PEN 33 by Roslund & Hellstrom

 Finished Tu 3/15/22

I bought this hardback on Amazon after I saw the movie 'THE INFORMER', starring Joel Kinnaman. The movie was based on a novel by these two writers. Roslund is a famous journalist and Hellstrom is an ex-con. 

This is an easy read and I finished in a couple of days, yet very compelling.

General Premise: 

A serial pedophile brutally rapes and murders two very young girls. He is apprehended by police, but escapes. The authorities cannot find the fugitive but one of the father's of the dead girls locates the perpetrator and kills him. The rapist had notes that he was going to kill two other young girls, and the father uses this as his defense. If he hadn't killed this violent murderer, two other girls would have died. At first a judge sees it his way, and he is freed. 

Then, other Swedes take matters into their own hands and begin attacks on pedophiles living in their neighborhoods. The judicial system changes it's ruling, and the father is jailed. 

I wonder if this is based on a true incident.

The review at Publishersweekly.com:

"Roslund and Hellström’s blistering sixth series novel to be published in the U.S. (after Three Minutes) opens with the vicious rape and murder of two nine-year-old girls by a psychopath, Bernt Lund, who has escaped from custody. The authors explore the ramifications of Lund’s crime from multiple viewpoints, including those of 60ish Det. Sgt. Ewert Grens, who’s disillusioned and cynical; Grens’s 40-year-old assistant, Sven Sundkvist, who’s burning out; and Fredrik Steffansson, the father of one of the victims. Steffansson, who was abused as a child, kills Lund and is put on trial for murder. In one of Sweden’s most high-profile trials, ambitious prosecutor Lars Ågestam feels he must demand life imprisonment for Steffansson, even though doing so will likely end his career. In addition to subjecting readers to the stomach-wrenching minutiae of prison life, Roslund and Hellström force them to consider who in this denunciation of governmental policies and practices are the victims and who are the criminals. The authors’ most chilling observation: these characters “are all somewhere among us.” Hellström, an ex-convict, died earlier this year."