Cell 8: Ewert Grens 3

Written by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström

Narrated by Christopher Lane

The best-selling and award-winning journalist Anders Roslund and ex-criminal Borge Hellstrom are Sweden's most acclaimed fiction duo. Roslund and Hellstrom combine inside knowledge of the brutal reality of criminal life with searing social criticism in complex, intelligent plots, propelling them to the forefront of the recent Scandinavian crime fiction sensation and winning them numerous awards, like the prestigious CWA International Dagger. Heirs apparent to masters of Scandinavian crime Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, "For crime with a political purpose, it's hard to beat Cell 8... where an outburst of violence on a late-night ferry heading for Sweden links to the fate of an American on death row," said the Sunday Times.

A cheap crooner by the name of John Schwarz earns his keep on a ferry between Sweden and Finland singing evergreens for drunken passengers. One night, he loses his temper with a man harassing women in the crowd, beating him unconscious. As drunken brawls are commonplace on the Baltic cruising ferries, no one raises an eyebrow. No one, that is, but Detective Ewert Grens. Concerned by the details of the case report, Grens can't help but think someone capable of such violence must have a history of it.

Suspicion turns to shock when Grens discovers that John Schwarz is not who he says he is, but instead John Meyer Frey--an American citizen from Marcusville, Ohio; shock because John Meyer Frey died on Death Row the previous year. This mystery initiates the most remarkable criminal investigation of Grens's career, the reverberations of which will reach the highest tier of international politics, and blow the worldwide debate on the death penalty wide open.
(P)2012 Brilliance Audio

• Language: English
• Publisher: riverrun
• Translator: Kari Dickson
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781780873824

Anders Roslund

Roslund and Hellström are Sweden's most acclaimed fiction duo. Award-winning journalist Anders Roslund is the founder and former head of Kulturnyheterna (Culture News) on Swedish television, and for many years worked as a news reporter - specializing in criminal and social issues - and as an Editor-in-chief at Rapport and Aktuellt, Sweden's two foremost news programmes. Börge Hellström (1957-2017) was an ex-convict who brought a unique insight into the brutal reality of criminal life. He worked with the rehabilitation of young offenders and drug addicts, and was one of the founders of the crime prevention organization KRIS (Criminals Return Into Society). Their DCI Ewert Grens novels have won the Glass Key Award, the Best Swedish Crime Novel award, the CWA International Dagger, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, been translated into 31 different languages, and their worldwide sales are approaching 3 million copies. Visit their website at www.roslund-hellstrom.com

Reviews for Cell 8

[markusirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's too much America and not enough Ewert Grens for my liking

[floratina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

READ IN DUTCH

As always when I read a novel by Roslund and Hellstrom, this was a very interesting book which poses some very interesting questions. Since I grew up in a country which abandoned the death penalty a long time ago, it is hard for me to imagine there are places where capital punishment is still supported by a large enough fraction of the population to keep it going. It might not be as much edge-of-your-seat as the other books in the series, but it is definitely worth a read.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I do love a well-written crime novel and I've enjoyed the series that follows Ewert Grens, who is really not good at basic social interactions. He's a pudgy, older guy whose musical tastes were set deeply in stone in the sixties, who sleeps on the sofa in his office and is terrible about allowing his underlings a personal life. I think he probably smells a little, too, but the books don't mention it. In Cell 8, he takes on the case of a man holding a Canadian passport who is arrested after kicking another man in the head. He won't speak, is visibly frightened of being incarcerated and is not the man for whom the passport was issued. Grens is determined to find out who this man is, and when his identity is discovered it leads to a series of backroom political dealings that all end badly, with the already cranky Grens fuming (and yelling quite a bit) from the sidelines.

Grens is growing on me. He really is an unpleasant person. But the people he works with are patient with him and the authors are good enough to keep the characters three dimensional. Even the really bad guy in this book has motivation for his reprehensible actions. It all makes sense, up until the final twist, which did not work at all. This is not as fast paced as the other books in the series. It has a point to make, and no matter how valid and important that point, this book has all the failings of a book with a lesson to teach. It can be a little self-righteous at times, a lot self-righteous at others in a way that interfered with the telling of the story. Also, much of the book took place in the US, and those portions, no matter how well researched, felt "off".

[twink_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Roslund and Hellström's first novel, Three Seconds, hit bestseller lists in their native Sweden and in the US.

Their latest book, Cell 8, opens in the US - in a prison on death row. John Meyer Frey was sentenced to death at 17, for a murder he says he didn't commit.

On the other side of the world in Sweden, John Schwartz assaults another man. He is remanded to jail, but his reaction to being locked up is unsettling. John knows..."He had to get away from there. He couldn't face dying again."

The case is brought to the attention of Swedish Detective Inspector Ewert Grens. But..."He could not possibly know that this single act of violence was linked to a murder, and was the continuation of a process that had started many years ago, far away; it would prove to be the most extraordinary criminal investigation he had ever come across."

I really don't want to give away any more of the plot. Roslund and Hellström have concocted an ingenious, devious plot that makes for a fantastic read. Flashbacks within the current timeline provide the answers from the past. The levels of machinations, manipulations and recriminations are masterful. I kept telling myself 'just one more chapter' and then I'll shut down for the night...I was up very late. But the story also touches on a issue that is controversial in any country - the death penalty. Roslund and Hellström provide social commentary through their characters, both for and against.

I was really hoping that this writing duo would bring back Grens again. He is a complicated character - emotionally wounded, very eccentric and clever. "Detective Inspector Ewert Grens was the sort of person that people moved away from on the pavement, the sort of man who is heard without having to say a word." But there are some chinks in his armour against the world in Cell 8. We learn more about his past and he lets his guard down with a new arrival on his team. I'm not quite sure if I like him or not - my opinion changed throughout the novel. But I am intrigued by him, especially since we have been allowed a personal glimpse.

The supporting cast members are also very well drawn. The hate of the father of Frey's victim is palpable, pulsating on the page. I enjoy the interactions between the members of Grens' team - the addition of young Hermannson has interjected a new dynamic, in many ways.

The run up to the ending of the book had me frantically turning pages and hoping for a certain ending. But I was caught off guard by the direction the authors took. And I love it - not being able to predict what will happen makes the read all the more enjoyable.

What makes this writing duo unique is their backgrounds. Anders Roslund is a award winning journalist who specialized in criminal and social issues and Hellström is an ex-criminal who worked with newly released prisoners stay on the straight and narrow. Their experience shows in their writing - it has a gritty, real tone that will grab you from first page to last.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My research shows CELL 8 is yet another example of a translated crime fiction title released in English out of order of original publication.
Here is the list I've worked out with original Swedish publication dates:

THE BEAST (2004)
BOX 21 (2005)
REDEMPTION aka CELL 8 - original title Edward Finnigans upprättelse - (2006)
THE GIRL BELOW THE STREET (2007)
THREE SECONDS (2009) - my review

Check the list for yourself on the author's website.

The method by which John Meya Frey cheats Ohio's Death Row does strain the bounds of credibility a bit but the conundrum of whether a man who has already been certified as dead can be executed again is a nice one. As is whether a country like Sweden which has abolished the death penalty, and is party to an EU agreement that states that no member country will extradite a person to face a death penalty, can carry out such an extradition.

Ewart Grens carries his own burdens which leak over into this case. Lurking in the background is his own relationship with a former colleague Anni, now a brain damaged resident in a nursing home. Grens is responsible for her condition and it affects his judgement in the case of John Schwartz. He is zealous for the apprehension of Schwartz and brings him in on a charge of attempted murder when the passenger he kicked in the face on the ferry hovers between life and death in hospital.

CELL 8 is well constructed and well paced book. 17 year old John Meya Frey always protested his innocence in the murder of his 16 year old girlfriend. It seems that because he was a minor the police were only too willing to believe in his guilt and no-one really looked for an alternative answer. The reader is given a sniff of who the real killer might have been, early on, but I misinterpreted the tip.

There is an interesting irony played out in the latter pages of the book too.