Jan Stocklassa

If you are old enough to remember the event of the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister all those years ago, the shock and horror, and then the big, long, nothing with no arrests ever....

The crime has never been solved to this day and probably never will.

So, we all know Stieg Larsson from his "The Girl Who....." novels. What I never knew was the he devoted his life to mapping and making public the links between the post-war Nazis and the current power structure in Sweden.

If you did show more not know about Sweden's love of fascism then you have a lot to learn about IKEASTAN.

Do a quick Wikipedia search for Eugenics in Sweden and you'll find interesting snippets like this: Up until 1976 you could apply to have your rowdy neighbours sterilised.... yes, you read that correctly.

I digress though, Olaf Palme, the PM was not popular with the Fascists and they had false news-ed the idea that he was a Soviet agent, amongst other things.

In this book, a chunky affair in itself, the author Jan Stocklassa, follows all the threads that Stieg Larsson was following up until his early death using the huge archive of anti-fascism research he left behind.

It's not a whodunnit is the classical sense, but it goes there all along the way, this entire book is in the arena of conspiracy theory, not because it is trash, but simply because no-one has ever been charged for the murder.

It could have been one of those non-fiction books that are dry and static with long lists of dates and names. That's not the case here though. I was gripped through the entire 500 odd pages. The quality of the writing is superb and the structure is partly why it's a good read.

The author does not arrive at the actual solution to the murder ...... but he does a convincing job of creating a flat-pack solution that you can assemble yourself. show less

This is a very interesting book for several reasons.

First - it is about an unsolved murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. It is weird that after almost 40 years there is no official resolution of this assassination. What this indicates is that Sweden was neutral mostly on paper but within all political and military structures it was very clear where they stand. Unfortunately this "silent approach" to investigations of high exposure events is also visible in our times, during show more the investigation of another incident - this time very near their territorial waters for which they did the investigation but do not want to publish the results. Friendly fire again? There is nothing worse than meddling of politics in the criminal activities and especially this type of high level events. And accusing everything on a single crazy person (and waiting until given person is dead [this time of old age] before providing the statement) is now so much a cliche that I do not know who would chose that instead of just saying - no comment.
Second - author used materiel investigated and provided by famous journalist and later crime novel writer Stieg Larsson. Struck with Palme's assassination, Larsson started investigating possible leads and it is very interesting to follow his findings (around 40% of the book). Unfortunately after a while even Larsson lost interest in the case and moved from links with right extremist organizations toward the lone amateur assassin case.
Third - author's own investigation using the Larsson's materials and further pushing and talking to still alive persons of interests in second decade of 2000's. What he found is not conclusive (after all he is journalist not law enforcer) but he paints a very plausible timeline of events and reveals the details of the possible culprits. Unfortunately culprits that played the role of proxy executioners for Western alliance during the Cold War (same as Eastern block used Bulgarians for example) so they are not to be named publicly. His investigation, from direct contacts with persons of interest to assistance by the mysterious Czech national (part about possible data extraction in Israel was .... oh, boy) and various shady and deadly characters like Craig Williamson truly show how perilous is path towards truth and how easy is to slip and commit crimes while fighting for it.
Fourth - it was interesting to read about far left in Sweden, especially Jan Guillou, author of famous Swedish Agent Hamilton series. Jan's relation with Olof Palme himself, especially after the scandal related to security services and Olof's party activities, are very interesting indeed.

Very interesting book, highly readable and most importantly very compact, with almost zero repetition of the story line across the chapters. While some readers are stating that inconclusive ending is a downside, I have to say it is not. Book gives a very strong case on possible culprits but after 40 years there is no political will (if there ever was one to begin with) to find the killers (or at least name them) because it would open some festering graves and implicate people that do not want to be put under the spotlight.

Recommended to fans of history and crime investigations involving shady spy groups and assassins. show less

Der 28. Februar 1986 ändert vieles im schwedischen Bewusstsein: auf offener Straße wird Premierminister Olof Palme erschossen und er erliegt am Tatort den Verletzungen. Auch dreißig Jahre nach der Tat sind weder der Täter dingfest gemacht noch die genauen Geschehnisse des Tatabends geklärt. Der Journalist Jan Stocklassa stößt bei seinen Nachforschungen für ein Buch über Tatorte auf die Aufzeichnungen von Stieg Larsson, heute aufgrund der Millennium-Trilogie als Thriller-Autor show more weltweit bekannt, in den 80er Jahren jedoch in Schweden geschätzter Journalist und Illustrator, der sein Leben lang gegen den Rechtsextremismus anschrieb. Auch Larsson hat bis zu seinem Tod 2004 akribisch geforscht, um den Mordfall Olof Palme aufzuklären. Stocklassa nimmt die Spurensuche wieder auf und vervollständigt Larssons Vorarbeit. Am Ende bleibt die Frage offen, was die schwedische Polizei aus dem Material machen wird.

„Stieg Larssons Erbe“ ist eine detailreiche Dokumentation nicht nur der unmittelbaren Ereignisse vom 28.2.1986, sondern es beschreibt auch wichtige politische Zusammenhänge und Ereignisse, die wesentlich für die Tat sein könnten, und ebenso die geradezu erschrecken komplizierte und von Streitigkeiten geprägte Struktur des Polizei- und Juristereiapparats. Obwohl das Buch einen weitgehend dokumentarischen und beschreibenden Charakter hat, Stocklassa legt auch seine und Larssons Arbeitsweise ausführlich dar, um ihre Gedankengänge und Vorgehen nachvollziehbar zu machen, liest sich das Buch dennoch unheimlich gut und wirkt an keiner Stelle ermüdend oder gar dröge.

Sicherlich hat es einen guten, von Marketing-Gesichtspunkten geprägten Sinn, dass der Name Stieg Larssons im Titel erscheint. Für mein Empfinden verschiebt das leider etwas den Fokus und lenkt potenzielle Leser in eine falsche Richtung. Dies ist besonders schade, da es einen ausgesprochen hohen informativen Wert hat, unterhaltsam zu lesen ist und auch ohne den bekannten Namen wirken kann. „True Crime“ – ja, natürlich, aber faktisch ist es eine Aufarbeitung des Falls Olof Palme, der unheimlich komplex und dadurch enorm interessant ist. Für mich eine sehr lohnende Lektüre, da mir der Fall nur rudimentär bekannt war und ich die Hintergründe und Zusammenhänge nicht wirklich kannte. Sowohl das Vorgehen des Autors bei der Recherche war dabei für mich aufschlussreich zu lesen, aber auch die Situation des Extremismus und Terrorismus in Schweden, was mir bis dato gänzlich unbekannt war.

Fazit: ein Buch, das vor allem durch den Einblick in qualitativ hochwertige journalistische Arbeit überzeugt und für ein Sachbuch in einem hohen Maße ansprechend verfasst wurde. show less

The book played out Stieg Larsoon's research and theory regarding the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. The author did a good job and the book is not as dry as I expected it to be.