Rating: 5/5
Review:
Terrifically enjoyable
I enjoyed the Sword of Justice enormously. I'm a bit lukewarm about a lot of
Scandi-crime stuff and only tried this on the recommendation of a friend – and
I'm very glad I did.
What makes this book stand out is its protagonist, Evert Bäckström. He is, to the public, a national hero of
policing: wise, diligent and superbly effective. In fact, he is idle, vain, drunken, corrupt
and dishonest. Much of the book is
narrated from his point of view, and we also see, from his internal monologue, that he is bigoted, lecherous, grasping,
self-deluded, treacherous, sexist, racist…and pretty well every other
unpleasant "-ist" you can think of.
These attitudes are brilliantly parodied by Persson, and it makes the
whole thing slyly funny.
Bäckström is quite shrewd, however, and even though he
leaves all the work to others, he does grasp what is going on well enough to
maintain his public reputation, even if many of his colleagues see through
him. Just as an example of his
behaviour, there's a scene in which he discovers a vital piece of evidence in a
valuable antique vase…because he had picked the vase up to try to steal it from
the crime scene, and is now secretly furious that he's drawn attention to it so
he can't take it.
There's lots of very amusing stuff, but it's based in a good
police procedural story involving stolen art works, crooked lawyers, violent
gangs and so on. It's very well told and
has well-drawn characters. I found the
book a genuine pleasure and I'll be searching out the two previous Bäckström
novels very soon. This is a great read
and very warmly recommended.
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