Box 21: A Novel

Authors Roslund and Hellstrom build a chilling thriller from the detritus of human suffering, two cases playing out dramatically in a Stockholm hospital where a junkie confronts the consequences of stepping on product and a teenaged Lithuanian sex slave is beat near unconsciousness by her Russian handler. Human trafficking is front and center in this shocking story, the drug culture a close second in its seriousness. In contrast, veteran detective Ewert Grens is the face of the law, his rough persona hiding years of grief that aches like a phantom limb. Grens wants revenge- or justice- for an act committed twenty-five years ago, the subject of his rage, Jochum Lang, an enforcer, in his sights and nearly in his grasp thanks to the actions of the junkie, Hilding Aldeus, Lang's current target. Depraved and pathetic, Hilding personifies the dead-end drug culture, the ugly underbelly of junkies and their suppliers in the city, as well as the organized crime that supports and profits from human misery. When severely beaten prostitute Lydia Grajauskas arrives at the hospital for treatment, a series of events unfolds, Lydia suddenly the focus of a system that gives such victims short shrift. The police are thrown into chaos as the lonely junkie meets his nemesis a few floors away, Grens and detective Sven Sundkvist confronted with questions for which they have no answers. While extreme, the brutality in this story is hardly surprising; it is the moral dilemma at the heart of the thriller that is disturbing, the grey areas of human behavior misshapen by grief and personal bias, the voice of the innocent barely recognizable above the din of crime vs. law enforcement. In an increasingly violent, lawless world men are called to action, force meeting force in dramatic confrontation. But at the heart of this story is one courageous woman desperate to tell her truth to the world, to be heard. While criminals rage and police respond in kind, Lydia engineers a moral coup that is stunning in its simplicity, a lone voice in a chaotic wilderness. The moral conundrum is in the response. In a world filled with cacophony, how can a truth be told? Who will listen? And whose truth is more important? Fast-paced, brutal and laced with the personal dramas of larger-than-life characters- some more unlikable than others- Box 21 is provocative and disturbing, leaving the reader with much to ponder about the unpredictability of justice and the nature of truth. Luan Gaines/2009.

With its unassuming title and Swedish origin, North American readers might be tempted to let Box 21 slide into the "maybe later" category of books. This would be a mistake for readers that have a serious interest in any of the following: crime thrillers, anthropology, social justice, women's rights, ethical conundrums, or, absent any of the above, fresh, potent, and innovative contemporary literature. Like a kayaker or river rafter putting in on an unknown river, the reader of Box 21 will experience maximum excitement and tension if he or she dips their oar without much knowledge of the rocks, rapids, waterfalls, and vortexes that wait downstream. A skeletal outline of the plot: Set in contemporary Stockholm, Box 21 pits two detectives, one cynical and bitter, one idealistic and philosophical, against two plot strands that are only loosely interwined: a death related to heroin addiction, and two deaths related to sexual slavery. In the unfolding of the plot, the reader is deeply immersed in the graphically portrayed worlds of drug addiction, and the world of kidnapping women from developing nations and inducting them into the sexual slavery of prostitution. The story is told in almost excruciatingly sharp focus, authors Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom disdain the use of the use of any literary airbrushing that might lessen the impact on the reader. The gritty adherence to realism in this novel is not accidental. Borge Hellstrom is a recovering drug addict that has done jail time for his drug-related crimes. Currently working to rehabilitate young criminals and/or drug addicts, there is a soul-scalding immediacy to his descriptions of an addicted young man teetering on the edge of catastrophe. Anders Roslund developed the Swedish TV show Culture News. While some authors of fiction might introduce the topic of sexual slavery with overtones of salaciousness, sensationalism, or (shiver) even romance, Roslund approaches the topic with all the delicacy and subtlety of a hard swung baseball bat impacting on the body of the victim. The Roslund-Hellstrom team writes, I'm guessing, not simply to entertain, but to engage and to enrage the reader. Intentionally or not, they succeed. They have a message, and they want it heard at high volume and with clarity. We all love a book that is written well enough to make us laugh out loud, or to cry. At one point in the book, I seriously frightened my wife by leaping off the couch where I was reading and shouting "NO, God damn it!" It was the first time I've ever reacted to a book that way, and after a slightly heated reaction by my wife, a promised last time. A centerpiece of the book, done masterfully by Roslund/Hellstrom, is ethical dilemma. No spoilers here, just a promise: Box 21 will twist your conscience into pretzels and Mobius strips. It will indirectly raise the question of whether it is appropriate to have men (as a gender) involved in the prosecution of sex crimes. Three y

BOX 21 is an exemplary crime novel. But it sure doesn't tempt me to visit Stockholm. The hero, if there is one, is Ewert Grens, a grizzled, insufferably rude investigator of the Stockholm PD who's only tolerated because he's also the best. Twenty-five years previously, the love of his life, fellow officer Anni, received severe skull injuries while trying to apprehend the notorious thug, Jochum Lang. Anni now hangs on in a long-term care facility, and Lang is about to be released from prison. Loneliness and bitterness control Ewert's life. Lydia Grajauskas, along with Alena Sljusareva, are two young women who've been confined, humiliated and sexually debauched for the past three years after having been lured to Sweden from Lithuania. Now, Lydia is hospitalized unconscious after being severely flogged and her arm broken by her pimp. The noise alerted the neighbors who called the police, including Grens. While recovering, Lydia vows it will not happen again; she implements an ingenious plan for vengeance. Hilding Oldéus is a drug addict who's hit bottom. He's hospitalized after overdosing in a photo booth of the central train station, but not before selling heroin he's cut with washing detergent to the niece of his supplier. She dies, and the brutal enforcer Lang is sent to teach Oldéus a meaningful lesson. The paths of Ewert, Hilding, Jochum and Lydia all intersect at Söder Hospital. BOX 21 is a forceful and original psychological sortie into Stockholm's underbelly. The reader who prefers a happy ending, or at least one in which justice universally prevails, may find this atypical novel depressing. On the other hand, BOX 21 is perhaps more reflective of real life, in which wrongs are only haphazardly made right, heinous crime sometimes goes unpunished, the guilt from failed family relationships can destroy the psyche, friendship's obligations can corrupt, and life's disappointments can be as corrosive as acid. I liked BOX 21 very much, but it wasn't - and isn't - a feel-good read.

I'm a huge fan of all things Scandinavian which definitely includes books. I'm always on the lookout for scandinavian authors who have their works translated into English so I was super excited to find this book. I wasn't at all disappointed, the book started off like fire and stayed burning to the very end. It's written in a unique way, following two story lines that weave in and out of each other throughout the book without ever connecting. It's about a veteran police officer in Stockholm who is an excellent cop but lives his personal life in the past due to a horrible tragedy. It's about two young Lithuanian girls who thought they could escape poverty by moving to Stockholm, escorted by two men who promised them well paying waitressing jobs and the terrible truth that met them when they arrived. The book is translated from Swedish to British English which sometimes can feel awkward while reading, but it is very well written and is one of those books I couldn't put down once I started. I'll be looking forward to reading more novels by these authors.

Box 21(translated from Swedish) is a dark and brooding novel, full of intrigue and betrayal. The story takes place over the course of one week, with flashbacks to three and eleven years earlier, and has two parallel plots tied together by policeman Ewert Grens. One strand of Box 21 focuses on Jochum Lang, who has just been released from prison. Twenty-five years earlier, during the commission of a crime, Lang injured Anni, the police and romantic partner of Ewert Grens. Anni is brain damaged and confined to a nursing home, where Ewert still visits her once a week. Shortly after his release, Lang visits a local hospital and commits a crime of "injury for hire," breaking several limbs of a drug addict that had been adulterating drugs with soap powder. The drug addict, who is also the brother of one of the hospital doctors, dies and Ewert is determined that this is the crime that will put Lang away for life. The second strand of Box 21 involves two young women from Lithuania that had been tricked into coming to Sweden only to be abused, held hostage, and forced to work as prostitutes. After an especially brutal beating, the police are called to the apartment and take one woman, Lydia, to the same local hospital as where the drug addict died. The second woman, Alena, manages to escape. Aided by Alena, Lydia secures a weapon and explosives, and takes five employees of the hospital hostage in the mortuary. Eventually, Lydia trades the hostages for a policeman-interpreter, subsequently shooting the policeman and committing suicide. The policeman-interpreter is also Ewert's best friend, and aided by his trusted colleague Sven, Ewert takes on this case and works to understand what drove Lydia to murder-suicide. The case turns explosive when Ewert makes shocking discoveries about himself and his best friend. Box 21 is a somber story, intertwining sorrow, anger, deceit, and hopelessness into a scheme that grips the reader. The characters and the sub-plots come together seamlessly, presenting a tangle of intrigue that is not resolved until the final few pages.