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Easy Money (The Stockholm Noir Trilogy #1)

Jens Lapidus,

Astri von Arbin Ahlander (Translator)

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Dec 29, 2012 Tony rated it it was ok

Shelves: translated-fiction, novels

I'll check out almost any translated crime fiction I come across, since the genre is often much better at providing a window into the everyday society of a place than more literary fiction. This Swedish thriller, however, proved to be an unimpressive, run-of-the-mill journey through an urban underworld, albeit Stockholm, as opposed to LA or NYC. The book follows three men: JW is a small-town Swede who has moved to the big city to reinvent himself as a college playboy, Jorge is a Latino cocaine h I'll check out almost any translated crime fiction I come across, since the genre is often much better at providing a window into the everyday society of a place than more literary fiction. This Swedish thriller, however, proved to be an unimpressive, run-of-the-mill journey through an urban underworld, albeit Stockholm, as opposed to LA or NYC. The book follows three men: JW is a small-town Swede who has moved to the big city to reinvent himself as a college playboy, Jorge is a Latino cocaine hustler plotting an elaborate escape from jail, and Mrado is a immigrant Serbian thug who is deeply involved in the "Yugo" mafia. If you need to have a "sympathetic" protagonist in your fiction, this is definitely not the book for you. Each of the men is amoral, and Mrado is much much worse (there are repeated references to his being at Srebrenica), and there's no cop or lawbringer in the book other than some interludes comprised of court documents relating to the action.

Over its 400+ pages, the book slowly draws these three men closer and closer together for a climactic collision -- but along the way it delivers a detailed look at how various parts of the criminal world works. From the coat-check shakedown racket, to high-end prostitution, to dime-bags and international smuggling, it's all in there. The author is a well-known criminal defense lawyer, and clearly has plenty of insider knowledge about a lot of this stuff. Which is good, because it allows him to include reasonably interesting details on the backs of some fairly cardboard characters. Unfortunately, this is sometimes overshadowed by a wildly miscalculated attempt to incorporate far too much detail about brand name attire and high-end cars. I gather that in the original Swedish, the differences in language among characters lent much to the tone of the book, as did the slang and argot. However, in English, it generally comes across like terrible wanna-be American gangsterism. Another reviewer called it an "obnoxious" translation, which just about nails it -- every time some Swedish/Serbian thug would make "mad cheddar" or JW would "rock" a designer jacket just grated like nails on a blackboard.

It's also worth pointing out that the book is not very friendly to women -- most of the female supporting cast are victims (prostitutes, rape victims) or society airheads. On the flip side, each of the three main men also have some kind of female beacon of wholesomeness they cling to: JW's memory of his missing sister, Jorge's sister, and Mrado's daughter. This mainly feels like a cheap gimmick to try and humanize them and try and balance their otherwise poor life choices and amoral lifestyles. Ultimately, despite delivering some decent cheap thrills at times, the book is too long for its own good, and the reader is worn down by spending so much time with so many posturing, awful people. It does end with a kind of feel-good open-ended situation that makes me suspect there's a second book to come.

Note 1: The book has led to a trilogy of Swedish films (Snabba Cash I, II, III) and Zac Efron's production company is looking at maybe doing a US version.

Note 2: The cover of the US edition of the book has a hilarious design fail.The "o" in the titular "Money" has a slash through it, which is a letter that's not actually in the Swedish alphabet! ...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Andy Plonka rated it liked it · review of another edition

A little short on plot, this mystery describes some of the economics of crime while giving the reader a mini course in the Swedish legal system. Drug smuggling and money laundering figure prominently in this novel. It helps if you know the lingo of the drug trade.

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Jul 07, 2013 Annie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Sep 02, 2019 Ann added it · review of another edition

Jan 20, 2024 Sarita marked it as consider-library · review of another edition

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