This is the second episode in the Harry Kvist trilogy. Like its predecessor, it's a first-person narrative. Clinch took my breath away, and this is worse. Or, perhaps, given the point of Noir, better. Harry (Kvisten to his friends) is an ex-boxer, repo man (with a specialty in bicycles), funeral parlour and mortuary assistant, as well as general investigator. He also spends time in Långholmen Prison, in Stockholm between the wars. As the book opens, he is at the end of an 18-month stint, and has found love with a young man he calls Doughboy, whom he arranges to meet in a week’s time when they are both free and can live together in Harry’s flat, deep in the impoverished quarters of Stockholm. All Harry has to do, as he leaves prison behind, is stay out of it for seven long days. As he walks away he joins a crowd watching King Gustav V open a new bridge between islands.
His flat, such as it is, is what it is, rats and all. In his absence, no one has touched it, or his belongings. His dog has been cared for. But time has passed, and with it some of his friends, Beda, for example, who ran the local laundry with the help of her deaf and dumb son. Not only is she dead, but somebody has removed her body and kidnapped her son. And thus Sweden’s once-most-famous boxer morphs back into a P.I., finding clues, identifying persons of interest. Clues for Harry are one thing, but clues for the reader something else, as what appeared to be a puzzling raid on the laundry does its own morphing; Harry doesn’t always tell us what he’s thinking, and probably just as well. Nonetheless, his brain may be rusty, but his intuitions are not. Nor are his reflexes, as he lurches from one fight to the next. In the first book Harry promised Beda that he would take care of Petrus, her son, and the promise weighs on him, as he also stumbles on Beda’s daughter, to whom she has left the laundry—whose existence he knew nothing of, and together they trace the boy.
Along the way there is a great deal of violence, mixed with moments of kindness and generosity. Neighbours come together in a seasonal party. The immense consumption of alcohol is legendary, as people try to stay alive in the early winter days of increasingly bitter cold and darkness. It’s important to remember just how impoverished were the Scandinavians before the post-war welfare state. From the mid-nineteenth-century they headed for America in thousands. Minnesota is crowded with their descendents, as anyone who has watched the Coen brothers’ Fargo knows. The police in this between-the-wars trilogy are an altogether different bunch, whose corruption is only just balanced against Harry’s courage and boxer’s intelligence and speed. I hope he makes it to the end of the third book alive, but this is a noir series, so perhaps not.

I am a Harry Kvist fan. He's a great noir protagonist-can't help but help people but nevertheless always disappointed by people and disappointing other people-with the added grit of being gay. And he reads an authentic gay man in such a closeted age in such a rundown Stockholm. The mystery is full of actual detecting and also full of stupid decisions-it's good.

This book is a second in a trilogy called the Harry Kvist Trilogy and what attracted me to this book is that it has a bisexual main character. I usually see a lot of straight main characters in mystery/thriller genres so this is what immediately intrigued me and made me request it. I haven’t read the first one in the trilogy called Clinch but that didn’t ruin my experience with it and I appreciate that because I had some concerns. It’s safe to say that this book can be read as a standalone.

This noir trilogy is set in Stockholm in the 1930s and the second installment Down for the Count is set in 1935. It follows our protagonist Harry ‘Kvisten’ Kvist who has just gotten out of prison [he has spent a year and a half there] and is planning on starting a new life with the lover [Doughboy] he met during his prison stay. From the beginning the reader can already tell that Kvist is someone who can’t stay away from trouble and so this time he receives devastating news that his friend Beda was murdered by her deaf son called Petrus. He finds this hard to believe because Petrus wouldn’t do such a thing and he also made a promise to Beda to take care of Petrus when she’s gone. During his investigation he stumbles upon shocking discoveries: what he suspected was true and the police are covering up the crime but why? This is what Kvist has to find out. Will Kvist be able to avenge Beda’s death and find out the truth behind the cover-up?

I really didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I read this book fairly quickly – the first day I read 15% and the second day I finished it completely. There’s no doubt that this book is fast-paced and keeps you at the edge of your seat. I have to salute Martin Holmén because he made his main character bisexual and it’s not often that I see that in mystery/thriller genre! I loved seeing that! What wasn’t a very great thing for me is that he wasn’t treated very well. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t get into details but I wish Harry Kvist expressed his sexuality more. I haven’t read the first one so I might be wrong because this installment didn’t have much of that. The people who’ve read the book might get what I mean. I also found a few things which moved too fast for my taste. Overall this didn’t affect my experience of enjoying the book that much and I would definitely recommend reading it. I seriously couldn’t look away while reading because I had to know what would happen!

Again this book can be read as a standalone so there’s no worrying about that. It will definitely thrill you and make you want to read on and find out what happens at the very end. Will I be reading the third installment of this book? Hell yeah, I will!

If you’re looking for a historical mystery/thriller to read then look no further because this book is for you.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher (Pushkin Press) for allowing me to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a struggle, poorly written and not very engaging - perhaps it was the translation but I did not enjoy this novel.

It’s winter 1935, Stockholm. Former boxer, Harry Kvist, leaves prison. All he wants to do is begin a new life with the lover he met in jail. But his past dogs him. It is a time seeing the rise of Nazi ideals, which is beginning to make life uncomfortable for many people, even in Sweden.
Before Kvist can leave Stockholm and his underworld life behind he must first find a killer. One who is linked to the very highest levels of society. Life it seems is not going to be far from easy for Kvist.
Harry Kvist is one of the most extraordinary, absorbing and offbeat detectives I have ever read. His personality grabs you from the first line. The first-person perspective certainly contributes to the immediacy of Kvist’s travails. But it is the way in which his story is told which really has you forgetting to breathe, because you’re drawn so deeply into his world, your own becomes irrelevant.
As a former boxer Kvist is essentially little more than a thug, called in when people don't oblige those they owe money or other favours. Yet he is a man of high morals, protecting the weak unable to defend themselves, even though his own body is a wreck and he lives hand-to-mouth and by his wits.
The plot is excellent, the filth and every punch palpable. This is life in the raw, pulsating with energy. I am going to hunt out Martin Holmén’s other Kvist novels.

3.5 stars

Harry Kvist is not a nice man. So you know. But he is complex. We meet him in the last hour of his eighteen-month imprisonment--one of many--with his lover, Doughboy, a youth who shares a cell with fleas and a wood louse. And with whom Kvist is in love.

Within a few hours, Kvist learns one of his good friends has died and it makes no sense. Over the next week, he gets to work, digging up the real, yet a highly improbable story. And each time he is about to do something unwise--or to recover from having done something unwise--he sees Doughboy, an image that brings him back over and over again.

The sense of him eludes me, especially his code on morality. On the one hand, he takes in abandoned dogs, cuddles up to kittens, befriends children and youths who want to become boxers. This, along with his obsession with his imprisoned lover, raises his esteem as a worthy person, as someone who might make the world a better place. On the other, he can't seem to help his tendency toward violence toward innocent people--leaving witnesses limping, bleeding, or worse when a sharing cup of coffee would have sufficed. He witnesses domestic violence and instead of coming to the woman's aid, he simply muses on whether he should inform the bloke of the 'right' way to hit a woman. Which doesn't negate the good he does, because each act stands on its own, but does make him a vile character.

Also interesting to see this from a queer perspective. Oft times a character is merely good or merely wicked. I've seen so many reviews, requests, tweets with laments there are no characters with this element of depth in the sense that someone who happens to be queer can be so good and so vile and transcend the simplicity of being either/or.

Kvist is a man that by sheer will of not wanting to waste vodka will refrain from vomiting when a mere mortal would have long ago spewed. He's haunted by the past, by his poor upbringing to the boxing career that eluded him (or perhaps he simply aged out of) to his daughter, now fifteen, living in America.

Kvist is an intriguing anti-hero and the writing is phenomenal. In a true noir style, there is no justice, only the sense of the little villain against the big one. And even when the little one achieved a hard-earned victory, what that victory entailed was the knowledge gained on what happened and the ability to escape with his life.

Trigger warnings: violence and lots of it.

This is very classy stuff, a Scandinoir chiller set in 1930s Stockholm . A violent anti hero, Harry Kvist, pursuing a murderer in a dark, bleak city. Evocative language sets the scene for a consistently interesting, at times, disturbing story.
Highly recommended.

Down For the Count by Martin Holmén
Stockholm, 1935. Former boxer Harry Kvist is released from prison with the intent to go home to his dog and get his life in order. This time it isn’t just for himself but for the life he wants with his young cell mate, who will be released in a week. But, going home means returning to the old neighborhood.

If it is all possible, the neighborhood has gone downhill during Harry’s incarceration. One of his neighbors has been murdered, her disabled son has been arrested for the crime, and Nazi sympathizers are out on the streets. Something is definitely wrong and Harry owes it to Bede Johansson to find her killer.

This book, which has been translated from Swedish, is dark. So dark that in my mind’s eye the scenes were in 1930’s film noir black and white. That being said, Harry has the very best of intentions and you find yourself speeding through the chapters to see what happens at the end of the longest week of his life. The author has a talent for describing the stark underbelly of 1930’s Stockholm (and who knew there was one?).

<b>A Swedish noir par excellence.</b> Bravo.

<img src="https://media3.giphy.com/media/srg19CG0cKMuI/giphy.gif"/>

<b>Martin Holmén turned this finest piece of prose into a small work of art.</b>

<img src="https://img.webme.com/pic/p/penner-items/trennlinie_eis.png"/>
Stockholm, November, 1935.
After one and half year Harry Kvist is released from prison. He has something to look forward.
He is in love. He is full of hopes and...butterflies. His Doughboy whom he got to know in the jail has just one week left. Kvist has to wait exactly seven DAYS and then he'll wait for his lover outside the gates of Langholmen jail. To start a new life. With his Doughboy. With a new suit. Because he promised. <blockquote><i>"A promise is a promise". </i></blockquote>

<b>The countdown has started.</b>

NO ONE and even less Harry Kvist himself (yes, my friends, NOT even me!!!) COULD have expected/imagined WHAT a crazy week had awaited him. The LONGEST 7 days of his life.

And what for a GRANDIOSE finale! Even when I thought, I GOT a feeling, I KNEW it, I GUESSED it right...Martin Holmén took me by surprise.

<b>A very BE-A-U-TI-FUL ending, marvelous writing, fascinating character, an amazing authentic historical atmosphere, great mystery.</b>

My TINY complaint. The details. The good and the irritating things at the same moments. Martin Holmén is obsessed with details. I adore it, I hate it. Because sometimes it was just too much of details within a very thrilling moment. Suddenly the focus went away from the story line to the descriptions of the surroundings. In SOME cases it was just a bit inappropriate that braked the dynamic of the plot.

BUT.
The details, in principle, are THE BEST things in the series. And they are sooooo important! And the author knows exactly how to benefit them the best.

And do you know WHAT? I don't want to look like I'm searching for the "fly in the ointment".
This series is amazing.


<u>Highly recommended. </u>


<b> I WANT THE BOOK 3 NOW!!!

A true noir ...... dark, dirty and bruised

As always our Kvisten leads with his fists than sometimes follows with his brain. But like a pitbull when he locks jaws into a target he will not open them until the target is down.

A magnificent use of language to create such a noir, dirty, bruised Stockholm, I had such a feeling of pervasive foreboding whilst I was reading. Holmen's sure hand builds this up with each and every word. Sinister darkness all around and then the occasional rays of sunlight that pierce the darkness and you can see why Kvist continues, what pushes him on.

I gave Clinch, the first book 4 stars which is an accolade for me, this one I give 5 stars because it is a star in it's genre. For making me feel the darkness and still kindle that hope which made me pitt myself along with Kvist to try for the light. I am definitely up for the count for the next one - which should be the end of the trilogy.

" Harry Kvist in a magnificent comeback "

This is one of those books that don't make me think of how much research the author has done to describe the 1930s well.
No- it feels like it was actually written back then. No out of place phrases, vivid descriptions of the setting and character traits. In some moments I even felt I could smell the streets and its inhabitants.
Martin Holmén and his translator Henning Koch have done a great job.

They say every cynic was once a disappointed idealist.
Harry Kvist is the type of character who'll make you question your morals. Inevitably reminds me of Bret Easton Ellis' characters. Every time I tried to dissect him, I was challenged by his being unpredictable.
Would I ask him for a boxing advice- Of course!
Would I want him to be my friend- Yes/ Maybe
Would I dare ask him for a cigarette- No
Would I think of starting a fight with him- Hell no!
You never know what's in his head and that makes him intimidating, even scary. The only thing you know for sure- he'll keep his word. All all cost. Because as he himself says : you can't get away from a promise, " it's always honor and glory all the bloody way, but when you think about it, those are the only things the poor have". A man of his word, even of he's the only one who believes in it.

This was my first encounter with the author and his magnificent character, and I can't wait to see more them!