SILENCED
Written by Kristina Ohlsson
Review written by Ron Ellis
Ron Ellis is a journalist and author of the Johnny Ace books
Simon and Schuster
RRP: £6.99
Released: 28 February 2013
Pbk Original
Another blockbuster in the new Swedish detective genre with a sales pitch to fans of TV’s ‘The Killing’ and, despite being a massive 467 pages long, it is well worth the read.
Basically it is a police procedural based in the Federal CID Dept. Alex Reich is the head of a new special investigation department in which he is not entirely happy and he is also concerned about his wife who, he feels, is acting strangely. The last thing he wants at the moment are two new cases that look like trouble.
The team consists of Pedar, a man given to sexual harassment;Joar, an uncommunicative man, newly arrived; Frederika, heavily pregnant by her married lover, condition which affects her doing her job.
In other words, the personal lives of the police are as much part of the plot as the two cases, obviously tied together, which concern a lucrative but illegal business of the illegal entry of immigrants.
A priest and his wife are shot dead, ostensibly suicide but doubts surface. Art the same time a man is found dead in the street. Ostensibly a hit and run. But…..
The details of the operation sound very authoritative, understandable as the author was Counter-Terrorist Officer for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.The plot switches from Bangkok to Sweden and from the present to the past. It is thoroughly absorbing and I am sure will make an excellent film.
