Another Nordic noir revelation, the first novel in the Leo Junker series introduces a disgraced Stockholm Internal Affairs cop who is drawn into the murder of a young woman in his apartment building which his rogue investigation soon reveals to have a curious and unsettling connection to his own past. Intricately plotted, this is a first class urban police procedural that confronts many of the inequalities in Swedish society but steers clear from many of the snow ridden cliches of Scandinavian crime fiction to concentrate on character and carries the reader along as Leo and his teenage past story are slowly uncovered inch by inch and illuminate his troubled search. The novel won best Scandinavian crime book of the year and makes the still youthful Carlsson a name to watch. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
When a young woman is shot dead in his apartment block, disgraced former police officer Leo Junker is one of the first on the scene. Examining the dead body, he notices that the woman is clasping a cheap necklace – a necklace he instantly recognises. Despite being warned off the case, Leo sets out on a rogue investigation to catch the killer, uncovering a series of frightening connections between the murder and his own troubled youth in Salem, and forcing him to confront a long ago incident that changed his life forever.
