The Beast by
Roslund A & Hellstrom B
hbk out May 05
Published by Little Brown
at £14.99
Seems to me that if you are going to write a novel, a thriller even more so, in
which the central fact is paedophilia, you need a good reason. Minette
Walters, for instance, wrote Acid Row in the troubled aftermath of the
'naming and shaming' of some of Britain's paedophiles in the News of the
World. For Roslund and Hellström, it appears from an author's note at the end
of the book, perhaps prompted by some equivalent Swedish case, it is to
remind us of the very real people that lie behind the manipulations of the
media, be it press, TV or, I should add, of the novel itself.
Media, in fact, plays very little part in the development of the story; it's more
that it is an uncomfortable fact of life. The key to the book lies, rightly and
truly, in the emotions of its characters, from the aberrant lust of Bernt Lund,
the sex killer portrayed in the chilling introductory events of the book, and who
subsequently escapes after four years of incarceration, to the guilt and grief
(brought home here with huge impact) of Fredrik Steffansson, the father of the
little girl murdered by Lund whilst on the run. Steffansson will eventually set
out on a course of personal vengeance for the death of his daughter,
prompting an earnest debate about the morality of vigilante justice.
This is not, thank goodness, a conventional thriller, though tension and
pace are certainly not neglected. Rather Roslund and Hellström (a former
investigative journalist and an ex-criminal now attempting the rehabilitation of
young offenders) use their inside knowledge to give depth to all those bit-
players within the legal and prison systems that come into contact with both
Lund and Steffansson. Thus we become familiar with, for example, the
haunted investigating police officer Ewert Grens, the pressures both external
and internal, on Lennart Oscarsson, the chief prison officer responsible for
Lund's escape, along with the vividly portrayed group dynamics amongst the
inmates of a Swedish Category-B prison, where Dickybird Lindgren, once an
abused child himself, is now seeking revenge whenever the opportunity
presents.
Not to absolve entirely Roslund and Hellström from the charge of
occasional manipulation. About the only character not given any real depth is
Bernt Lund himself. And, for a book otherwise so thoroughly grounded in
reality, the climax achieves very little except to provide some sort of contrived
resolution to the story. Nevertheless this is an intelligent, well-written and
moving book, unflinchingly translated by Anna Paterson, which asks many of
the right, awkward questions.
(
Bob Cornwell
)
New Books by Roslund A & Hellstrom B at Amazon.co.uk
The Beast by
Roslund A & Hellstrom B
