Easy Money: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jens Lapidus (Author), Astri von Arbin Ahlander (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: April 3, 2012

From one of Sweden’s most successful defense lawyers comes an unflinching look at Stockholm’s underworld, told from the perspective of the mob bosses, the patsies, and the thugs who help operate its twisted justice system.
 
JW is a student having trouble keeping up appearances in the rich party crowd he has involved himself with. He’s desperate for money, and when he’s offered a job dealing drugs to the very crowd he’s vying for a place in, he accepts it. Meanwhile, Jorge, a young Latino drug dealer, has just broken out of jail and is itching for revenge. When JW’s supplier gets wind of Jorge’s escape, he suggests JW track him down and attempt to win his trust in order to cover more area in the drug circuit. But JW’s not the only one on Jorge’s trail: Mrado, the brutal muscle behind the Yugoslavian mob boss whose goons were the ones who ratted Jorge out to the cops, is also on the hunt. But like everyone else, he’s tired of being a mere pawn in an impossibly risky game, and he’s seeking to carve out a niche of his own. As the paths of these antiheroes intertwine further, they find themselves mercilessly pitted against one another in a world where allegiances are hard-won, revenge is hard-fought, and a way out of it all is even harder to come by.
 
Fast and intricately paced, and with pitch-perfect dialogue, Easy Money is a raw, dark, and intelligent crime novel that has catapulted Jens Lapidus into the company of Sweden’s most acclaimed crime writers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An intelligent and original thriller that displays as much wit as it does muscle . . . Lapidus skillfully weaves together the narratives of characters from every level of the Swedish criminal underworld . . . [He's] a fantastic writer of action, but he also knows when to leave the guns holstered and build suspense." —The Daily Beast

"[A] searing debut…This sprawling novel, full of offensive language, exposes moral degradation of every stripe while relentlessly depicting Sweden’s underworld and the reasons it exists and grows."
—Pubishers Weekly (starred review)

"At last: an epic European thriller to rival the Stieg Larsson books. It's an entirely new criminal world, beautifully rendered—and a wildly thrilling novel."
—James Ellroy

"Jens Lapidus, with his dazzling book, Easy Money, is the new Swedish thriller writer everyone’s been waiting for."
—Reggie Nadelson, author of Londongrad
 
"A solid, rich, and witty page-turner about the criminal world of Stockholm, where cocaine is the prime mover . . . Lapidus shows much literary promise—no one else in Sweden does what he does here."
—Sydsvenskan (Sweden)
 
"A raw and rebellious thriller . . . Lapidus’s writing sweeps you along with short, rhythmic sentences that are fast and engaging. [An] utterly captivating read. Sharp and entertaining."
—De Morgan (Denmark)
 
"A cornucopia of sex and violence, hookers and pickpockets in a Stockholm both good and bad . . . A staggering gangster novel."
—Politiken (Denmark)
 
"A terrific book about the underworld of Stockholm . . . An absolute must-read."
—Het Parool (Netherlands)
 
"Without a doubt a debut to take seriously."
—Helsingsborgs Dagblad (Sweden)

About the Author

Jens Lapidus is a criminal defense lawyer who represents some of Sweden’s most notorious underworld criminals. He lives in Stockholm with his wife.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (April 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307377482
• ISBN-13: 978-0307377487
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #529,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars THERE ARE NO GOOD GUYS IN THIS TOUGH, NO HOLDS BARRED CRIME NOVEL November 12, 2011

By David Keymer TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

If I may be permitted to invent a word, this is less a policier -a police procedural --than it is a villainier, the same process as seen from the side of the bad guys. While there is a police action in process throughout this crime thriller, it's the villains who get the lion's share of the attention.

In successive chapters -1, 2, 3, over again and again up to the end of the book, four hundred eighty pages in--we follow inside the heads of three very different thugs. JW doesn't see himself as a crook at all. He's in college -been making near straight As but his grades start slipping as the narrative proceeds. JW envies the life of his privileged friends; he wants to be rich too. In the meantime, he drives a gypsy cab at night to earn the money he throws away on designer clothing and nights partying at the most chi chi of clubs. When he's offered the chance to get into the C (cocaine) game, he takes it -the profits are enormous. Jorge is originally from Venezuela. A low echelon drug dealer, he was abandoned by his bosses when the police nabbed him. He escapes from prison and all he wants is revenge, plus more money of course. Mrado is the Number Two Man in Stockholm's Yugoslavian Mafia. He bears a grudge against his boss Rado: the profits he earns with his hard work seem to flow heavily to Rado and not at all to him.

The cocaine business -organized crime in Stockholm in general- is getting riskier all the time. The police have set up a special operation, Project Nova, to coordinate efforts to bring the criminals down. Soon, Jorge, Mrado and JW are on a collision course with each other as well as with the police. Their life is dangerous and dirty and they can't trust anyone.

The story, eloquently translated by Astri von Arbin Ahlander, unfolds in rapid-fire sequence. The prose is muscular, clipped, electric, strongly reminiscent of James Ellroy's no-holds-barred style in his American thrillers. There are no good guys in this high-tension novel. The real question is: will anyone at all make it through unscathed?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Schizophrenic Images December 3, 2011

By W. Sanders VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

First off, I like this book, this author, the story and the characters. However, I find the reality split between what seems to be Sweden and its culture and what sounds like an American criminal subculture populated by non-Americans to make me uneasy. The police and the rest of the Swedish legal system appear to act and sound like what I expect them to sound like--nothing like what you might find in an American context. The book is even peppered with "legal documents" to lend a Swedish legal flavor. Organizationally and even temperamentally, the Swedish police seem to think about things differently than American police--their approach is different. They are more objective in a bureaucratic sense and trying to figure a plan to optimize Swedish order, law and sensitivity. In other books by Swedish mystery writers, I've found the same kind of operational workings by the police. They sound better controlled, organized, and less emotional than their American counterparts.

The criminals, on the other hand, sound just like American criminals. The two key "good criminals," JW (an upwardly mobile kid who sells dope) and Jorge, a Swede by birth and Latino by ethnicity, are actually likable. I was rooting for Jorge's escape from prison and hoping that JW would meet his aspirations. However, the other criminals with whom they move as well as they themselves sound exactly like American criminals. The bad, bad criminal, Mrado is a Serb crime boss who sounds like the kinds of heavies in the US--in speech and manner. It's an odd combination of Ghetto thug, Aryan prison monster, and Brighton Beach (NY) Russian mobster and maybe a little Godfather bent nose. However, it certainly does not sound Swede. Therein lies the schizoid split--a very Swedish criminal justice system fighting non-Swedish criminals.

While the author (who is an attorney himself) captures the Swedish voice of the system of justice and police, I somehow don't think he captures the voice of the native criminals. It sounds like someone (perhaps his translator) is plugged into American criminal argot. With perhaps a few missteps in conveying that sound of (American) criminals, they story forges ahead with lots of actions and cliff hanging. I did get used to the sound of the American criminal jargon and the Swedish police, and ultimately it did not hurt my enjoyment of the story. It's possible that American criminal argot has become the lingua franca of criminals everywhere, but I'd like to believe that Swedish criminals are as unique as their country's legal system.

As in other Swedish mysteries, I'm surprised by the non-Swedish criminals. For some reason Yugoslavians play a major role. I've always wondered why a Yugoslav would relocate to Sweden and freeze his Jelek off. Russians make sense as do other denizens of the former Soviet Union, but given that the Balkans are more in line with Italian latitudes, a trek to the land of long winters and short summers is a bit of a mystery in and of itself.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Different kind of read October 9, 2011

By reviewer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Rarely do we read a novel from the point of view of a criminal. Where in most of the other thrillers, the bad guys usually seem to unusual superman powers that the heroes try to overcome, this book portrays the bad guy's point of view in which they're human. Interesting enough of a story to keep a reader interested for at least the first half of the book. I did get tired of the style of writing after a while. Not a bad read.