Three Minutes: Ewert Grens 6

Written by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström

Narrated by Saul Reichlin

One-time government agent Piet Hoffmann is on the run: both from the life prison sentence he escaped, and from the Polish drug mafia he double-crossed. Only Hoffmann's handler, Erik Wilson, knows he now hides in Calí, Colombia, living under a false identity with his wife Zofia and sons Rasmus and Hugo.

But life on the run is precarious. And so when Hoffmann, in order to survive, accepts employment as a bodyguard and hit man for the Colombian cocaine mafia, and is simultaneously approached by the US DEA to infiltrate the same cartel, he chooses to say yes to both. Hoffmann has a new, lucrative double life.

However, Hoffmann's successful balancing act is short lived. When Timothy D Crouse, Chairman of the US House of Representatives, is kidnapped while on a trip to Colombia, US forces settle on a new enemy for their next War on Terror. This gives the cartel and the US government the same problem. Piet Hoffmann.


Condemned and hung out to dry by both sides, Hoffmann is stranded. Yet help will come from the most unlikely of figures - the stubborn, ascerbic Swedish detective who has doggedly tracked his whereabouts. DCI Ewert Grens - the enemy who Hoffmann once tricked - will now become the only ally he can trust.

• Language: English
• Publisher: riverrun
• Translator: Elizabeth Clark Wessel
• Release date: Jul 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786480118

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 Three Minutes

[booklover1801 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Three Minutes," by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström, is the compelling story of Piet Hoffmann, an ex-con who has been to hell and back. He was sentenced to life in a Swedish jail, was nearly killed, and escaped to South America with his wife and two young sons. Now, Piet is the bodyguard and right-hand man of El Mestizo (nicknamed Johnny), the psychopathic head of a Colombian drug cartel. Johnny does not suspect that Piet is also an informant for the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Hoffmann sends the DEA the locations of cocaine factories and details of pending drug shipments. He hopes that, in return for the valuable intelligence he provides, he will be allowed to return Sweden as a free man. In his corner is Stockholm detective Ewert Grens, a curmudgeon whose one soft spot is the love he feels for his late wife.

This is a lengthy, complex, and violent thriller that derives its power from vivid figurative language, unpredictable twists and turns, and a stinging indictment of cynical and self-serving government officials in three continents. Piet knows that, ultimately, he can rely on no one but himself, since promises are made to be broken. Roslund and Hellström transport us to dense, insect-ridden jungles, and horrify us with accounts of Colombian boys trained to carry out assassinations in exchange for cash from drug lords. Timothy Crouse, the United States Speaker of the House, has a personal reason to despise drugs and those who peddle them for profit. He pays a visit to Colombia to oversee operations that he helped fund, not realizing that he is placing himself and his security force in grave peril.

This novel requires intense concentration, a large investment of time, and a strong stomach for scenes of murder and torture. "Three Minutes" is a powerful tale that conveys how cynicism and greed can motivate people to commit malicious and immoral acts. The characters are well-rounded—even Johnny shows occasional flashes of humanity—and Roslund and Hellström infuse their narrative with intriguing details about satellite imagery; encrypted communications; and even an undetectable way of smuggling cocaine. The book's last page is stunning and unexpected; it left me bewildered and disheartened. I am still pondering the finale.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

3 Minutes – A Fantastic Thriller

3 Minutes is the sequel to the bestselling 3 Seconds but this book can be read as a standalone thriller, you certainly do not need to know what went before. The Swedish writing duo of Roslund and Hellstrom really know how to grip the read and keep them all the way to the end on tenterhooks. This is a rollercoaster of a ride, well written, and shows what many of us already know, the United States ability of taking a sledgehammer to a Brazil nut and when its smash to bits, then ask why that happened, too much strength and not enough thinking.

Piet Hoffmann is on the run from Swedish justice, the one-time Swedish government agent, is thought to have been shot in prison, but not everything is as it seems. His handler managed to help him escape from Sweden and helped him gain a new identity for him and his family and a new country on a new continent.

Hoffmann in order to survive in Columbia is working as a bodyguard to a senior member of a Columbian cocaine mafia, while at the same time aiding the US DEA, with some high- profile drug seizures. He has learnt to live with the threat to his life and that of his family if the Columbians ever find out about his snitching on them.

Thomas D. Cruise is the Speaker of the House of Representatives who is also leading the war against drugs, when he witnesses the murder of a Columbian Army captain and his men, by a Columbian and his European looking bodyguard. He aims to hunt down this pair and bring them to justice and that means going to Columbia.

When Cruise is kidnapped, and Hoffmann is placed on the American kill list their lives depend on DCI Ewert Grens, a former enemy who ordered the shooting of Hoffmann, then he really is in trouble. With avenues of safety being slowly eroded Hoffmann comes to rely on Grens as he is the only person that can keep him and his family a live in a country where life is cheap.

Will Cruise be found safe, will Hoffmann survive being on the American kill list and will Grens, who has never been out of Europe be able to save them all without compromising the law? These are the questions that spring to mind as you read through, gripped by hope and fear.

This is an excellent thriller that will keep you hooked from beginning to end where you do not know what will happen in a country where life is cheap. Will Grens really become the only ally that Hoffmann can trust, there is only one way to find out.