Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2011
496 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Three Seconds is a gripping tour de force from Sweden’s #1 bestselling crime writing duo Roslund & Hellström about a former criminal who goes undercover for the police to infiltrate an organized crime ring that controls the prison drug trade. Roslund, an acclaimed investigative journalist, and Hellström, an ex-con who has spent years working to rehabilitate criminals, combine inside knowledge of the brutal reality of criminal life with searing social criticism to create a novel that ratchets up the tension until the explosive conclusion. Three Seconds has already sold over 1.5 million copies in Scandinavia and won the prestigious Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award.
"Americans are finally catching on to what thriller fans around the world already know - that the Swedish team of Roslund & Hellstrom is writing explosive crime novels as good, if not better, than those of Stieg Larsson." - USA Today, Carol Memmott
"A highly entertaining novel that is full of twists and turns" - The Associated Press
"The authors ratchet the suspense beautifully right up to the final, inevitable confrontation." - Publishers Weekly
"Readers who persevere through the glacial pace of the book's first third will be rewarded with a terrific, nail-biting climax..." - Library Journal
"This is crime writing at its most ambitious and morally complex. A visceral, demanding read filled with the kind of insider knowledge that raises it from the pack." - The Financial Times
"Named the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year in 2009, Three Seconds puts Roslund and Hellstrom in the company of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson. Crime fiction rarely gets as good as this." - Booklist
"Gritty, brutal and gripping, Three Seconds is bound to continue the inexorable march up the best-seller lists by talented Scandinavian crime writers." - The Irish Independent
"The first third of the book may be andante but thereafter, the tempo is firmly allegro. R & H have even managed to freight in some cogent aperçus about the nature of identity amid the clammy suspense. Three Seconds is no dumbed-down blockbuster." - The Independent (UK)
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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.
Award-winning journalist Anders Roslund and ex-criminal Börge Hellström are Sweden's most acclaimed fiction duo. Their unique ability to combine inside knowledge of the brutal reality of criminal life with searing social criticism in complex, intelligent plots has put them at the forefront of modern Scandinavian crime writing. Three Seconds is translated by Kari Dickson.
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