Roslund & Hellström

The Girl Below The Street

Release date: September 19, 2007 / Original title: Flickan under gatan

The Girl Below The Street

Ewert Grens has thirty-two unsolved files to dig into when two findings suddenly turn everything around. 43 abandoned children turn up at the Police House, while the mutilated corpse of a woman is found in the basement of a hospital. Grens and Sundkvist are quickly drawn into a nightmare that takes them down into the world below the streets, where society’s most exposed lead their lives.

The fourth novel from award-winning writer duo Roslund & Hellström is a dark and highly challenging morality dealing with the sensitive issue of homelessness: a suggestive and disturbing story that serves as a vehicle for a complex ethical discussion of responsibility and solidarity with those who have the least.

“As usual, Roslund and Hellström have a good narrative drive; it is more or less incessantly suspenseful and interesting and gives you the feeling that this is urgent business. And as usual, the writes hold the banner of social criticism that goes hand in hand with Swedish crime fiction high.”

Värmlands Foklblad (Sweden)

“Stories picked up from the back side of Swedish society that one cannot read without being touched and absorbed. Clinging realism that crawls under your skin.”

Smålänningen (Sweden)

“Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström’s fourth book is as good as the one I’ve read before and which I hear countless people praising. These writers know their subject matter inside and out; criminality, hierarchies within the police, the area of law, and like here, so repulsively literally – the underworld. /…/ What makes this…story great, is its credibility, everything is there, everything is taking place now, today … The book is incessantly captivating…”

Folkbladet (Sweden)

“The author duet Roslund and Hellström are back. Dark as ever before. Roslund and Hellström in no way avoid depicting what is tough, difficult and unbearable, something they have shown with books such as The Satisfaction of Edward Finnigan and Box 21, both excellent, not to say brilliant, in their blackness, acuity and compassion with the life stories of the exposed. /…/ Roslund and Hellström write with a distinct acuity and great fury; there is no space left for discussion or reasoning; things are either black or white, no shades allowed. And this is how it should be, because there is nothing to be uncertain about here, it is the matter of people who have fared badly.”

Borås Tidning (Sweden)

“One of the best things to happen to Swedish crime fiction during the past couple of years is the duet Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström. They have, with their three novels to date, established themselves as poignant delineators of our time, displaying compassion for the weak and exposed in our society.”

Plus Sverige (Sweden)

”The book is enormously well written and suspenseful. The authors have an apparent sense of dramaturgy and slowly but surely build up their story, using a number of strong scenes. The topic is of great current importance, and dealing with it in the form of a crime novel is surely one of many good ways to pinpoint the problem.”

Västerviks Tidning (Sweden)

”Roslund and Hellström are the two-person ethics commission of Swedish crime fiction – in each and every one of their novels, they put their reader’s moral judgment to the test. /…/ A police hero who is neither likeable nor particularly righteous – also in that respect, Roslund & Hellström put their readers to the test. I find this very good.”

Expressen (Sweden)

“A first-rate page turner.”

ETC (Sweden)

“It is no coincidence that Roslund and Hellström have been awarded The Glass Key for one of their novels, and had their other two books shortlisted for the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers’ Award; that they’ve been translated into fourteen languages and solds hundreds of thousands of copies /…/ Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström have yet again accomplished a powerful and gripping novel that treats a charged topic. /…/ The Girl Below the Street is a novel that takes hold of its reader.”

Kristianstadsbladet (Sweden)

“Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström have done it again. The novel deals with a phenomenon that is quite real, and contains a dilemma that will leave no reader untouched. Written in a beautiful language, rich in images … Quite simply brilliant!”

Gästriklands Tidning (Sweden)

“Ever since I read Roslund and Hellström’s début The Beast, they’ve been my favorite crime writing team. You can tell that they are meticulous in their research, and the books are always packed with nail-biting suspense. The same goes for this book!”

Vecko-revyn (Sweden)

“Every year, Roslund and Hellström have created stories where both theme and style have been so utterly relevant and thought-provoking, filled with compassion, rage and brilliant writing, that they have elevated themselves far above the evenly grey mass in which the Swedish Crime Novel seems stuck. Even though I dislike superlatives like “of the highest international standard”, I cannot resist using them in this particular case. /…/ Together with a select few, these gentlemen occupy a unique position among the quality Swedish authors of the genre.”

Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden)

“Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström have carved out a niche of their own within Swedish crime fiction. /…/ What makes them unique…is their passion for social justice. They write crime novels where the emotions beam directly out of the abdomens, like a pipe straight out of solar plexus. /…/ The books of Roslund and Hellström are about the people who no-one wants to acknowledge. The people who hardly exist, but who are resurrected in these novels. It’s magnificent to see it happen. Read them all, there are four novels so far. /…/ These books are among the very best on the market right now.”

Femina (Sweden)

“Suspenseful and well-writen, this is a story that will go straight into your heart.”

ICA-Kuriren (Sweden)

“The fourth novel by two of the finest writers in recent years… [is] so good, so incredibly good. /…/ At times like this, it is nothing but a truly sincere pleasure to be a literary critic.”

Gefle Dagblad (Sweden)

“When it comes to the gentlemen Roslund & Hellström delivering a new novel, a solemn moment for the reader is always guaranteed. The Girl Below the Street is their fourth crime novel, and the authors once again show that their writing is first-rate.”

Eskilstuna-Kuriren (Sweden)

“The Girl Below the Street is the crime novel most worth reading this fall.”

Östran (Sweden)

“Roslund and Hellström’s first novel was awarded The Glass Key for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’; the following two novels have both been shortlisted for Best Crime Novel of the Year, awarded by the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers. And the question is whether The Girl Below the Street is not even better than its predecessors.”

Sydsvenskan (Sweden)

“Roslund and Hellström are in a league of their own and have once again achieved a book that you will not want to put down for a long time. Impressive!”

Mariestads-Tidningen (Sweden)

“Their style is concise and efficient, and if you start to read you will have difficulties putting down the book.”

Aftonbladet (Sweden)

“Roslund and Hellström are expert at picking out a topical social issue, pointing an annoying finger at it and asking questions. This is their best crime novel so far.”

Tove (Sweden) 5/5

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