I am a sucker for Swedish noir so I settled in to read Stockholm Delete by Jens Lapidus with enthusiasm. Disappointment followed. It's a legal/lawyer lead plot with a few twists and turns but it turns into more of an ordeal than a pleasure. Either the characters aren't well enough developed or they just aren't captivating.

This is the first part of a trilogy, I'll pass on the next two parts.

2/5

Unfortunately I struggled with this story. Lots of different story lines that had very minimal progress. It was also awash with so many different characters that I lost track of a storyline altogether. Not one for me but others have found lots to enjoy.

Emelie Jansson is newly qualified as a lawyer when she is asked to defend a young man arrested on suspicion of murder. However, the law firm she works for forbids her to take the case so she juggles the case in secret.

Teddy is the firm’s fixer and special investigator but he is also an ex-con trying to rebuild his life. The past rears up its ugly head as the two try to investigate the circumstances around the crime. Each of the main characters is struggling to shed the past and make something of their lives but family ties, and secrets long-hidden threaten to obliterate their futures.

The Swedish legal system makes it very difficult for Emelie to get any facts about the crime her client is accused of but she starts to realise that the past has long tentacles which reach far into the present day and that many of the facts of the case are intrinsically linked.

The reader is given a glimpse behind the scenes of the lives of Serbian immigrants and the tight bonds of loyalty that bind them. As usual, the criminals come from all walks of life and big business and even the police force come under the spotlight, as the themes of corruption and fraud are explored.

A fast-paced, action-filled thriller that does not fail to deliver.

Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

This is a complex thriller set in the seedy side of Stockholm, I didn’t really connect with any of the characters in the story and felt the plot was too complicated and unbelievable. Say not for me.

A complex crime novel which never goes quite the way you expect it to. Shows the underside of a Sweden which we in the UK rarely hear about - almost to a man or woman they are criminal to one degree or another, and represent a range of nationalities which throws a light on the tensions between different immigrant groups who have made their home in the capital city. Although I enjoyed following the twists and turns of this violent story, I found that many of the premises behind it were just too contrived and far-fetched for it to be truly believable.

The anomalous central character Teddy knows full well he's not disciplined enough to have made the police, and has done the time for it. His secretly frightened nephew after a stint in juvenile incarceration admires him (maybe for wrong reasons) and Teddy feels the weight. But he's a good guy, and the 'crime' he committed unravels in a way to implicate his own childhood friends, and an early flame of his, a young ambitious good-hearted lawyer, too good for her work to engage her helping rich people get richer. Complex and very tough, with no ready answers or ethical guidelines, this is a gritty and driven work. I didn't always like any of the protagonists much, but I wanted to knows that despite all they make it. Very satisfying in the end.

This is hard to review. It ends well but takes too long to get there. Part of the unnecessary wordage is the long extracts in small print from police interview files. Not adding anything. There are also too many plots and the chapters switch from one to the other too abruptly. It is also hard to come to terms with the characters' names in English. A major male criminal doesn't sound like a 'Nicola'. I am not impressed by this book.

This is an absolutely terrific Scandinavian thriller, but I had to read a third of the way through before the disparate threads began to connect and I began to become invested in the novel. Emelie Jansson is a rookie lawyer taken on by an exclusive law firm to work on Mergers and Acquisition. Teddy is an investigator with the firm with a background of having served 8 years in prison for the kidnapping of Mats Emanuelsson, without giving up others involved. On Varmado Island, a man has been murdered in a cottage, but it has not been possible to identify him. Close by, Benjamin Emanuelsson has suffered severe injuries in a car crash. The police are convinced that Benjamin is the killer and charge him. Out of the blue, Emelie gets a call that Benjamin wants her to be his lawyer. She has no idea who he is. Her firm categorically do not want her to take the case and she has no experience as a criminal defence lawyer. Emelie takes the case, working below the radar, with the help of Teddy.

Teddy is trying to put his past behind him, but as he comes to understand that there was much more to the kidnapping than a ransom, he is forced to reacquaint himself with his criminal brethren, and become the wily hard man he was once reputed to be. He wants to get to the bottom of the mystery despite the fact that it may cost him his life and those close to him. 19 year old Nikola is Teddy's nephew, just released after a spell in a youth custodial centre. Nikola loves his uncle Teddy, but circumstances are conspiring to put him on a similar troubled path as Teddy. Nikola finds himself needing a lawyer, he calls on Emelie, who cannot say no. Mats Emanuelsson, a man with a fatal addiction to gambling, finds himself in hock to the Yugoslav mafia, becoming The Magician. He is arrested by the police, and becomes a police informant. His interviews with Joakim Sunden give detailed information on his extensive role in financial fraud. Mats finds it difficult to cope after being kidnapped and goes on to commit suicide. Despite the dangers they find themselves in, Teddy, Emelie and Nikola are determined to find the truth and ensure that Benjamin receives justice, but will they succeed?

The story does not tie up all the threads and it ends on a real cliffhanger, I imagine that there will be a sequel. After a slow start, the story becomes fast paced, with such high levels of tension and suspense that I could not stop reading. Stockholm delete refers to the practice of making people disappear. I really liked the characters of Emelie and Teddy, their relationship with each other, their determination, and how they develop in the novel. This is the first book I have read by this author and I was impressed by his ability to tell a rattling good yarn. I am certainly keen to read other books by him when they become available. Many thanks to Corvus and Atlantic Books for an ARC.

I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of publication. I have not been paid for providing this review and is my own honest opinion of the book.
Story revolves around Swedes, Slavs, a reluctant criminal defence lawyer, an ex con, a crooked accountant and a young man on a murder charge.
Becomes a little bit complicated on account of the number of foreign names involved and their relationship to the central characters particularly as a number of these characters are on the perifocal of the main story.
All told thought a highly enjoyable storyline, well written and with more than the odd twist and turn along the way.
No hesitation in recommending and would certainly read further publications by this author.

I would like to thank Netgalley for an advance copy of Stockholm Delete, a stand alone thriller set in the seedy underbelly of Stockholm.

The novel opens with a security guard discovering a shot body and seeing a car crash near the crime scene. It then switches to Nikola's last days in a juvenile detention centre before release, then to police interviews with a confidential informant, Mats Emanuelsson, then to Emelie Jansson and her confirmation to a lawyer and finally to Teddy, an ex con trying to go straight. Emelie is the main protagonist but Teddy is the link. He works as an investigator with Emelie's law firm after 8 years behind bars for the kidnap of Mats Emanuelsson, he is Nikola's uncle and when Benjamin Emanuelsson wakes up from his car crash he asks for mergers and acquisitions lawyer Emelie to represent him and tells her to get Teddy to understand.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stockholm Delete which is a grown up, sophisticated read with a bit of everything. The plotting is detailed and complex and, with Mr Lapidus being an eminent criminal defence lawyer, it has the ring of authenticity. There is violence, corruption, money laundering and gangs. Teddy is a former gang member in the immigrant underworld and Nikola is a wannabe so this world features prominently in the novel. Their twisted code of ethics and loyalties makes for fascinating reading as nothing is as us ordinary mortals would expect.

It may seem from the above description that this is a very dark novel but on the contrary it is a novel filled with hope from Emelie's decision to help Benjamin regardless of the consequences for herself, like loss of her job, to Teddy's determination to do right by the Emanuelssons when he discovers that there was more to Matt's kidnapping than he was told. Obviously it is not all sweetness and light but it is very realistic.

As a newly minted lawyer and one fresh to criminal work Emelie is the reader's guide to the Swedish legal system. It seems very different to ours - Emelie is expected to construct a defence with no idea until very late in the day of the evidence against her client. It's interesting.

I found the first few chapters compulsive reading as they draw you in and arouse your curiosity about Matt's story, what happens to Benjamin and where Nikola fits in. Teddy and Emelie are fairly obvious. It is a fairly long novel and to me it sags a bit in the middle with not much forward propulsion, more Emelie and Teddy going through the motions but it picks up again with more action and a resolution.

Stockholm Delete requires a fair amount of concentration to keep up with the large cast of characters and complicated plotting but it is rewarding so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.