Slugger by Martin Holmen

About Book

'Sin City meets Raymond Chandler in this atmospheric and compulsive series' Attitude

It's summer in Stockholm, and the city is sweltering in the grip of a rare heatwave while fascists and communists beat each other bloody in the streets. Harry Kvist has had enough. It's time for him to leave. But first he has some business to take care of. His old friend and ex-lover, Reverend Gabrielsson, has been murdered, and the police are more interested in anti-Semitic rumours than finding the truth.

Kvist investigates the only way he knows how, with his fists, uncovering a Nazi terrorist plot and a cabal of corrupt cops. Before long he finds himself caught in the middle of a turf war between two of the city's most brutal gangs. Can he fight his way out of one last corner and find a way to freedom, or has Kvist finally taken a punch too many?

Review

"Excellent series… gripping finale." — Crime Review

"Holmén’s sharp dialogue and unerring eye for the grim details of everyday life are still there, as in ‘Clinch’ and ‘Down for the Count’, lending huge power to the story and adding a dimension that lifts this novel head and shoulders above the noir canon." — Thriller Books Journal

"Holmén is an author on the cutting edge of an art form, pushing deeper into the myre opened up by Jean-Claude Izzo, Derek Raymond and Massimo Carlotto. There is something genuinely cathartic about this reading experience." — New Books Magazine (5 out of 4 stars)

"Tragic and moving, with a spectacular denouement, it’s a fitting ending to a superb trilogy." — Guardian

About Author

Basic information: Swedish writer, based in Stockholm. Born in 1974. Teaches History, Swedish and History of Culture and Ideas at an upper secondary school in Stockholm two days a week. Author of the Harry Kvist trilogy (Sweden) or the Stockholm trilogy (UK/USA) or the Metropol series (France).

The first installment CLINCH is set in 1932 when the economic depression hits Sweden. It has been described as gritty, stylish, queer noir fiction with a unique Swedish flavour. Available, or soon to be released, in Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Here are three reactions to the english version - from some authorities in the field:

Lynda la Plante : "Clinch is a dark, atmospheric, powerful thriller, the best debut novel I’ve read in years"

Val McDermid: "If Chandler and Hammett had truly walked on the wild side, it would read like Clinch."

Kate Rhodes: "Martin Holmen’s debut novel is a real tour de force. His taut dialogue is reminiscent of early Hemingway and CLINCH is a fascinating race through 1930s Stockholm."

CLINCH was released in Sweden in 2015, DOWN FOR THE COUNT in 2016 and the final installment SLUGGER in 2017. Also a contributor to the anthology of short stories STOCKHOLM NOIR (Editors Nathan Larson and Carl-Michael Edenborg, USA 2016).

Influences span from pulp and film noir to classic hardboiled American fiction like Jim Thompson, to the autodidact writers of Swedens early working class movement like Jan Fridegård, to Russian realists and French naturalist authors, to vintage sleaze, action movies, video games, Frank Miller comics and great Americana like Hemingway, Faulkner or Steinbeck. I know - it's a somewhat contradictory list. Just doing my thing here. Please don't take me too seriously - I know I don't.