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There are currently 39 member reviews
for Three Seconds
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Melissa H. (McKees Rocks, PA)
Took a long time to get there.
The ending of this book was surprising, but not completely unforeseeable. It just took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get to the ending. I can respect the factual nature of the book which was interesting to learn, but it's possible that due to the real world feel the authors tried to incorporate that it caused the book to drag on and on like realty often can do.
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Jeanne W. (COLUMBIA, MD)
3 Seconds last an eternity
I wanted so much to like this book, but it was a struggle to finish. While there is a backstory involving Ewert Grens and his team, it's not a deterrent to following the plot. Grens, however, is a frustrating character and difficult to like. There seemed to be a fair amount of repetition, possibly due to translation difficulties. The book only picked up once "Paula" went to prison, easily 1/3 of the way in. Those sections were exciting and lived up to the promos on the back of the book. But it wasn't worth wading through all the rest.
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Karen D. (Dedham, MA)
3 seconds too long
I tried the best that I could to enjoy reading this book. But, I just couldn't get my mind around the difficult names. I am not used to reading about this type of mule. I got to around 100 pages before I said "I quit". I think I got lost in the translation myself. I, in all honesty, could not recommend this book to anyone.
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Mary R. (Eagan, Minnesota)
Three Seconds, More Like Three Centuries
I was excited to get this book because the authors had been touted as the next Steig Larsson. I had read Larsson’s three books and then read them again because they are so excellent. I did a little research on Three Seconds and discovered that it is fifth in a series. Only four, including Three Seconds, are available in English.
From the first page, I had trouble with Three Seconds. This book does not appear to be completely stand-alone. I spent far too much time wondering why Ewert Grens was so tormented and what was up with the music, the death of the woman in the nursing home, and boxing up everything that reminded him of her and hiding it in the evidence locker at the police station.
The plot was compelling and the characters were flawed and intriguing, so it took me a while to determine that the major problem is the translation. I thought that if I made it to the point where Piet went into prison the story would pick up for me, but I finally gave up just before he went inside. The words on the page are all correct, but they are in the wrong place and there are far too many of them to make flowing sense. It is as if the translator literally translated from Swedish to English without taking into account word order. Words are also translated into English without regard to English colloquialisms, making some of the phrases understandable, but incorrect. For example, the one phrase that comes to mind is “it was a 9mm caliber Radon” – in English we would not put millimeter and caliber together; caliber is redundant. Perhaps it would have been better if Reg Keeland had translated the book, as he did the three Larsson books.
I gave this book to my husband thinking that he might like it better than I did. He made it five pages farther than I did and gave up, too. Sadly, I think that this book is one instance where the movie will be better than the book. I understand that Universal Studios has picked up the movie rights…
