- Hardcover: 393 pages
- Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (13 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0374282951
- ISBN-13: 978-0374282950
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.5 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 553,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Several thousand young women...from Eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of lives! The illegal sex trade with the West.",
By
This review is from: Box 21 (Paperback)
The grisly lives of innocent, sixteen- and seventeen-year-old Lithuanian girls, tricked into leaving their homeland on the promise of good jobs, unfold in tawdry detail as Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom focus on the sex trade, its clientele, the financial syndicates which profit from it, the enforcers who protect it, and the police and others who allow it to flourish. Lydia Grajauskas, a "pro" with three years of experience by the age of twenty, serves twelve customers a day, earning almost no income except what she can negotiate with her customers for "extras." Living in an apartment which a Russian with a diplomatic passport claims as Lithuanian territory, exempt from Swedish laws, Lydia can expect little help from the local police. Until she is beaten within an inch of her life.
Ewert Grens, a veteran police inspector in charge of the investigation, has several other issues to deal with. Twenty-five years ago, Jochum Lang, a sadistic drug dealer and Mafia hitman, dragged Ewert's partner and lover Anni out of the back of the police van Ewert was driving, and she suffered catastrophic injuries. Lang is about to be released from prison, and Ewert still seeks vengeance against him. The two plot lines converge when Lang appears at the hospital where Lydia is recuperating. Before long, the hospital is in lockdown. Roslund and Hellstrom humanize this drama by alternating the focus between the two stories, giving background information about all the key characters. Ewert Grens lives the life of a hermit, his only friend being fellow-officer Bengt Nordwall and his wife Lena. Lydia's friend Alena still pines for Janoz, her lover back home, and both girls are hoping to escape their bondage and return to Lithuania. Hilding Oldeus, a drug addict who was protected by Jochum Lang when he was in jail, shares the torments of addiction and its effects on his family members, becoming a focus of the novel when Lang is released from jail. Sven Sundkvist, Ewert Grens's current partner, a truly ethical man, is the conscience of the novel. Though the novel describes the sadistic sexual practices of the prostitutes' handlers and their customers, it is otherwise a traditional mystery/thriller. The focus is on the drama and the plot, with little attention to deep themes and no suggestion that the issues at the heart of the novel are being addressed in any organized fashion by the government. The problems of witness intimidation, police corruption, and the police bending of the truth to get a conviction, standard complications of most police procedurals, appear here. The novel is sometimes marred by clichés, both in its plot and in its ponderous observations. Statements like "This must never happen again," and "Truth is the only thing people can bear to live with in the long run," state the obvious and add nothing to the drama or to any thematic development. The novel's fully described sexual crimes against minors show the authors' clear empathy with these girls, creating a novel which has the feel of a shocking, journalistic expose. Mary Whipple
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Box 21,
By Susie "Susie" (Chicago Area) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Box 21 (Hardcover)
I loved Box 21, it's a brilliantly written police procedural. If you're a fan of translated euro crime fiction this book is exactly what you want to read next. I suggest you order or pick up BEAST, the first book in the series, at the same time. It's available on Kindle. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Box 21
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Complex,
By Toni Osborne "The Way I See It" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Box 21 (Paperback)
Also published under the title "The Vault" in the UK
Book 2 in the Ewert Grens series The novel holds two main stories that are dark, extraordinarily sad and definitely not for the faint at heart. Both threads involve one of Stockholm's best detectives Ewert Grens. The first plot opens, with the release from prison of a notorious criminal; Jochum Lang. Detective Grens who has personal and professional reasons, feels Lang is a threat to the public, a hard core criminal and he makes it his mission to put him back behind bars. Grens strong feelings are based on an incident that happened twenty five years earlier. His colleague and girlfriend at the time was beaten to within an inch of her life and has been institutionalized ever since, a case that haunts him to this day. When Grens discovers that criminal bosses are hiring Lang as a strong arm he seizes the chance to send him back to prison. The second plot is fast paced and full of credible action with a sad tone, another case Detective Grens is working in parallel that is demanding much of his time and skill. Lydia Grajauskas and Alena Sljusareva are two Lithuanian girls who have been tricked into leaving their country only to become sex slaves and property of the man they call Dimitri-B astard-Pimp. We first learned about the girls when they are into a three year old nightmare servicing 12 clients a day, their moral at the extreme low and often beaten into submission. One day Lydia was so badly beaten that the neighbours called the police and was transported to the hospital. Her terrifying ordeal is revealed and at the same time she seizes the opportunity to fulfill a dream, take matters into her own hands and escape the hands of her captor. The writing is crisp and steadfast with short chapters that shift back and forth between several colourfully portrayed characters: the criminals, the victims and the cops. I found it rather hard to get into this tale at first but once I became familiar with the writer's style and phrasing, it all fell into place, at this point the story gelled and I was hooked. I like this novel; it is a complex and intense psychological thriller that delivers a brutally intimate view into the drug and sex slave trade.
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