The Swedish Liar by Henrik Brun is the third volume in the series about journalist Ketil Brandt, and like Decoy. Danish and The Norwegian Lackey it can be read separately.
On his way to Stockholm Danish journalist Ketil Brandt stops over in Malmo, where he witness a shooting in the street with a suspicious woman fleeing in panic from the crime scene. The victim is a Cypriot diplomat visiting the city off-duty and the police and press agree that he was a random target of a new Malmo shooter chasing foreigners.
In the meantime another Cypriot citizen has been murdered in Stockholm, and Ketil’s reckless journalistic instinct is awakened when the Swedish foreign minister and future EU president, Anders Nylander at the same time, and totally unexpected, seems to hesitate in carrying out a well-planned diplomatic triumphal progress.
Ketil’s boss wants him to stay in Sweden and try to crack the case, and while the violence in the streets of Stockholm increases both the police and the press try to cover up the matter, and things become rather critical when Ketil joins forces with the Foreign Ministry’s publicity manager, Helena Agerblad. But who can Ketil really trust when it becomes more and more difficult figuring out who’s telling the truth and who’s not?
Henrik Brun (1968) is the foreign editor of the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad. He received The Lorenzo Natali European Union Journalism Prize for Development, Democracy and Human Rights and he has been nominated for a Cavling Prize as well – the most prestigious Danish journalism award. The author calls on a thorough experience from more than two decades of working as a journalist and reporter both inside and outside Denmark when he writes about his protagonist, the controversial journalist Ketil Brandt.
RIGHTS TO THE SERIES ABOUT KETIL BRANDT HAS BEEN SOLD TO SWEDEN (MASSOLIT FÖRLAG)
Reviews – The Swedish Liar
“… an absolutely recommendable novel containing both strength and vision (…) You can really tell that Brun knows a great deal about foreign affairs, diplomacy and journalism, and above all the reader can’t help but feel how eagerly Brun wants to tell his story”
(Sophie Engberg Sonne in Politiken)
“… with pace and drive Brun works at full throttle, he knows about the world and how to take the reader on a journey in and out of it in a most diverting way”
(Bo Tao Michaëlis in Kristeligt Dagblad)
”… the descriptions of Ketil Brandt’s trip to Stockholm and his experiences on different locations around the beautiful capital of Sweden are so vivid and to the point that the reader can easily imagine being there himself (…) a novel containing usable facts about international issues as well as a little local colour”
(Lars Brix Nielsen in Weekendavisen)
“Any reader will soon find himself captured by this classic page-turner (…) This crime novel is highly recommendable”
(Michael Olsen at The Danish Library Center)
“The Swedish Liar is Brun’s best novel so far. He’s among the very best of all Danish thriller authors (…) with three strong crime novels in three years”
(Holger Ruppert in Lokalavisen Frederiksberg)
