Ve Stokholmu vrcholí příprava letní olympiády. Na novém stadionu však vybuchne bomba. Zabije Christinu Furhageovou, významnou švédskou podnikatelku, která má na starosti organizaci olympiády. Policie začíná intenzivně pátrat po vrahovi. Kde ho hledat? Mezi teroristy, nebo v nejbližším okolí vedení olympijského výboru? Jen vytrvalá reportérka Annika Bengtzonová nachází souvislosti, které ostatní zřejmě nechtějí vidět. Exploze je prvním titulem velice úspěšné série s Annikou Bengtzonovou.
Scandinavia’s undisputed queen of crime fiction, Liza Marklund is the No. 1 international bestselling author of the Annika Bengtzon series.
Liza Marklund was born in 1962 in the small village of Pålmark, close to the Arctic Circle in Sweden. She is an author, journalist, columnist, and goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. She is also co-owner of Piratförlaget, one of Sweden’s most successful publishing houses. Since her debut in 1995, Liza Marklund has written eleven novels and two nonfiction books. Liza co-wrote the international bestseller The Postcard Killers with James Patterson, making her the second Swedish author ever to reach No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Her crime novels featuring the gutsy reporter Annika Bengtzon have sold more than 13 million copies in 30 languages to date.
Liza Marklund worked as an investigative news reporter for ten years and as an editor in print and television news for five. Today, she also makes documentaries for television and writes for various newspapers. Her topics are often women and children’s rights. Liza has made documentaries about children with HIV/AIDS in Cambodia and Russia, and a series about domestic violence, Take a Little Beating.
Liza is also a popular columnist since 20 years. Her columns have appeared in various Swedish and international newspapers and magazines, including Financial Times in the UK, Welt am Sonntag in Germany, Dagbladet Information in Denmark, and Ilta-Lehti in Finland. She is a regular columnist in Swedish tabloid Expressen and Norwegian daily Verdens Gang. Today, Liza and her family divide their time between Stockholm in Sweden and Marbella in southern Spain.
After posting my review of Livstid yesterday, I had a long online discussion with notgettingenough about the meaning of the word "feminism", and whether it was a good thing. It says something about the power of Liza Marklund's novels that, after reading one, I found myself in the curious situation of being a man defending feminism to a woman.
Marklund is a single-issue author: she's writing to support her notion of feminism. This word can indeed be interpreted in many ways. Marklund is using it in a narrow sense. She thinks that women are not treated well at most places of work, and that this is very wrong. She shows over and over again how men refuse to accept that women can do as good a job as they can, even in cases when it is quite clear that the woman is in fact performing better than her male colleagues. Her novels are full of examples of men using crude, sexist sterotypes to downplay women's ability to contribute and to marginalize them. She shows how painful this is for women, and what a dreadful effect it can have on their self-esteem and mental health.
She's very convincing. It's particularly frightening that she's writing about Sweden, which is probably the fairest and least gender-biased country in the world. If it's this bad in Sweden, it's clearly going to be much worse nearly everywhere else. It would be easy to say that, since Swedish women have such a good deal compared to women elsewhere, she should shut up. Another way of looking at it is that Swedish women have made enough progress towards sexual equality that they can say this kind of thing and be taken seriously. Several of Marklund's novels have topped the Swedish bestseller list. I view that as extremely positive.
In my humble opinion, one of the reasons why feminism has done so well in Sweden is that Swedish feminists, like Marklund, have intelligently prioritised their demands. They have focussed on equality in the workplace, reasoning that, if they can succeed there, the rest will follow. Marklund believes passionately that women should support each other at work. She is not trying to convince you that sex is rape, that all women should be lesbians, or anything remotely similar. Annika Bengtzon, the heroine of her series, is heterosexual and perfectly happy with her sexual orientation. She has had a complicated and messy private life, which, at least as far as I can see, is in no way intended as feminist propaganda. In Paradiset, she got involved with Thomas, a married man, who ends up divorcing his wife and marrying her. In Livstid, Thomas leaves Annika for another woman. In private life, Marklund clearly believes that all's fair in love and war. Marklund is splendidly bitchy about Annika's rivals - inter alia, we learn that one of them is frigid and has really small boobs. This is one of the things that gives the series its undeniable charm, and stops it from being a dull piece of feminist preaching.
As you can tell, she sold me, and I'm not even a woman. Most people consider Sprängaren to be her best book. I really liked it.
Mai multe explozii cu victime, in Stockholm, o determina pe Annika, ziarista la o publicatie cunoscuta, sa caute, in paralel cu politia, o legatura intre victime. Un thriller bun, dar pentru mine nu a fost Wow!
I'll be quick. This isn't my kind of thing. I gave it a go, but had to concede defeat after a 100 pages. Nothing happens, the dialogue is stodgy and grim, the characters are wafer-thin, the attempts at colouring in locations and relationships cursory. This is novel writing by numbers. Maybe this turgid tosh would work for me on a long holiday - albeit what sounded, from the blurb, like a gripping thriller was incredibly tame - but I don't want to waste valuable time on something this vacuous when I'm reading for pleasure at home.
I swear to God, if I hadn't read this book when I was working in Sweden in 2002 then I'd have strapped my boss to an explosive device and left bits of her all over Stockholm. I had it all planned out. Thank you Liza, you convinced me there was a better way.
”Explozii în Stockholm” nu a fost o carte ”explozivă” așa cum ar recomanda-o titlul. Au existat bineînțeles și momente pline de suspans, dar și alte pasaje care nu instigau tocmai la o lectură alertă. Acțiunea se desfășoară în Stockholm, oraș ce se pregătește să găzduiască Jocurile Olimpice, dar care este zguduit de o explozie a uneia dintre pricipalele arene sportive. Pagubele sunt de ordin material la prima vedere, dar printre dărâmături se găsesc și rămășițele Christinei Furhage, șefa Consiliului Olimpic. Personajul principal este Annika Bengtzon, șefa departamentului de investigații de la ziarul Kvällspressen, care se ocupă de acest caz cu ajutorul informațiilor de la poliție dar și cu ceea ce află pe cont propriu. Mai toate ipotezele se bazează pe faptul că atentatul a fost pus la cale de un grup terorist pentru boicotarea Jocurilor Olimpice. Annika nu are aceeași părere, crezând că de fapt explozia o viza doar pe Christina, și începe să răscolească în trecutul acesteia. Află niște detalii uimitoare care variau de la imaginea Christinei ca femeie perfectă până la aceea că era o femeie rea, egoistă, manipulatoare. O a doua explozie ia prin surprindere pe toată lumea, chiar și pe Annika – începe să se îndoiască de ceea ce credea și înclină să creadă varianta atacului terorist. Întâmplările ce urmează o determină să se întoarcă la prima ipoteză. Tocmai cercetările ei și ceea ce publică o fac pe Annika să cadă victima ”atentatoarei”. Acțiunea se desfășoară pe mai multe planuri, printre care ni se prezintă viața și regimul agitat din interirorul unei redacții de ziar: goana după informații în premieră, verificarea lor, alegerea modului corect de a le prezenta sau neprezentarea lor și publicarea înaintea concurenței sunt doar o parte dintre aspectele surprinse pe parcursul romanului. Annika nu impresionează tocmai prin faptul că nu este ”impresionantă”, nu are nimic special. Este femeia zilelor noastre care încearcă să se împartă între carieră și familie și care de foarte multe ori nu reușește. Ca și scriere, romanul este simplu, fără fraze extraordinare, cu propoziții scurte și la obiect, reușind să ducă cititorul la dezlegarea misterului fără prea multe ocolișuri. Aș fi așteptat ceva mai mult de la un roman cu un fir narativ atât de interesant. Din păcate, finalul este foarte previzibil.
This one was not as explosive as I thought. Hand held fireworks spark a little bit more than this book.
When a bomb explodes in Stockholm a few days before Christmas and destroys the Victoria Stadium, where the Olympic Games would have been held, the president of the Olympic Committee was the only victim. What was she doing inside the stadium in the middle of the night, who wanted to sabotage the Olympic Games and why?
I couldn't continue with it. While the writing style in itself wasn't a problem, the long-ass chapters seemed to never end. It wasn't gripping enough. I love political thrillers and journalist investigations, but this novel was tame, with plain prose, irritating dialogue and characters I couldn't wait to stop following. So, after a quarter of the book, I decided to call it quits. It wasn't for me. Needless to say, it seemed interesting. I loved the setting, the Olympic Village and stadium vibes and the descriptions of the places. Too bad the atmosphere in itself was dull.
Taking place in Stockholm this is a Nordic thriller about three women. I really empathized with Annika, who has been promoted as a boss in the mostly male world of journalism. Trying to cope with two children, a husband and a group of employees who are bitter that she has been promoted over them, she faces her first real crisis when a bombing with a fatality occurs at the new Olympic venue. The tension was palpable, whether it was in her personal life or in her investigation into The Bomber. Layers are unpeeled as the story unravels, the other two woman coming into play. Enjoyed this book, quite a bit, thought it was a very well done suspense story.
Jag tycker om Marklunds sätt att skriva och att Annika känns mänsklig. Att hon som journalist dras in i rättsfallet känns inte osannolikt eller överdrivet, vilket det annars lätt kan framstå som.
De ingående beskrivningarna av arbetet på en stor tidningsredaktion i slutet av 90-talet är både intressanta och en aning för detaljerade. När boken publicerades var mobiltelefoner och annat en ganska ny företeelse och förklaringar av hur de används var därför motiverade. Att läsa detta 2020 ger mest en känsla av lustig nostalgi. Jag tror kanske att jag skulle tycka det var mer intressant att läsa antingen om hur det är att vara journalist i min samtid eller hur det var innan jag föddes (det vill säga tillräckligt långt tillbaka i tiden för att jag inte skulle ha några minnen eller annan relation till det).
Bör tilläggas att jag lyssnade på Maria Johanssons uppläsning i ljudboksformat och ibland hade lite svårt med tonläget/rösten, men inte så pass att det inverkade märkvärt på upplevelsen av boken.
Handlingen var förutsägbar till en punkt där det inte blev kul att fortsätta läsa. Men jag läste ändå färdigt för att jag ville veta hur författaren hade byggt upp slutet. Men det känns som om jag är smartare än författaren för jag kunde räkna ut stora delar av handlingen innan det ens nämnts i boken. Vilket gjorde hela boken tråkigare.
Another successful outing with feisty journalist, Annika Bengtzon. She has recently been promoted to the Crime Editor at her newspaper and let's say that transition has been a little rocky with former colleagues now reporting to her. They're annoyed and she has not been to Management 101 classes yet.
In this entry, a high ranking official with the Swedish Olympic Organization has been murdered in a bomb blast. She won't be the last victim although the motive is unclear. Annika is digging deep into the case and ruffling feathers as per usual.
I do enjoy this series although I've read the books out of order. I'm not sure whether all have been translated into English or published in series order. It really doesn't matter, the stories themselves carry the day for readers who enjoy a journalistic take on crime.
This was my final Transworld Challenge book and I'm pleased that it wasn't my first. I loved my first three choices, but felt pretty let down by this one.
What could have been a great action thriller was really spoilt for me by the amount of uneccessary and often irrelevant and tedious detail about the life of the main character Annika. She's a gutsy heroine, but not a likeable one, and I got totally fed up by reading about how many taxis she took, how many coffees she drank and how many salads she ate. A plot which involves the destruction of Olympic venues sounds great, it could have been a terrific story, but for me it read like a soap opera, and not a very good one at that.
There is a cover quote from Harlan Coben, he says "edge of your seat suspense" - the only way that this would make me get closer to the edge of the seat is not the suspense but because I'd dropped off to sleep.
I have been trying to figure out why I have not been an Annika Bengton fan as several of my GR buds are. I figured it out with this book. Liza Marklund reminds me of an NN version of American authors such as Lisa Jackson, romance mystery writers where there is too much focus on the "romance" life of the main character. I loath books like that and this series has progressively been getting worse in that area. I thought there was not enough focus on the mystery twistedness and that it was WAY too light in its mystery aspect.
I was reading the series to review the author's upcoming release, but feel with this book that I have enough to skip the next two in the series. I just can't do it anymore.
I would recommend this series to any lovers of American romance mystery readers looking for an in to "lighter" Nordic Noir, but would discourage any heavy NN readers, such as myself, to look at other authors.
Mietin pitkään annanko kolme vai neljä tähteä. No neljä tähteä. Kirja oli kyllä hyvin kirjoitettu ja mielenkiintoisesti mutta välillä kirjassa oli mielestäni joitain kohtia jotka eivät olleet olennaisia tai oli ehkä liian pitkästi kerrottuna. Jotkut asiat olivat kovin tuttuja juttuja, esimerkiksi se miten kännykän voi jäljittää. Tietysti pitää muistaa aika jolloin kirja on kirjoitettu eikä tällaisia tietoja varmaan silloin ollut samalla tavoin mitä nykyään. Loppu oli kuitenkin jännittävä vaikka tapahtuikin lopulta nopeasti, paljon selittelyä ja miten mihinkin oli tekijä päätynyt. Pidin kuitenkin kirjasta.
Litt langtekkelig, men ganske spennende krim med interessant blikk på det å være kvinne i arbeidslivet, særlig i lederroller, spenningsforholdet mellom å prestere på jobb og å prestere i hjemmet, samt kvalitet/kommersialitet i massemedia. Ikke spesielt tilhenger av hvordan Christinas veske/pc, som introduseres i prologen, utspiller sin rolle. M.a.o. Plottet har sine svakheter, men liker karakteren Annika Bengtzon så godt at boken fungerer.
Nädal enne jõule toimub Stockholmi olümpiastaadionil plahvatus ja tapetuks osutub olümpiakomitee esinaine Christina Furhage. Selline sündmus pakub muidugi tööd ajalehtede krimiuudistele, osakonna juhataja Annika Bengtzon asub hooga asja kallale. Paari päeva pärast on järgmisel olümpiaobjektil plahvatus, seekord tapeti üks ehitustööde juht. Kõik näib viitavat terrorismile, kuid Annika kahtlustab muud. Pinget lisab raamatusse ka ajalehetoimetuse töötajate omavahelised keerulised suhted. Peategelane Annika on tüüpiline krimiajakirjanik, üsna sarnane Dictega (ETV-s jooksva krimiseriaali peategelane). Samas mulle need krimiajakirjanikud ei sümpatiseeri, ma ei oskagi öelda miks. Mulle ei meeldi inimesed, kes üksteise peale karjuvad, samuti tundub mulle, et krimiajakirjanikud segavad politseiuurimist ja kurjategija tabamist. Raamat on muidugi põnev, kuigi lõpp tundub pisut kiirustades kirjutatud. Paari lehekülje jagu oleks saanud minu arvates tegelikult veel pinget üleval hoida. :) Üks tsitaat ka (Christina Furhage isiklikest märkmetest): *Eluõnne saladus on leppida sellega, mis sul on, lõpetada ülespoole ronimine ja leida hingerahu.
My intention was, to read an easy book, sort of in between. I didn't feel like continuing the ones I was already reading, I needed something to listen to while doing chores, so I chose this one. I am hardly ever disappointed by Swedish crime writers. Neither was I this time. An interesting book. Several lines of investigation, Annika follows only one, the one she feels like is the most logical, probable, the one her gut feeling says is true. That, and the part where she is thwarted, feels like the formulaic part of the book. And that's also the reason why it doesn't get 5 stars. It was too predictable to be a 5 star book, but all on all it was a great read.
Je tiens à remercier les éditions HLAB et le site Netgalley de m'avoir permis de lire ce livre.
L'histoire se déroule à Stockholm une semaine avant Noël.
On y retrouve la journaliste Annika qui essaye de trouver des cadeaux de fin d'année avec ses deux enfants. Sauf qu'en pleine nuit, elle reçoit un appel pour se rendre sur un scène de crime cauchemardesque. Un stade Olympique à été détruit par une violent explosion. Dans les débris les reste d'un corps sont retrouvés, celui d'une femme Christina la présidente du comité Olympique. Pour tout le monde il s'agit d'une attaque terroriste et en voulant démasquer le poseur de bombe, Annika va se mettre en danger.
Encore un livre de cette série que j'ai adoré, j'ai trouvé l'histoire prenante, captivante, addictive et remplie de suspens et de rebondissements avec toujours des personnages aussi attachants.
Yleensä en ollenkaan viehäty dekkareista, mutta tässä joku kolahti. Henkilöt ovat yllättävän aidontuntuisia ja inhimillisiä, mikä on virkistävää. Myös päähenkilö on ainakin ajatusmaailmallisesti hyvin samaistuttava. Kerronta on yksityiskohtaista ja kuvailevaa, mutta erilaisella tavalla mihin itse olen tottunut. En osaa edes oikein kuvailla miksi tämä oli niin hyvä. Kokonaisuudessaan hyvin virkistävä kokemus.
Woah, what a cool book. Amazing ending. At the first chapters,i was a little sceptic but at the last 3 chapters my opinion changed a lot. I was really really wanted to finish this book earlier,but the number of pages at one chapter was so big,so i could not read more than one chapter per a day. At least was a good book,i cant wat to start a new one. 😸 i recomand it for the one who wants to learn more about Stockholm and Swedish. 👍👍
2000-luvun alun bestseller päätyi viimein luettavaksi. Perusdekkari, sopiva sekoitus iltapäivälehtien maailmaa, olympialaisia ja vähän epäuskottavia käänteitä.
Pradžia kiek nuobodi - per daug nereikalingų detalių, jokio veiksmo. Po 100 psl. buvau net užmetusi ir praradusi norą skaityti. Bet visi filmai apie Aniką man patiko, tad prisiverčiau skaityti toliau. Ir nepasigailėjau. Nors sprogdintoja paaiškėjo gana anksti, tačiau buvo įdomu, kaip viskas toliau susiklostys. Tad jei pradžioje būčiau skyrusi 1 žvaigždutę, dabar rašau 4.
Moj prvi susret s Marklund nije najbolje prošao. Nisam se nikako mogla uživit u priču, nije mi bilo uvjerljivo sve to. Previše tu svega nebitnoga za radnju, a premalo nečeg što bi me odvelo do 5*. A moj žanr 😒
Annika has been promoted to the head of crime at the Evening Post, a major Stockholm newspaper, when a report comes in of an explosion at the Olympic stadium. She's determined to get the best angle on the story and discover the truth before any of her competitors. Is it an act of terrorism against the Olympics or is it murder? And will she get it wrapped up in time to spend Christmas with her family?
What The Bomber does best is portray the inner workings of a busy newspaper. It's refreshing that the characters are just doing their jobs and not taking over from the police like in many crime novels. Annika has a police source but she doesn't work with them and it's a constant struggle to find out information.
But, what angry characters we have! Annika seems to be incredibly irritable, snapping at her husband, children, colleagues and interviewees. The short winter days of Northern Europe makes us all tetchy but I'm not sure it makes for a good protagonist. Maybe Annika rubs of on those around her as they're just as angry back, with exception of her boss at the paper. I get the feeling Marklund is trying to make a statement about equality of the sexes in the workplace but I don't feel that Annika is disliked because she's a woman, more that she's not very nice to her colleagues! The character of Nils, comes across as a stereotypical sexist man without any redeeming features and his presence doesn't have any real relevance on the plot. Now, this is chronologically the fourth book in a series but the first that was written, so perhaps there is a back story that explains more, but as a standalone read, I wish it had concentrated more on the investigation and the bomber's motives.
Overall it's a good read but the angriness has probably cost this book a whole star. The Bomber has been incredibly successful in its original Swedish and a hit film has made made based on the book, with more films based on the series on the way. I would be interested to find out if Annika mellows after the events of The Bomber or if she started out that way, so I wouldn't write Liza Marklund off as a writer.
Interessant, den Redaktionsalltag einer Journalistin mitzuerleben - mitsamt dem Stress, den die Doppelbelastung als Mutter zweier Kinder mit sich bringt. Spannend auch die Story. Bei der Marklund gefällt mir außerdem gut, dass da immer starke Frauengestalten vorhanden sind, und das Leben an und für sich aus Frauensicht dargestellt wird.