Paganinikontraktet (The Paganini Contract) by Lars Kepler

The other book is 'Paganinikontraktet' (The Paganini contract) by Lars Kepler (being not one man but a man and wife!). Read with pleasure their first book 'Hypnotisören' (The Hypnotiser) which was almost unbearably exciting. The second is slightly different and moves in international circles. The head of the office for the Swedish War Material Export is found hanging in his living room. There is no chair under the rope but Chief Inspector Joona Linna still thinks it is suicide and not murder. Simultaneously, the sister of peace activist Penelope Fernandez is found dead on their boat with no trace of Penelope or her boyfriend. Without knowing why they are chased around the archipelago of Stockholm by a professional assassin.

The Paganini contract refers to the contract that Paganini, the violinist, supposedly did with the devil. His music was considered so difficult to play that it was only himself who could manage it. Undoubtedly, this leads us also to think of Faust and that is the content of this story.  People are forced into jobs and situations from where there seem to be no way out.  The new inspector to deal with the war material export are pushed to sign an important order that was pending when his predecessor commited suicide. He gets suspicious since the order is for a country at war and no material can be exported in such cases. He starts to make investigations of his own and he does not like the result. Parallel we follow the, since childhood, destroyed relationship with his brother, the violinist. But who is really the best violinist? Meanwhile Penelope Fernandez is trying to find out why somebody wants to kill her and her boyfriend. Jonna Linna is trying to solve both cases and slowly, slowly the three scenarios merge into one. The book is very easy to read, very exciting most of the time. Maybe a little bit too violent towards the end and again, can the Swedish police really do these things? I wonder and doubt. But who cares it is a novel, not a book of science. I promise it is difficult to put down the book.