Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: The Story of a Crime

A young man falls to his death from a window in a student dorm in Stockholm, his loose shoe striking and killing the little dog being taken for his evening walk by an old man. It seems to be a mundane suicide--at least that's what the police choose to think. But the young man is American, not Swedish, and there are a couple of odd things about his room when they search it. . . . From these tiny beginnings, Leif GW Persson slowly begins to unravel a puzzle that gets larger and larger as it becomes more and more complex, until it sweeps us into a web of international espionage, backroom politics, greed, sheer incompetence, and the shoddy work of Sweden's intelligence force that leads to the murder of the prime minister. The first novel in a dark and dazzling trilogy that has become the defining fictional account of the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme--an event that triggered the biggest criminal investigation in recorded history--"Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End" is a riveting insider's combination of black satire, thriller, psychological drama, and police procedural by a writer universally acknowledged as Sweden's leading criminologist.

About the Author :
Leif GW Persson has chronicled the political and social development of modern Swedish society in his award-winning novels for more than three decades. Persson has served as an adviser to the Swedish Ministry of Justice and is Sweden's most renowned psychological profiler. He is a professor at Sweden's National Police Board and is considered the country's foremost expert on crime. He lives in Stockholm.

Review :
"Laced with irony and satire . . . Reminiscent of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson in its toughness . . . Persson does a fine job of pitting one desperate soul against another in a philosophically charged tale worthy of Ingmar Bergman--but with lots more guns." --"Kirkus" (starred) "A brilliant political thriller." "--Der Tagesspiegel" "One of the best Swedish crime novels of all time." "--Expressen" "This is not only a compelling crime story to be read without stopping until the last page. It is not only an unforgettable tale with a ferocious and bitter unexpected ending. It is much more. This is a masterpiece." "--Il Sole 24 Ore " "A teeth-gritting political thriller . . . Authentic with silent anger, tough and utterly haunting." "--Berliner Morgenpost" "One of the most exhaustive investigations ever to have been written about. A plot full of suspense, a great adventure, and a philosophical view of the dark and painful sides of life." "--Il Giornale di Vicenza" "Funny, sharp, thrilling, and entertaining. Indeed, you almost think it's too good to be true, at least until you start reading and are convinced." "--Kristeligt Dagblad" "Leif GW Persson's big lush novel is a tale of mystery and intrigue and murder. Mostly set in Sweden before the collapse of the Soviet Union it begins with the body of an American falling from a building. Was it an accident or a suicide? Surely it couldn't have been a murder, or so the police believe. Enter Lars Johansson, a police official known as 'a real policeman.' His interest in the dead American will take him to New York and to the FBI academy in Quantico, and will reveal Cold War machinations from a generation earlier that are connected to the man who fell from the building. For Johansson, entering this case is like entering a hall of mirrors within a maze, where international scheming, secret police, including one with bizarre sexual proclivities, and eve