Ultimatum

De la Motte follows his memorable MemoRandom (2015) with a shattering thriller that starts deceptively quietly in a Stockholm morgue. Initially, the few bloodied survivors of the battle royale that ended MemoRandom seem hors de combat: broken former Intelligence Unit officer David Sarac locked in a psychiatric facility; Atif Kassab, the Iraqi MP turned cop killer, imprisoned in a maximum security unit; fraudster Natalie Aden trying to fly under the radar as a receptionist; and whip-smart Det. Insp. Julia Gabrielsson chafing at babysitting a civilian investigator with powerful political connections. But all that quickly changes with the discovery of a dismembered body in the depths of Lake Mälaren, not far from the country retreat of überambitious and equally ruthless Minister of Justice Jesper Stenberg. Once again the author demonstrates his legerdemain in manipulating disparate story lines—as well as avoiding allowing the plot, gripping as it is, from overshadowing so many characters readers will care about. [em]Agent: Federico Ambrosini, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden). (May) [/em]