In this second installment of Persson’s trilogy of police procedurals featuring the “small, fat and primitive” Evert Bäckström, the grand master’s most appallingly repulsive (and funniest) character is finally given his fifteen minutes of fame by way of his patented combination of laziness, luck, and an unbelievable sense of timing.

A seemingly ordinary murder puzzles Bäckström, who is struggling with strict orders from his doctor to lead a healthier life. His gut feeling proves him right: within days, his team has another murder linked to the first on their hands, and reports of alleged ties to a Securicor heist gone out of control, killing two. The nation needs a hero, and the newly appointed head of the Västerort police force Anna Holt needs somebody to kill the dragon for her. Who better to heed to the task than Evert Bäckström: self-sufficient, ostentatious, devoid of moral, Hawaii shirt-clad, and, latterly, armed?

A violent robbery has taken place in an affluent area of the Costa Del Sol, in which an entire family are killed – grandmother, mother, father and two children.

Annika Bengtzon is assigned to the story, and when she arrives in Spain and gains access to the crime scene, she is horrified to discover there was a third child – a teenage daughter – who is unaccounted for.

Annika makes it her mission to find the missing Suzette. But as she delves into the mystery, she becomes embroiled in a far darker side of Spanish life than she’d envisioned as once again those closest to her turn out to be the ones she knows the least about…

The most famous police officer in Sweden is found murdered in his bed. His four-year-old son is missing. His wife is suspected of killing both of them. No one believes her when she says she is innocent.

No one except for news reporter Annika Bengtzon. Her personal life in turmoil, she turns all her energies to her work, investigating the life of the murdered man.

But if his wife is innocent, where is their son? And will the truth be uncovered in time to find him…before it’s too late?