5

WHAM!!! This book is good on several levels and darned if they
don't come slamming together at the end. I was listening kind of
casually, this seems a bit dull at times, but the author starts weaving in stories of all kinds of
characters and as these stories
come to life there is no worry about dull. This is complex, intelligent and beautifully constructed. Recommended!

4 people found this helpful

Good but not great

Listeners who enjoyed Roslund & Hellstrom's Three Seconds will likely find the followup to be just about as good. In some ways it's even better, as the characters are now a little more familiar to both the authors and the readers. In other ways it's less good, as there's not as much of a mystery to the story as there was in the first book. Be prepared for a pretty blatant anti-death penalty message without a lot of subtlety. If you don't mind that, the story is entertaining. The problem with a "message book" like this is that the authors' viewpoint tends to take center stage, and the story takes a backseat. That is mostly not the case here, happily. The authors are against the death penalty; that seems clear. But since most of the world is against it too, I'm not sure now necessary it is to beat readers over the head with it. Nevertheless, the story is creative, the narration is very good (Christopher Lane really does a good job with the Swedish accents), and the characters are believable. Inspector Ewert Grens comes across wonderfully in the audio version; it's hard to imagine him being as good if you were reading the print version. This is a good example of where the audiobook adds layers that the print book almost certainly does not. That alone is a good reason to give it a listen, in my view.

3 people found this helpful

A long journey for justice

Cell 8 is the story of revenge justice and the long outdated belief that an "eye-for-eye" is just. Cell 8 takes many shortcuts with due process and international laws. The story is still enjoyable and full of meaning, both tangible and intangible, even with the apparent ignorance toward official procedures. The death penalty is center stage thoughout the book and may not be enjoyable for someone who is strongly locked into an opinion at either extreme. This story makes others with less conviction question whether they support or oppose the taking of a life as a just form of criminal punishment. Several story arcs are started and left unresolved which screams that more books are on the way from these fine authors. I admit I found Three Seconds a more compelling story than Cell 8, but both are credit worthy. Mr. Lane gives a great performance and contributes to the enjoyment of Cell 8.

7 people found this helpful

Must read

I seem to always say the same thing about all the Scandinavian crime writers they are the the best. Roslund and Hellstrom have written the best essay against the death.since Death Man Walking was published. This is for people against, for and on the fence regarding the legal killing of humans in the United States.

4 people found this helpful

Really enjoyed!

This was a great read and I look forward to the next novel by these authors!

1 person found this helpful

less grens pleaseee

feel like this series really goes downhill from the first book, just steadily loses energy. i could only make it halfway thru this one, it's a slog

the weird and unique thing about this series though, is grens. not like ye olde flawed but brilliant detective, just 100% awful selfish unethical non brilliant, no redeeming qualities. just a miserable jerk, but one who seems v plausible in a way. plausible, but works against the series --the kind of person that sucks the life out of a room, but also kinda sucks the life out of the narrative. maybe the first book was that much better, just bc he was in it less?

Awful read and narration!

Hate to say this, but the book is so boring and narration is so bad that I couldn't finish it. A terrible waste of time and money!

Be careful.

1 person found this helpful