SÖDER OM HELVETET – SOUTH OF HELL
By Thomas Engström
PENNSYLVANIA, USA, THE election 2012. A young man is found dead in a seedy motell. In a letter he accuses the politician Ron Harriman for breaking his heart. Ludwig Licht is hired to find out who is behind the smear campaign of Harriman. He soon finds a conspiracy. The more he infiltrates the group that is behind the conspiracy the more he realises that an outburst with fatal consequences is on the rise.
SOUTH OF HELL is the second instalment in The Ludwig Licht Series, once a Stasi-employee and CIA:s most prominent spy in DDR, now a freelancing problem solver.
ABOUT THE BOOK
First published by Albert Bonniers, Sweden 2014
RIGHTS SOLD TO
Germany, Random House
Greece, Metaixmio
Netherlands, Ambos Anthos
Poland, Sonia Draga
Russia, AST
REVIEWS
Thomas Engström’s superhero is funnier and darker than Hamilton.
– Svenska Dagbladet
The pace is fast in a classic race against the clock manner, the tone is distanced but not uncommitted and the secret policial and political play behind the curtains appears amazingly evident.
– Sydsvenskan
Maybe the most difficult thing of all – to write in a thrilling and entertaining way – Engström has already succeeded with.
– Expressen
[Engström] is uncannily good. […] A superb narrator and creator of suspense, totally in parity with the best among the now world renowned authors of Scandi noir.
– Norrköpings Tidningar
The narration seems to get energy from American TV series such as Homeland and House of Cards, with a frictionless forward movement. The entertainment is so dense that you almost miss that there’s also substance and an alert author brain that gives a lesson of the contemporary society right in the suspense.
– Arbetarbladet
Sometimes I need to restrain myself to not lose the joy in Engström’s poetic language that brings both West of Freedom and South of Hell way above the ordinary thriller.
– Norra Skåne
Thomas Engström is a skilled author of suspense, word sensible and good at formulation, especially talented when it comes to describing environments.
– Ystads Allehanda
Engström is brilliant when he portrays the political powerplay. You are really there, and closely we observe the twists and turns vibrating: on airplanes, at meeting venues, at press conferences, at the researcher’s houses.
– Helsingborgs Dagblad
A well written and thrilling suspense novel and Licht is interesting and complex, an unusual main character in the Scandi noir genre.
– Smålandsposten
It takes something extra to stand out in the thriller genre. Thomas Engström has that extra.
– Sundsvalls Tidning
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