Wednesday 7 March 2012

Book: Easy Money by Jens Lapidus



With the rising popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction I thought it was about time I gave it a try, unfortunately it didn’t work out as planned.

Here’s the blurb:

A dark and brutal account of the Stockholm underworld.
Jorge knows one thing – he’s never going back inside.
Mrado knows one thing – he’s not going to kill for cash anymore.
JW knows nothing – and that’s why he’s in too deep.
Their paths are about to cross, but are they on the same side? Whether they’re uneasy conspirators or deadly rivals, they’re all looking for the fastest way to get filthy rich. They’re about to learn the hard way that there’s no such thing as easy money.
Jens Lapidus is a highly successful criminal defence lawyer. His experiences with some of the country’s most notorious criminals have made this debut novel the fastest-selling and most talked about thriller in Europe in a decade.

100 or so pages in and the relentless stream of unpronounceable people and place names became unbearable. I have no doubt that there is a cool story lurking underneath but the constant bombardment of unreadable words combined with a cast of characters that lacked appeal meant that I wasn’t able to continue reading.

The people and place names issue must be a common complaint with translated Scandinavian books, let me know your thoughts.

Easy Money already has a very successful Swedish film adaptation and there is an English language remake on the way.

Ric’s Rating: Abandoned

2 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more but unfortunately it is not limited to books translated into English. I read a lot of Indie author books and I think they feel that good old Anglo Saxon names are a thing of the past, so they try and use unpronounceable name. It makes for a distracting read and in the end you just want to throw them in the bin... What's wrong with Mr SMITH or Jack or James instead of Jaczous, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha Ha. Thanks Tom, I'm glad it isn't just me!

    ReplyDelete

Let me know what you think. I value all comments and fully intend to reply.