Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman

 

Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman.

Published 29th April 2021 by Bonnier Books.

From the cover of the book:

The landline rings as Agneta is waving off her grandchildren. Just one word comes out of the receiver: 'Geiger'. For decades, Agneta has always known that this moment would come, but she is shaken. She knows what it means.

Retrieving her weapon from its hiding place, she attaches the silencer and creeps up behind her husband before pressing the barrel to his temple.

Then she squeezes the trigger and disappears - leaving behind her wallet and keys.

The extraordinary murder is not Sara Nowak's case. But she was once close to those affected and, defying regulations, she joins the investigation. 

What Sara doesn't know is that the mysterious codeword is just the first piece in the puzzle of an intricate and devastating plot fifty years in the making..

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Our story begins with grandmother Agneta Broman waving off her daughters and grandchildren after a seemingly ordinary family get-together, but what happens next is very unexpected - for no sooner are the family out the door, than Agneta receives an enigmatic telephone call that provokes her to shoot her husband Stellan in the head and head off into the unknown. How could the single word "Geiger" cause an old woman to murder her husband of many years and leaver her life behind?

Sara Nowak is a cop that spends her time busting the men who try to buy sex, while attempting to do what she can to help the girls and women forced into prostitution, but she is not sure she that the little she can do is enough to make any real impact on the problem. Her life takes a surprising turn when she receives a call from one of her colleagues telling her about the murder of Stellan Broman and the disappearance of his wife. Sara was close childhood friends with the Broman's daughters Lotta and Malin, and she cannot understand why anyone would want to kill Stellan, a former television celebrity beloved by all, or abduct Agneta.

Although this case is not Sara's to investigate, she cannot help looking into the murder, feeling a compulsion to do what she can for the family that showed her and her mother so much kindness when she was a child, but what she discovers makes her reassess everything she thought she knew about the past. She begins to realise that the rosy picture of childhood summers that she has carried around with her all her life does not reflect the truth and that sinister things were going on in the Broman household - things that impacted upon her own childhood, and things that may have terrible consequences for millions of people in the present unless she can do something to stop the sequence of events now playing out. 

Geiger is an entertaining mix of contemporary Scandi crime thriller and Cold War espionage yarn, parts of which are really rather clever, and I liked the way the story cuts backwards and forwards between Sara and Agneta, bringing in elements of the past, present and a horrifying future.

Sara is a tricky character to warm to, but her sheer determination to get to the truth, whatever the toll on her personal and professional lives, drives the story along at a good pace and builds suspense nicely along the way. However, there are times when Skördeman tries to cover too much in Sara's part of the story, with some scenes which are a bit unnecessary in the overall scheme of things - and even, sometimes, a bit gratuitous in terms of the sexual violence portrayed. A bit less would have been more here. Agneta was the most interesting character from me, as she had so much unexpected depth to her story, and conversely, I wanted to read more about her, as the mystery surrounding her real intentions was intriguing. 

The way Skördeman spins Sara's investigation, cutting back and forth between the clues she uncovers, and Agneta's mission, works beautifully, and I particularly enjoyed the way Sara's relationship with her mother develops as a result of what she finds. The truth is uncovered gradually, with some pretty hefty, gut-wrenching revelations in connection with political conspiracy, coercion and sexual abuse, and the whole lot is polished off with a couple of little gems of twists that I did not see coming at all. I think it's fair to say that you do need to be up on a fair bit of Cold War politics to fully appreciate how canny this novel is, but if you are a fan of books which delve into the dark days of murky machinations of the Eastern Bloc security services then you are in for a treat.

There are some threads left hanging at the end of this novel, and a bit of a strange twist, that imply Geiger may be the first in a series of books, and I really want to know what happens next. There are certainly plenty of promising elements in this debut that make me want to read more from this author, so I have my fingers crossed that this will happen - time will tell!

Geiger is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in hardcover, e-book and audio formats.

Thank you to Bonnier Books for sending me an Netgalley copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Gustaf Skördeman was born in 1965 in Sweden and is a screenwriter, director and producer. Geiger, his thriller debut, is published in 24 countries, and film rights have been optioned by Monumental Pictures.