Clinch

I quite enjoyed reading this book. It was captivating, dark and gritty. Mark Holmen’s style reminds me of the American Author Richard Price, who is also very good. There’s a lot to like about the main character Harry Hvist, an ex –boxer. There’s plenty of depth to this story and it moves along at a good pace. It is also quite unique reading a story based in the 1930’s and picturing what life would have been like back then. I will definitely keep an eye out for Marks next book, as this one is worth a read.

What a nitty-gritty story this is. Dark and tantalising, Mark Holmen certainly knows his subject. Bisexual, ex-boxer Harry Hvist has to chase after debts to pay the bills but when he is accused of murdering someone, life gets seriously tough. Despite a fear of alcoholism and lack of money, the only place he can keep moving is through the brothels and bars of 1930's Stockholm in a frantic hunt for the one person who can rescue him. An estranged daughter and a taste for classy attire has to be put aside as he delves deeper into Stockholm's seedy underworld and tries desperately to clear his name. Violence and pride aplenty, Harry has to take matters into his own hands if he is to survive the accusation and his past.

There's something really enthralling about a self-centred detective, brutish, bisexual and a boxer, Harry searches for a witness to clear his name. I don't read a lot of mysteries, but I enjoyed this a lot.

4,5 stars!

WARNING: This book is not a romance. It is a very interesting, unusual and highly recommended gay mystery.

I think, I have never read anything more visually noir before!

Martin Holmén belongs to the biggest surprises of this year for me.

Stockholm in 1932. Swedish noir? Oh yes, please! It looks like the author wrote his debut novel with an old city map. I wish I could follow places, streets, names. The settings are fantastic.

The plot:
Harry Kvist, an ex boxer, makes for living from collecting debts from the private persons.

Mostly it is just a bicycle business, but from time to time he has occasional job that brings good moneys. Like the one with Zetterberg. If Harry manages to collect two thousand kronor and sent money within five days, he can keep fifteen per cent. Everything seems to go according to plan: after ex boxer has taught Zetterberg a lesson in paying debts, he has just to come back next day and collect the money. The only problem is- Zetterberg has been murdered shortly after Kvist left his apartment and Harry Kvist is considered the prime suspect. There are two witnesses who can be his alibi: Sonja ,a bowlegged whore, with who he has a conversation, and a joyrider in a black sports car. But Harry has been already taken twice for the eighteenth paragraph, the homophobia paragraph. So, the young man is not an option. To clear himself of any suspicion he has to find Sonja.

The mystery is a great one, that spirals all the way through, with unexpected twists and with a brilliantly thought out ending.

I'm definitively looking forward to read more of Harry Kvist. It is supposed to be a trilogy!
I'm delightful!

This is the first in a proposed trilogy – the second book is titled, “Down for the Count,” and the third novel, planned next year (2017 at time of writing this review) is “Slugger.” The main character is the bi-sexual, ex-boxer, Harry Kvist, who lives in Stockholm. This is not the Stockholm we are familiar with though in Nordic Noir crime novels – although this book certainly ticks every other ‘noir’ box – but this is Sweden in 1932. Other crime novels, of course, have been set in 1930’s Europe and I immediately think of the Bernie Gunther novels, for example. Here though, Hitler is a story in the newspapers and, although the encroaching European upheavals are not yet affecting those in Sweden, it is obvious that people are more than aware of the early rumblings of unease in other countries.

Although Harry Kvist was once a successful boxer, he now spends his time collecting debts and doing other jobs which require the threat of his rather intimidating presence. One of the errands he has is collect a debt from a man called Zetterberg. Kvist visits him, roughs him up a little, then says he will be back the next day for the money. In his mind, he has already spent his payment on some boots, as the weather is getting better. However, on the next night, when he returns, there is a crowd outside Zetterberg’s apartment block and the man is dead. Harry feels cheated out of his new boots, but things get worse when he is accused of the murder, which sets him off on a search across the city to find out who is really guilty of the crime so he can clear his name.

This is a dark, gritty journey through a world of prostitutes, clubs and police cells of 1932 Stockholm. Harry Kvist is a very self contained character, although he does have a ‘sort of’ friend in his landlord; the undertaker, Lundin. This is a good combination of Scandinavian crime and historical fiction, which is something quite different from other Scandinavian fiction I have read. At times, it felt a little dry and distanced, but I enjoyed trailing Harry through Stockholm on his adventures and will continue with the trilogy. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Graphic dark novel that grips from beginning to end. Very violent but hard to put down with twists and turns all the way....good stuff!

Ultra-gritty describes the 1930's Stockholm that Harry Kvist occupies, as well as Kvist himself. To say nothing of the people that he mixes with. It's a beautifully evoked world of dark and despair, littered with violent sexual encounters, drinking, and oddly, an unexpected love affair of sorts.

Told from his point of view Kvist is nothing if not brutally honest about himself, his situation, even the way he looks. And as an ex-boxer he's well suited to his now role of debt-collector, and general intimidating presence. It's the role of debt collector that sees him become the prime suspect after a debtor he has just visited, and roughed up just a touch, is discovered murdered in his apartment. Kvist might be the last known person to have seen him alive, but this time he knows he's definitely not guilty. Unfortunately clearing his name isn't going to be straightforward as finding the witness that saw him leaving on the night, when he's just got is a working name and physical description to go on, isn't easy.

The plot itself is not unfamiliar - the lone wolf character, presumed guilty because that's the easiest conclusion to draw, setting out on his own to clear his name. What lifts CLINCH out of the familiar is the strength of the character of Kvist and the world that he occupies. Working the streets, the slums, the brothels and the dives of Stockholm, there's something deeply physical about the way that Kvist undertakes his quest. But then sheer physicality is the thing about Kvist - be it his hetero- and homo-sexual encounters, or the way he inhabits the darker places in which he seeks.

When Scandinavian crime / thriller fiction first elbowed itself into the consciousness of crime fiction fans it frequently bought with it something unusual at the time - introspection and consideration, the examination of why people do what they do, rather than always the crime, an investigation and resolution. CLINCH seems to come from somewhere slightly different again. Kvist feels like he'd be comfortable walking the dark, gritty streets of a dangerous American city, and equally at home on the hard edges of the Scottish and Irish tenements plagued with violence and social problems. That he's from Stockholm, and the world he inhabits is dark, cold, dirty, desperate, and frequently pretty nasty makes more sense than this reader ever imagined would be possible.

If you've read the blurb for CLINCH and formed some conclusions about style, and outcome in your mind, then it's likely you got close in some things and miles away in others. There are shades of noir in this novel so unexpected that even after reading CLINCH, this reader is still mildly stunned and absolutely thankful for the opportunity.

Well done, crime noir. Engaging narrator. Just the right amount of violenceand sex. And Manages to be sexy without graphic sex scenes. Look forward to his next novel.