink of being able to provide information to his handler that will bring the gang entire drug-smuggling operation down. Of course, as is the case in many such stories, something goes wrong and Hoffman's role of informer is put at risk -- along with his life.

The ostensible hero of the story (and the series) is dour, misanthropic, middle-aged Detective Inspector Grens, who in the course of investigating a murder, comes into contact with Hoffman and smells something fishy. So, you have one set of police officials trying to cover for Hoffman and keep him off the radar, and D.I. Grens and his team chasing down Hoffman from the other side. Now don't get me wrong, I love police procedurals, but this one is very slow going for the first 2/3 or so of the book. There's a lot of fat in the writing, and it often feels very clumsy. For example, the authors have this really annoying technique that emerges in pivotal scenes, where a line of dialogue is followed with a line describing what the speaker is thinking and feeling as they say it. This is incredibly awkward, and sometimes it's not even clear who is thinking what. This is made even more complicated by the occasional use of italics to set off such interior thoughts.


But if you stick with it long enough, the story suddenly lights up in a flurry of well-conceived activity in the final third. I just finished re-reading the classic thriller The Day of the Jackal, and aspects of Hoffman's story are very reminiscent of the methodical planning undertaken by the assassin that book (and film). Unfortunately, like that book, the characters never really come alive off the page, and mainly exist to serve the plotting. (It's possible that some on the police side would feel more fleshed-out if I'd read the first two books in the series.) The overall story is really not that fresh or interesting, but the mechanics of how certain things are done may be enough for some readers to emerge satisfied. I read a lot of international crime fiction, and this one felt pretty marginal to me.

Note: One aspect that's somewhat interesting is the not-so-subtle implication that the Swedish police are importing techniques (like the heavy cultivation and use of informers) from America that end up taking them into some very morally dubious territory, such as turning a blind eye to crimes committed by valuable informants.