Arne Dahl: Dödsmässa

A robbery takes place at an internet bank in downtown Stockholm; the criminals get clean away, killing two innocent people in the process. There appears to be two suspects, but after close scrutiny Kerstin Holm (Malin Arvidsson) and her team ascertain that there is a third suspect, the foster-son of a former East German immigrant to Sweden, Becker (Olle Jernberg).

There follows a plot of byzantine complexity involving East German immigrants who had apparently shaken off their communist associations and participated in a democratic society. The only snag is that they didn't; rather they became involved in concealing a vital drawing whose discovery might still change the world. A CIA agent Steven Hicks (Bo Lyckman) is involved in trying to discover the whereabouts of that drawing, as are two Russian heavies Vladimir Kozlov (Samuel Vauramo) and Michail Botkin (Alexej Manvelov).

The plot involves a lot of information spouted by the characters as well as some rank implausibilities: why would senior police lawyer Aarto Söderstedt (Niklas Åkerfelt) chase after the bad guys on his own, knowing their record of killing people so far? And why would junior officer Ida Jankowitz (Natalie Minnevik) be involved in another shoot-out on her own, especially after her bloody experiences in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, the previous story in this series?

None of these questions are adequately explain in director Lisa Farzaneh's desire to reach the denouement and tie up all loose ends. We are left to enjoy the incidental pleasures of the episode, especially the continuing marital difficulties between Jorge Chavez (Alexander Salzberger) and Sara Svenhagen (Vera Vitali), and Kerstin's decision to pair off with Bengt Åkesson (Alexander Karim), much to her boss Paul's (Shanti Roney's) chagrin. As Kerstin's erstwhile lover, Paul believes that he can still be close to her whenever he wishes.