The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Söderberg

First published in Swedish in 2012; published in translation by Crown on March 12, 2013

Jens Vall is an arms dealer in Stockholm. While trying to deliver a shipment of weapons, he's thrust into the middle of a turf war between two organizations of drug dealers. One is headed by Ralph Hanke and the other by Hector Guzman. While Hector is in hospitalized, he forms a bond with a nurse, Sophie Brinkmann, and invites her on a date. Gunilla Strandberg, who runs a unit of misfit police officers, notable only for their loyalty to her, is after Hector and wants to use Sophie to spy on him. The police use threats and blackmail to make Sophie and others cooperate with their investigation. In fact, it's difficult to find a difference between the police and the criminals. If anything, the police are more brutal. Readers who are looking for a clear distinction between the good guys and the bad guys should give this novel a pass.

In addition to the crime family showdown and the arms delivery gone wrong, the plot features a blackmail scheme involving a midlevel manager at Ericsson. The plot never crosses the line from complex to confusing, but with so many characters entering and leaving the story, concentration is required to keep it all straight. Sophie remains the novel's focus, a strong, relatively innocent widow caught in a nightmare.

The plot is interesting but the characters make the story worth reading. They are authentic, filled with contradictions, nagging doubts and hidden emotions. Sophie comes from a background of family discord. (As you might expect in a Scandanavian novel, the family members view Sophie's sister, Jane, with suspicion because she's happy.) Sophie is transformed by her experiences with Hector and the police but, at the same time, remains grounded in her relationship with her son. Gunilla is ambitious, ruthless, and as much a criminal as the thugs she pursues. Hector, on the other hand, is capable of gentleness and sensitivity, at least in his interaction with Sophie. One of the officers Gunilla recruits, Lars Vinge, a man with some serious pharmaceutical issues, is unhappy with the limited role Gunilla has given him and decides to do something about it. If there's anyone in the novel worth cheering for other than Sophie, it's Lars, despite his problems, which include an unhealthy obsession with Sophie. Unlike the other police officers, Lars has a conscience. His motives are never purely altruistic, but he's not evil, as are the novel's most thuggish characters.

The Andalucian Friend blends action (and blood) with intrigue and suspense. It moves at a steady pace, not so quickly as to short-change character development, but not so leisurely that the reader's attention wanders. Alexander Söderberg doesn't invite the reader to make a deep emotional investment in any of his characters; readers who have that desire will probably find the novel unappealing. Some might also be displeased with the novel's ending -- it leaves lives unsettled -- but I thought it was satisfying. It isn't exactly a happy ending, but the unexpected karmic twists are true to the story that precedes it.

As the first novel in a trilogy, I have to expect the next story to go in a different direction, since not many of the characters introduced in this one are alive when the novel ends. I look forward to seeing where the next installment takes the survivors.

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