5 STARS
1932 Stockholm, Sweden
Wheel of Fortune, for every one going up there's one going down.
Framed for murder Kvisten searches for the witness who can clear him. A cat and mouse game across the seedy side of interwar Stockholm ensues with Harry seemingly one step behind, all the time, until his luck turns. It's a probing look at the bottom half of the city's totem from the schemers to the scrapers to the desperate, and every so often there's a glimmer of hope.
Not pretty and not cozy, there's a visceral quality to the descriptions and tone that root this squarely in the noir genre. Noir is very much a fall from grace motif; doll comes into his life and suddenly everything goes to hell in a handbasket. All it takes is one meeting and everything changed for Harry Kvisten.
Brutish and self-centered, he's a great character. In real life I'd lock horns, but he really does have that larger than life attitude that gives him a charisma that his broken face doesn't. He also has moments of unvarnished restraint or charity that you wouldn't expect which makes him unequivocally flawed, but human, and not a sociopath. His code is different, honed by scarcity and need, but it is there.
It is a textural and palpable experience reading about Kvisten's life, a series of physical events and while they are often violent that concentration lends a sensuous quality. It's this ephemera, seductive, yet blunt instances that are here then gone again. Don't misunderstand, there's nothing romantic about it; it's coarse, earthy and visceral. That "ultra-gritty" tag in the blurb is not unwarranted. If one is uncomfortable with human bodily functions than the intrinsic crudity will be off-putting.
That said, this story is rooted in 1930s Stockholm. You have a real sense of the economic inequality, the struggle, and the disturbing rise of Nazi rhetoric whispering in. There is a definite sense of place and references that a local or one with great familiarity will get that others will not. Contextually, they're understandable, but the sub context for all the regional references are right over my head, which is hard to admit and has me feeling like this:
The ending is a splashy double-cross, emotionally fraught, yet in that noir aspect untouchable. Everything has changed and nothing has. Overall, I enjoyed the chase, the betrayals, and that cynicism. It was a win, and I'll probably reread it and I already have the perfect person to buy this book for.
Wheel of Fortune, for every one going up there's one going down.
Framed for murder Kvisten searches for the witness who can clear him. A cat and mouse game across the seedy side of interwar Stockholm ensues with Harry seemingly one step behind, all the time, until his luck turns. It's a probing look at the bottom half of the city's totem from the schemers to the scrapers to the desperate, and every so often there's a glimmer of hope.
Not pretty and not cozy, there's a visceral quality to the descriptions and tone that root this squarely in the noir genre. Noir is very much a fall from grace motif; doll comes into his life and suddenly everything goes to hell in a handbasket. All it takes is one meeting and everything changed for Harry Kvisten.
Brutish and self-centered, he's a great character. In real life I'd lock horns, but he really does have that larger than life attitude that gives him a charisma that his broken face doesn't. He also has moments of unvarnished restraint or charity that you wouldn't expect which makes him unequivocally flawed, but human, and not a sociopath. His code is different, honed by scarcity and need, but it is there.
It is a textural and palpable experience reading about Kvisten's life, a series of physical events and while they are often violent that concentration lends a sensuous quality. It's this ephemera, seductive, yet blunt instances that are here then gone again. Don't misunderstand, there's nothing romantic about it; it's coarse, earthy and visceral. That "ultra-gritty" tag in the blurb is not unwarranted. If one is uncomfortable with human bodily functions than the intrinsic crudity will be off-putting.
That said, this story is rooted in 1930s Stockholm. You have a real sense of the economic inequality, the struggle, and the disturbing rise of Nazi rhetoric whispering in. There is a definite sense of place and references that a local or one with great familiarity will get that others will not. Contextually, they're understandable, but the sub context for all the regional references are right over my head, which is hard to admit and has me feeling like this:
The ending is a splashy double-cross, emotionally fraught, yet in that noir aspect untouchable. Everything has changed and nothing has. Overall, I enjoyed the chase, the betrayals, and that cynicism. It was a win, and I'll probably reread it and I already have the perfect person to buy this book for.
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