Book Summary and Reviews of Never Fuck Up by Jens Lapidus

Never Fuck Up by Jens Lapidus

Never Fuck Up

by Jens Lapidus

  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2013, 512 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From Sweden's internationally best-selling crime novelist, the author of Easy Money, comes the riveting second installment of the Stockholm Noir Trilogy. With his trademark live-wire staccato prose and raw energy, Jens Lapidus returns to the streets of Stockholm with an electrifying tale of seedy police officers and vicious underworld criminals.
 
Mahmud, an iron-pumping gym fiend raised among the city's many concrete high-rises, is fresh out of jail and heavily indebted to a Turkish drug lord. To get free he accepts a job from the henchman of brutal mob boss Radovan - a job that quickly becomes something Mahmud wishes he'd never agreed to.
 
Meanwhile, Niklas is living at home with his mother and keeping a low profile after working as a security contractor in Iraq. When a man is found murdered in the laundry room of their building - a startling event that coincides with Niklas's discovery of a young Arab girl being beaten by her boyfriend - Niklas decides to put his weapons expertise and appetite for violence to use and begins to mete out his own particular brand of justice.
 
Thomas is the volatile cop called to investigate the murder in Niklas's building. When his efforts are suspiciously stymied and the evidence tampered with, he goes off the grid in search of answers. As the identity of the murdered man is discovered, the paths of these three men intertwine, and crimes and secrets far greater than a mere murder come to light - raising the stakes of Stockholm's criminality to staggering new heights.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Despite the book's sprawling length, its morally ambiguous characters and rough street argot will compel reader attention to the last page." - Publishers Weekly

"Lapidus contrasts personal violence with a powerful criminal conspiracy by linking the victim to both Nicklas' childhood and the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986. A grand-scale portrait of Stockholm's criminal world that shares James Ellroy's hyperrealism and Richard Price's blend of atmosphere and sociology." - Booklist

"A delightfully murky tale of sunny Sweden's rough 'n' tumble dark side ... It's like visiting the perfect party: exciting guests, great location." - 8Weekly (Netherlands)

"Lapidus is a master raconteur. The story is irresistible." - Kouvolan Sanomat (Finland)

"It's rare for a first novelist to emerge out of nowhere and turn an entire genre upside down, but that is exactly what happened when Jens Lapidus roared into Swedish crime fiction with Easy Money ... He is alone in his game." - Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden)

"A deft and bold crime novel." - Berlingske (Denmark)

This information about Never Fuck Up was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Jens Lapidus

Jens Lapidus is a criminal defense lawyer who represents some of Sweden's most notorious underworld criminals. He lives in Stockholm with his wife.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Never Fuck Up, try these:

  • The Watcher jacket

    The Watcher

    by Charlotte Link

    Published 2015

    About this book

    An immersive, atmospheric crime novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author, Charlotte Link.

  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo jacket

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

    by Stieg Larsson

    Published 2009

    About this book

    A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue.

  • The Walking Dead jacket

    The Walking Dead

    by Gerald Seymour

    Published 2008

    About this book

    A young man starts a journey from a dusty village in Saudi Arabia. An armed protection officer is charged with neutralizing the growing menace to London's safety. With intelligence and deep understanding, Seymour shows us the world in which we live, with all its dangers and complexities, and the choices we are forced to make.

We have 10 read-alikes for Never Fuck Up, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
Who Said...

Men are more moral than they think...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.