an enjoyable read. a lot less dark and psychologically laden then many of the north country mysteries.Backstrom is fairly repulsive, but somehow, everything seems to work out as it should ( )

Detective Superintendent Evert Backstrom is an obstreperous, corrupt, obese, racist misogynist who pisses off everybody who works with him. And those are his good points.

The second Backstrom novel is similar to the first, with Persson building a procedural around his Falstaffian cop, frequently leaving the readers shaking their heads at the outrageous internal dialogue that he attributes to him, and eliciting belly laughs that are immediately followed with a twinge of guilt at finding such outrageousness funny. It's quite a feat; he manages to keep the character just the right side of offensiveness, while milking his obnoxiousness for all it is worth.

The plot commences with the death of an old man in his apartment, surrounded by empty bottles. Backstrom instantly decides it's just one piss-artist killing another piss-artist, nothing to see here, let's all go have lunch. The body is found by a Somali paperboy, whom Backstrom dismisses with a few crude epithets.

There is something that niggles at him though and he seems to be well ahead of his colleagues, leading them a bit of a dance before the team starts to home in on what is really going on. Despite all his unlikeable characteristics, Backstrom is sharp when it counts.

This novel is a guilty pleasure, but probably not for people who consider themselves "woke"; they may just find the character too offensive. ( )

Detective Superintendent Backstrom of the Swedish police is a horrible person with something bad to say about everyone, including the woman he's attracted to in his precinct. If he has a redeeming quality, it's being smart enough to know who to put on his task team and whose opinion to listen to that will make him look good. While investigating what seems like a quickly solved murder of a poor old alcoholic, the police start unraveling a much more complicated life than anyone could have expected.
Persson has made a thoroughly unlikable character with Backstrom, which made it pretty impossible to root for him even though I usually like awful characters. I was set to give this book three and a half stars until the very last page, which was so icky that I dropped half a star and likely won't read another from the series. ( )

He is such a pig, but I found it hard to put the book down.

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.



Bäckström is a despicable, crooked cop who is racist, sexist, homophobic, and more. While the story begins and centers him, there are definitely moments of relief from his mindset. He begins the story after being transferred to a new police district and being given sobering news by the police doctor: he's in danger of dying soon from his excessive drinking and eating. The chastened Bäckström investigates what appears to be a straightforward murder of a drunken retired accountant, but soon the investigation uncovers that things are not what they seem.

I appreciated the focus on the investigation and on the many layers of hierarchy in various Swedish police forces: too much focus on the evil killer gets old for me. What also stood out was the circling back in time to see crucial events in the storyline from different characters' perspectives. There's also plenty of black humor in the story: Bäckström himself is quite ridiculous, and the jokes about corruption and police bureaucracy are quite pointed.

Only the Story of a Crime trilogy and this book have been published in the US, and I've read just one previous Persson book, Free Falling, As in a Dream, so I'm not the foremost expert. This edition coincides with the television show, but what from what I've read, the show differs quite a bit from the books: Bäckström is not entirely unredeemable, and the plots are not just adaptations of the books. I think I'll stick with the pricklier books. While I'm fairly new to the series, the characters keep appearing in Persson's books, which take a very methodical approach/ procedural approach to solving the murder that begins the book. The procedure slows down the book a bit, but all in all it's a quick read.

Highly recommended.

Other reviews appear in Crimepieces, Col's Criminal Library, and Crime Scraps.