Swedish Joakim zander aspires to be one of the most prominent European writers of political suspense. In his way of presenting us with lively high-tension plots, he can be associated with the prolific Daniel Silva, one of the most recognized of this subgenre that from the United States exports its stories all over the world. While the long shadow of a Mankell, which from Sweden itself addressed the black genre with international aspects, would also serve as a germ.
The truth is that the proximity of Zander's plots, developed from European politics and diplomacy, are always better assumed for those of us on this side of the pond. And knowledge of the facts is not lacking in a Zander graduated in Law and whose brand new career led him to the highest levels of advice in the European Union.
Under some simple and unrevealing titles, Zander gives a special role to Klara Waldeen, a kind of adviser to the Union whose vicissitudes lead us to always current aspects such as plots that seek to alter the system or espionage and its adaptation to the current world, as well as new political and social threats such as Islamic terrorism that shakes the heart of the continent with sinister periodicity.
Top 3 Recommended Books by Joakim Zander
Friend
The prominence of Klara Waldéen, who has already capitalized our attention on The swimmer, returns to adopt the role of heroine, in this case half shared with Jacob, another diplomat like her with whom she ends up converging in Brussels to end up weaving together a common investigation about two people they love and who seems to have swallowed the earth.
If not, they have voluntarily disappeared for some ominous end. Because the photographer Yassmin, with whom Jacob shared a particular relationship, and Gabriella, Klara's friend disappear one day after enigmatic strange behavior in both.
In the case of The Swimmer, Klara already gave us a good example of her ability to move in the most threatening environments. And this time it will be his turn to delve into the rugged world of international terrorism.
The doubt about the true face of Yassmin and Gabrielle looms at all times like a shadow. Klara and Jacob doubt whether their approach had any interest over and above the personal relationship that ended up uniting them.
By pooling details of their investigation in the search for Yasmin and Gabrielle, this improvised pair of investigators will have to face both the inherent risks of their investigation and the moral dilemmas of what they may discover about those people with whom they thought they had built. trustworthy relationships.
The swimmer
I like those books that tell a story that progresses to a high degree of intensity and then remains suspended to give way to a new plot.
Because we know that issues will eventually converge and you just have to go looking for the link, hoping to find it even before the author ends up tying up the loose ends.
At the beginning of the book there is a gloomy story in the 80s, a man forced to abandon his son in a hostile city ... We move on to three decades later and we already meet Klara Walldéen. We do not forget that heartbreaking story of the child abandoned to its fate.
But life continued from that remote past and we began the adventure of discovering what happened to the boy, if he managed to survive his misfortune. Nothing seems to converge at the moment, Klara and Mahmoud are involved in a dense web that tries to trap them.
The frenzied flight guides us through different cities in northern Europe. And as we discover the reasons for the persecution, we begin to glimpse that nexus of union towards a reconciliation or towards complete doom.
The brother
Sometimes Zander's lucidity can be scary. His knowledge of the environment in which he presents his plots offer a more than credible vision, endowed with a dark certainty about what is going on in international political reality.
The world is held in an unstable equilibrium. The economic interests end up justifying in a Machiavellian way any political action and any aberrational decision about the fate of the citizens.
Kara Waldéen is once again teaming up with a unique character thanks to the magnetism of our protagonist to join the most risky causes in the international arena. Yasmine has managed to adapt to Western patterns, putting aside her Syrian roots and even blood ties with a brother involved in Islamic terrorism.
Only that prejudices and suspicions will hang over Yasmine at all times and any movement, no matter how fair it may be to meet a brother who was left for dead, will lead to great problems.
Again the author throws the hooks of two frames around Yasmine and Klara. And when the lives of both intersect, the truth will appear with its dangers and its enlightening and bitter certainties.
