CarlAlves

Three Seconds is a Swedish crime thriller where an ex-con, Piet Hoffman, has been working deep undercover for the Swedish police infiltrating the Polish Mafia operating in Sweden. He is involved in the drug dealing business and gets his break when he is being told to take over the drug distribution in the Swedish jail system. His handler proposes that they go along with this plan, but things get complicated when a Danish infiltrator is killed during a drug delivery, and the murder is being swept under the rug to go through with the plan. High ranking members of the Swedish police go along with this deal only to turn on him quickly.

This novel was disappointing in many ways. First, the concept of distributing drugs inside of a prison seems hardly worth the effort. The logistics of smuggling in the drugs and selling to people who don't have currency on hand just doesn't make a whole lot of sense and not worth the risk. Second, the book is very slow in spots. There's too much wasted space, and it seems as if the authors are trying to prolong the story to hit a certain word count. Third, the way the police turn on Hoffman so quickly is just silly. On the threat that he might speak to the investigator about the murder, they sentence him to death at the snap of the finger. It wasn't believable and it felt rushed. Overall, I would advise skipping this one.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street