‘The Sons’ by Anton Svenson

Published by Sphere,
31 May 2018.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-3780-8

I came to this book at something of a disadvantage, not having read the first in this trilogy.   It's a brutal powerful story concerning a family of career criminals, three of whom are anxious not to return to prison, the fourth, Leo, just released, determined to engage in a major heist and at the same time, to take bitter revenge on detective John Broncks, the DSI whose relentless pursuit put him behind bars.  In a nice (or nasty) twist, Leo has befriended a fellow criminal while inside, who turns out to be the murderous brother of this same John Broncks.  His father and siblings are now attempting to lead law-abiding lives and keep out of gaol and are therefore reluctant to join him. 

One of the authors is in fact the brother of a real-life bank robber gang, which lends a gritty real-life authenticity to this extraordinarily violent story, so much so that at times it reads almost like a police report. 

The word 'gripping' is often used to describe novels such as this one, but believe me, in this case, the adjective is well-deserved.  Read as soon as you can get hold of a copy – but try and read The Father first.

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Reviewer: Susan Moody

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.

 

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. Susan Moody began writing crime novels with Penny Black, the first of the seven Penny Wanawake crime novels.  She has a second series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan. In all, she has published 29 novels, most of them crime and suspense. Susan spent two years as a Creative Writing Tutor in Her Majesty's Prison, Bedford. She is a past Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, serving in all as a CWA Committee member for seven years. She is a long-standing member of the prestigious Detection Club and served for three years as the President of the International Association of Crime Writers.  In 2016 Susan Moody began a new series featuring Alex Quick. Click the title to read a review of Quick and the Dead

http://susanmoody.co.uk