Show Me a Hero

By Sven Andersson

An intense and bitter competition is reaching its climax in the final event of the decathlon at the Swedish National Athletics Championships. After nine hard fought events, only a handful of points and a few seconds separate two deadly rivals. Everything is hanging on the outcome of the 1500m race.

But Christian Lindberg is overhauled in the final desperate strides by Bjorn Olafsson, the self-styled Thor the Thunderer of the sport, who claims the hero’s laurels whilst the humiliated Lindberg slinks away to lick his wounds.

Hours later The Thunderer is dead. His skull has been smashed in with the very hammer Olafsson uses to taunt and belittle inferior athletes. Grouchy police chief, Nils Leidholm demands a quick solution to what he considers an open-and-shut case.

DI Johanna Apelgren of the Vasterbotten County Crime Investigation Squad is not so sure. Together with her obstreperous sidekick DS Andreas Stenman, she follows her own nose. She smells a rat – more than one rat. In fact, a whole sewer full of rats as she and Stenman encounter ever more twists, turns and homicidal rage as the narcissistic and unscrupulous nature of top flight athletics is systematically revealed.

Sven Andersson’s Show Me a Hero demonstrates again what a powerhouse the Scandinavian crime-writing scene has become.

Sven Andersson is a full-time writer who lives in Malmo with his partner, two daughters and his Swedish Vallhund, Loki. Sven’s other work includes Vengeance is Mine, also published by Endeavour Press.