A fast paced police procedural set in Sweden and Albania. This is the 9th book in this series but I have not read any of the first books and easily followed the characters and their history. The characters and the community in which they live and work is very clearly built. The action is quick, the bad guys are really bad and the twist that builds the tension to the end is very surprising. I had to search back to find the clues.
The cover synopsis sets the reader up for the story of these two adversaries turned cold case investigators. Anders Roslund skillfully sets them up to come together and solve the crimes where so many ahd failed. A great read. Now I've got to track down a copy of the Beast to see how the Ewert Grens series started.

Criminal Inspector Ewert Grens is taken back seventeen years when he hears of a break-in at the scene of an old crime - one in which a family was brutally executed with only a five year old child surviving as the only witness. She was whisked away and adopted into a witness protection family. Now it seems someone has returned looking for her, but Inspector Grens is determined to get there first and protect her. Meanwhile, former police informant Piet Hoffman's family is in danger from weapon smugglers. He seeks the help of the Inspector to protect his family. When these two cases intersect, will anyone be left standing?

Knock Knock is a tense, action-packed thriller as Grens and Hoffman team up to save the only remaining witness of a seventeen year old crime. They have seventy two hours to solve these cases and save lives. The clock's ticking. The story is complex with several twists and turns that keep the action moving at a break neck speed. The dual story lines and points of view serve to drive the pace keeping readers turning pages to find out how it ends. My understanding is that these two men are iconic characters revisited by this author several times. But having not read previous books in this series or by this author, I felt just a bit lost although there is adequate backstory to get a basic understanding of their setup. I believe it affected me more because I'm a big read-in-order reader and prefer getting the backstory first hand. Having said that, Knock Knock is an intense, dark, part police-procedure, part crime fiction story that fans will devour.

A murder 17 years ago decimated an entire family .. except for one survivor ... the 5-year-old daughter. She was placed with Witness Protection, but the case went cold. No one was ever charged with the killings.

Criminal Inspector Ewert Grens has never forgotten that case and when he hears that the apartment where the crime occurred has been broken into .. he wonders if someone is intent on silencing the only witness that survived.

Police Informant Piet Hoffman and his family are in danger. Someone in the criminal underworld is executing those involved in smuggling weapons.

As these cases seem to be connected in some way, the two men find themselves in the middle of a criminal conspiracy that is more complicated--and dangerous--than they could have imagined.

A cleverly written complex plot, it's filled with action from start to finish. The main characters are deftly drawn, showing both in times of strength and in weakness. There are many secondary characters to follow, but I had little confusion. There are twists and turns that lead to a satisfactory conclusion. Kudos to Elizabeth Clark Wessell for the fine job of translating from the Swedish.

Many thanks to the authors / translator / GP Putnam's Sons / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological/crime thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy! I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s writing on this one. The storyline itself felt a bit confusing for me, but I understand this is part of a series? I have not read other books by Anders Roslund, or by his writing duos, yet I will look for more. Perhaps the back stories will make more sense if I do!
The last quarter of the book was twisty, and certainly kept me intrigued!

Thanks to Netgalley and Putnam for providing the ARC of this Swedish crime story. I have not read any of the precious books in this series (this is marked as #9 on goodreads) but it didn’t seem necessary. In only a few instances I found myself wishing for more knowledge of some previous events, but it didn’t detract from reading this as a stand-alone. Maybe some astute readers will figure out the ending before the reveal, but I did not see it coming. While reading, I thought it was a probably a bit higher than average Nordic crime tale, but the ending elevated it a bit for me. I may go back and look for previous books in the series.

KNOCK KNOCK
Anders Roslund; translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN-13: 978-0593188217
Hardcover
Mystery/Thriller

KNOCK KNOCK would be noteworthy solely for the fact that it is the debut novel of Anders Roslund. That is actually not quite accurate, as aficionados of Scandanavian crime fiction will quickly point out. Roslund previously co-wrote several crime novels with the now-deceased Borge Hellstrom as well as a noteworthy, two-book semi-autobiographical series with Swedish screenwriter Stefan Thunberg under the pen name “Anton Svensson.” KNOCK KNOCK continues the Roslund/Hellstrom series which features Stockholm police inspector Ewert Grens and former police informant turned security expert Piet Hoffman. It is a book that meets and exceeds the expectations created by what has come before in the series.


It should be noted immediately that one does not need familiarity with what has gone before in the Grens and Hoffman series to appreciate KNOCK KNOCK. Roslund, with an excellent assist from translator Elizabeth Clark Wessel, gives new readers a recounting as to what has gone before as and when it is needed. It is therefore fitting that KNOCK KNOCK begins with a flashback to one of Grens’ early cases some fifteen years before the book’s present, when an apparent home invasion resulted in the execution of four members of a family. The lone survivor was a five-year-old girl named Zana Lilaj. Grens was the responding inspector to the call and took the suddenly orphaned girl under his wing, ensuring that she was placed in foster care under witness protection. In the present, the troubled, taciturn and brilliant Grens is at loose ends, six months away from his mandatory retirement and wondering what he will do next. The present meets the past when Grens is summoned to a crime scene where a body is found bearing the signature wounds of those on the Lilaj family members so long before. When two more people who have been executed in a similar fashion are found Grens is fearful that Zana’s life is in danger from the same killer or killer that robbed her of her family so many years before. Hoffman, in the meanwhile, has been freed from prison and is running a very successful personal security firm. His life is upended when an unknown person threatens to expose his past as a police informant to an illegal arms dealer who had been imprisoned in large part as a result of Hoffman’s undercover work. The blackmailer has documents that were thought to be held under the tightest possible security by Grens’ boss. Hoffman is forced to revisit his old life and act as an intermediary in the sale of a large cache of weapons that technically don’t even exist. The penalty for failure will be the murder of his family. Hoffman in desperation turns to Grens, with whom he has had an extremely complicated and occasionally antagonistic relationship in the past. It is clear, however, that there is a traitor in Grens’ department and that it could be anyone. The irony here is that both Grens and Hoffman, who have trouble trusting anyone, must trust each other as their respective difficulties slowly converge as the story moves from Stockholm to Albania and back again, careening toward a conclusion which is by turns satisfying, tragic, and unforgettable.

KNOCK KNOCK is shot through with images and scenes from beginning to end which are well nigh impossible to forget. These are intertwined with any number of suspenseful vignettes that make KNOCK KNOCK impossible to put down at any given point. Anders is a household name throughout most of the world as a master of crime fiction and KNOCK KNOCK is a sterling example of why this is so. Those who have been following his work from the beginning already know. Those who are new to Grens, his troubled, taciturn, and brilliant protagonist, will have the enviable experience of discovering why. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2021, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ewert is a homicide detective in Stockholm. Just 6 months shot of retirement he is haunted by a 30 year old case and the five year old survivor of her family's massacre. Piet was once an arms smuggler and a police informant. Now he runs a security firm and have a beloved wife and children. When a ghost from his past actively threatens. his new life, Piet turns to his old for help.. When their investigation reveals a connection between t. he two cases a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. I really. enjoy Scandinavian noir. This was a dark novel with the focus on the ugly arms smuggling trade and the grim consequences on our society. Well developed characters.. A solid gritty reead.

Ewert Grens and Piet Hoffman are united again

The Police Inspector and the former informant are in a race against time to find a little girl, the only witness to her family being killed many yeras ago.

Grens had rescued her and she was put into witness protection, but now someone has been trying to track her down.

For Hoffman, he must find out why his family is in danger of being killed by an unknown assailant.

This is a thriller that will stay with you for a long time.

"Knock Knock," by Anders Roslund, was translated from the Swedish by Elizabeth Clark Wessel. Detective Superintendent Ewert Grens has not been joyful for years, but he is even more downcast than usual of late. Grens, who is sixty-four, fears that he will be forced to retire when he turns sixty-five. Since he has no other way of filling his time, Ewert cannot imagine leaving his job. Meanwhile, he is investigating a series of execution-style killings that bear eerie similarities to a seventeen-year-old scene of carnage that still haunts him. In addition, Piet Hoffmann turns up, asking for Ewert's help. Not only has Piet spent time in prison, but he subsequently went undercover in order to infiltrate and bring down criminal networks.

This convoluted tale involves a traumatized little girl who has lost everyone she loves; felons eager to corner the market in illegal arms; and a shadowy individual who pressures Piet to start a gang war in Sweden. If Hoffmann refuses, his wife and three young children will pay the price. Piet and Grens join forces in an effort to identify the mastermind behind the mayhem and prevent further bloodshed.

Roslund's central characters are vivid and well-defined. Grens is edgy, sleeps poorly, and suspects that a bent cop may be undermining him. Mariana Hermansson, Ewert's outspoken, hard-working, and competent subordinate, is offended when her boss questions where her loyalties lie. As for Piet, he had settled into a comfortable routine with his family, but now reverts to the warrior he once was—a cunning predator and strategist who will do whatever is necessary to neutralize his adversaries. The novel is a bit long and rambling, and readers may groan when Roslund introduces plot elements that do not ring true. In general, however, the author juggles most of his story lines skillfully, maintains a high level of suspense, and wraps things up with an intense and unanticipated finale. The bottom line is that brutality breeds brutality, and those who lust for vengeance will never know peace.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Putnam for my ARC of this book.

Explosive, heart pounding mystery. I am finally surrounding myself with clever mysteries! Highly recommended!

Bringing a past crime into a new crime to pull a wonderfully written criminal inspector back into a years past mystery. Tense and atmospheric quality writing. Highly recommended.

I so want to give spoilers but Anders Roslund has used Ewert Grens and Piet Hoffmann to bring to a some what ending to a hunt for the killers of Zana's parents and siblings. It all starts with the murders of three men who were the subjects of an investigation of Zana's family, only 20 or so years later. Everything was set up to get Piet Hoffmann to kill whoever he wanted to wipe out. But Piet set himself up to resist what he didn't want to do. Anders uses this to make everything take place in Sweden but also uses Albania as where the guns come from and also goes there to test Piet. Anders uses many scenarios to get your blood pumping and you do get it pumping.