Box 21

This novel centers around the trafficking of sex workers from the Baltic states to Sweden, which is apparently a big problem, as it seems to pop up in a lot of Swedish crime novels (and was the subject of a harrowing film called Lilya-4-Ever). Though I found this book tautly written and difficult to predict, it's awfully bleak.

The Russian mob does a nice business by hoodwinking young girls, with the promise of high-paying jobs, into leaving their humble origins in Russia or the Baltic states and coming to Sweden. Once there, they are virtually enslaved and forced to work as prostitutes. Box 21, by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, cover this in nauseating detail, describing their tricks as spitting on them, beating them, and penetrating them anally. They are left as shells of people, doped up and wishing they were dead. One woman finally has enough and fights back, and her pimp savagely beats her, so much that it alerts the authorities. Once in the hospital, she plans her revenge.

Her story really is secondary to that of the policeman who takes her case, an old, cynical detective called Ewert Grens. He has never really gotten over the assault on the only love of his life, a former colleague who was brain damaged in the attack. He hungers for revenge against the man who did it, who has just been released from prison and is now the suspect in the murder investigation of a junkie who sold heroin cut with washing detergent.

This novel is not for the feint of heart. Not only do we learn more than we could ever want to about the illegal sex trade, but the world-weariness of the police is as dreary as a Scandinavian winter. Characters try to be noble, but ultimately fail, and we are left with a twist (though I saw it coming) that is really deflating. I liked this book, but I can't say I enjoyed it.