Friday 4 May 2012

Review of Another Time, Another Life by Leif G.W. Persson





Wow! An unforgettable crime thriller with heavily political themes covering the period of 1975 to 2000. Persson winds us through events such as the blowing up of the West German embassy in 1975 by supporters of the Baader-Meinhof gang, the murder of a previous “sleeper” spy in 1989, the still unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 and the upcoming appointment of a Swedish citizen involved in these events to a seat in the Government.

It is a very incisive and insightful exploration of the workings of government - here, obviously the Swedish Government- during the break-up of the Soviet Union and its machinations in East and West Berlin immediately post Cold War. It illustrates the involvement of the Secret Services of both East and West in “cleaning house” while keeping doors open in order to manipulate one another.

Persson draws his characters with the minimum of physical attributes but you feel that you know them intimately from the wry, cutting and cynical asides each gives. Jarnebring and Wiklander are the detectives with Johanssen the Deputy Chief of SePo, the Secret Police. Holt, Mattei and Martinez are the hand-picked talented policewomen employed to crack the unsolved murder of Eriksson and discover its ramifications. Not to forget Bäckström, the bête noir of the police force, who has an interesting outlook on the world! To go into more detail would spoil the story – I leave readers to their own journey of discovery.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to all readers of detective fiction…or is it???

Reviewed by Liz.

Thanks Liz and thank you to Transworld publishers for sending us a copy to review.

2 comments:

  1. OOOOOH this sounds right up my street! I'll definitely have to go and check this one out, thank you! I love a good thriller, especially with a political dimension. Wow!

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  2. Wow, this one sounds gripping--the setting alone is enough to intrigue me!

    Stephanie @ Read in a Single Sitting

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