Marked for Revenge

In Swedish author Schepp’s outstanding second novel, her beleaguered group of Swedish police and prosecutors, who closed a refugee-smuggling case with drug connections in 2016’s Marked for Life, face serious personal problems. Public prosecutor Jana Berzelius battles a sinister past she can’t quite remember; decent, conscientious Det. Chief Insp. Henrik Levin is anxious about the impending birth of his baby; forensics expert Anneli Lindgren and her domestic partner, Chief Investigator Gunnar Öhrn, worry about their troubled 20-year relationship; and Det. Insp. Mia Bolander’s flippancy may get her thrown off the team. Meanwhile, the National Crime Squad threatens them with a massive reorganization at the same time that a new case involving drug smuggling and murder, masterminded by the enigmatic Old Man, arouses old animosities. Schepp sure-handedly brings her characters to unhappy life in a police procedural that lays bare the most sordid aspects of immigrant-related crime. Agent: Lena Stjernström, Grand Agency (Sweden). (Feb.)

This review has been corrected; a previous version misspelled the author's first name.