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Sunday 4 February 2018

‘The Sons’ by Anton Svensson



Published by Sphere,
9 January 2018.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-5777-0 (HB)


This is the second book (The Father preceded it) of the internationally bestselling series Made In Sweden written collaboratively by award winning script/screenwriter Stefan Thunberg and bestselling novelist and investigative journalist, Anders Roslund.

Ably translated from the Swedish language into English by Hildreth  Crill, it tells the story of Leo and his two younger brothers, Vincent and Felix, bound together not only by blood ties but by their unsavoury past.

Notorious mastermind Leo has been released after serving a six-year gaol sentence for two daring robberies he and his siblings committed. And he’s cock-a-hoop because the prosecution failed to establish he was also responsible for a string of eight other robberies, for planting a bomb at Stockholm’s main train station and for pulling off a huge weapons heist. Unrepentant and unreformed, his time behind bars has been spent meticulously scheming and plotting the crème de la crème of crimes – the theft of 100 million of Swedish currency from a police station, and then to vanish into thin air. But time is not on his side.

Cop detective Jon Broncks (his brother Sam, convicted of patricide, was befriended by Leo in prison) who was instrumental in arresting Leo and his brothers, suspects Leo is up to no good, is on to him and is determined to stop him. That isn’t all that Leo must contend with – his father, Ivan, a violent, angry émigré from the former Yugoslavia, has other plans for Vincent and Felix, now law abiding citizens and, keen to stay on the straight and narrow, they’re reluctant to involve themselves in Leo’s last job.

The siblings’ clan loyalty is put to the ultimate test; Leo and Broncks are both victims of brutal and abusive childhoods and can read each other well. Much of the material is based on real life events and this gripping, action-packed family crime saga is not for the squeamish.

The author’s skill lies in crafting tension through sharp and polished prose that is varied in pace, and attention is given to the detail that render a story authentic and full of suspense. It is a technically clever piece of writing that is not only thought provoking but also thrillingly propels the story to a stellar climax.
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Reviewer: Serena Fairfax

Anton Svensson' is a pseudonym for Stefan Thunberg and Anders Roslund.
Stefan Thunberg is one of Scandinavia's most celebrated screenwriters. His body of work spans popular TV series such as Henning Mankell's Wallander and Håkan Nesser's Van Veeteren as well as two of Sweden's biggest box office successes in recent years: Hamilton and Jägarna 2. While Thunberg achieved fame as a screenwriter, the rest of his family became infamous in an entirely different way: his father and brothers were Sweden's most notorious bank robbers, dubbed Militärligan (The Military Gang) by the media.
Anders Roslund is an award-winning investigative journalist and one of the most successful and critically acclaimed Scandinavian crime writers of our time. Roslund is part of the New York Times bestselling author duo Roslund & Hellström, who are recipients of many prestigious awards, including the CWA International Dagger, the Glass Key and the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award, and who boast sales exceeding five million copies. Films and TV series based on Roslund & Hellström's novels are in the works, both in Hollywood and Europe.


Serena Fairfax spent her childhood in India, qualified as a lawyer in England and practised in London for many years. She began writing by contributing feature articles to legal periodicals   then turned her hand to fiction. Having published nine novels all, bar one, hardwired with a romantic theme, she has also written short stories and accounts of her explorations off the beaten track that feature on her blog. A tenth, distinctly unromantic, novel is a work in progress. Thrillers, crime and mystery narratives, collecting old masks and singing are a few of her favourite things.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent first book (Father) which was based upon facts. The prequel/sequel (The Sons) rambles on and on and end with a totally illogical outcome - which no doubt is setting up the next book in the series. I will pass on this crapola - twice is enough.

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