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A review by andrew298
The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin by Jan Stocklassa
4.0
If you have ever read a Swedish mystery or thriller from the early 90's onwards then the assassination of Olaf Palme will almost certainly have been mentioned. The case has mystified Swede’s and the world about how this case has never been solved, considering who the victim was. The book was a very fascinating look into the assassination, and all of the conspiracy theories that have surrounded the event for decades. Steig Larsson’s passion for fighting right-wing extremism comes through and highlights how he was a part of the investigation even if only working in the background.
The book is a very good look at all theories regarding the investigation and the investigative nature of Stocklassa does come through, but ultimately the book struggles in two places.
1) Not sure if it comes down to translation or not, but at some points through the whole book it becomes almost impossible to keep track of all the characters and how they relate to the timeline of the narrative. It hurts the overall book because it can be a slog to get through and is even more dissatisfying when the tangential thread is left unexplored or not return to.
2) Finally, the end. It almost felt like the author got to the same point of his investigation as with the book and just decided to wrap things up with an unsatisfactory ending. It feels hard to believe that someone who had dedicated his life to uncovering the truth would just decide to stop when he was so close to the end (even if the methods may not have been legal) and that is ultimately what drops the book to a 4 (would have been a 3.5 but for Goodreads system)
Overall if you want to know more about the Palme assassination, then this is a good place to start as well as giving you the option to explore and draw your own conclusions regarding what happened on February 28th, 1986.
The book is a very good look at all theories regarding the investigation and the investigative nature of Stocklassa does come through, but ultimately the book struggles in two places.
1) Not sure if it comes down to translation or not, but at some points through the whole book it becomes almost impossible to keep track of all the characters and how they relate to the timeline of the narrative. It hurts the overall book because it can be a slog to get through and is even more dissatisfying when the tangential thread is left unexplored or not return to.
2) Finally, the end. It almost felt like the author got to the same point of his investigation as with the book and just decided to wrap things up with an unsatisfactory ending. It feels hard to believe that someone who had dedicated his life to uncovering the truth would just decide to stop when he was so close to the end (even if the methods may not have been legal) and that is ultimately what drops the book to a 4 (would have been a 3.5 but for Goodreads system)
Overall if you want to know more about the Palme assassination, then this is a good place to start as well as giving you the option to explore and draw your own conclusions regarding what happened on February 28th, 1986.