{"product_id":"bad-blood-isbn-9780307388049","title":"Bad Blood","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen police find a Swedish literary critic tortured to death in a janitor's closet at Newark International Airport, they realize that the murderer has made off with the victim’s ticket and boarded a flight to Stockholm, where he apparently slipped through customs. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith no clear motive in sight, Detectives Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of Intercrime' s A-Unit take over the investigation. They learn that the method of torture used was not only a highly specialized means of extracting information—secretly developed during the Vietnam War—but also that it was the \u003ci\u003emodus operandi\u003c\/i\u003e of an allegedly deceased homicidal maniac known only as “the Kentucky Killer”. As additional victims turn up on Stockholm’s outskirts, the team finds itself coming up empty-handed. Hjelm and Holm fly to New York, hoping to discover both the killer’s identity and the source of his interest in Sweden. What they quickly learn is that bad blood always comes back around.\u003c\/p\u003e“Stunning. . . . Dahl has established himself as one of the leading voices in Scandinavian crime fiction.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Crackles with pent-up energy on every page.” —\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A compellingly stylish thriller that is also a thought-provoking social satire. . . . Add Arne Dahl to your list of must-haves in crime fiction.” —\u003ci\u003eOpen Letters Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Brims with deception, twists, and suspense. . . . Dahl’s special police unit is a diverse group of law enforcement agents whose chemistry creates dark humor amid the intense themes.” —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of this year’s most intense thrillers.” —\u003ci\u003eGT\u003c\/i\u003e (Sweden)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A highly professional crime novel, and an insightful and thought-provoking social satire.” —\u003ci\u003eJyllands-Posten\u003c\/i\u003e (Denmark)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Arne Dahl and \u003ci\u003eMisterioso\u003c\/i\u003e, the first Intercrime novel\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With dizzying speed Arne Dahl has climbed to the throne of Swedish crime literature. . . . His work is characterized by impartiality, lighthearted humor, epic flow, and poetic precision.” —\u003ci\u003eDagbladet Information\u003c\/i\u003e (Denmark)\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“Terrific. . . . Full of twists and turns, blind alleys and sudden assaults, procedural hassles and stakeouts.” \u003ci\u003e—The Providence Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Absorbing . . . A dark, tense thriller.” —\u003ci\u003eNewark Star-Ledger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Dahl has created a brilliant character and a terrific story. This is a classic cop-shop tale of the old school.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e (Canada)\u003cb\u003eArne Dahl\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning crime novelist and literary critic. He lives in Sweden. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e(Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles.)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003e1\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePain beyond words\u003c\/i\u003e, he thinks.\u003ci\u003e Now I know what it is\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLearn for life\u003c\/i\u003e, he thinks, and his gallows-humor laugh is silent. \u003ci\u003eLearn for death\u003c\/i\u003e, he thinks, and instead of laughter: yet another mute, infernal scream.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAs the pain mounts its next attack, he knows with a kind of crystal-clear certainty that he has laughed his last laugh.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe pain is no longer deepening. With what he can still make out as a mixture of satisfaction and terror, he feels that its intensity has reached its peak, and he understands just what process is now under way.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe downward slope.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe graph of pain is no longer rising; it is leveling out, and beyond it he can glimpse the steep incline that will, with the inevitability of a playground slide, end in nothingness. Or—and he fights the thought—with God.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe pores of his body are wide open, small gaping mouths roaring the great\u003ci\u003e Why\u003c\/i\u003e that he can’t roar himself.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe images start to come to him; he knew they would. They come even as the pain increases to levels he couldn’t have imagined even in his wildest fantasies. He is surprised at the possibilities that have lain hidden within him all these years.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSo they do exist.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA person always carries these intense potentials within.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhile his entire being explodes in cascade after cascade, the pain seems more and more to shift from his fingers, genitals, and throat to a place outside himself. It somehow becomes \u003ci\u003egeneral\u003c\/i\u003e, rising above his body and invading his—and he can’t help thinking of the word—his \u003ci\u003esoul\u003c\/i\u003e. All the while he tries to keep his mind clear. But then come more images.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAt first he fought to maintain contact with the world outside, but now the world outside, beyond the small window, is nothing more than the giant aircraft lumbering past. Now and then the figure of his tormentor glides by, with the deadly tools. Soon enough the roaring planes blend with the images, and now even the planes are transformed into shrieking, infernal spirits.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe can’t gain control over the images, how they come, their order, their structure. He sees the unforgettable interior of the labor room where his son has been born, but he hasn’t been there himself; rather, as his son is born, he hears himself throwing up in the bathroom. But now he is there, and it is beautiful, odorless, soundless. Life goes on, clean and pure. He greets people he recognizes as great authors. He drifts through elegant old corridors. He sees himself making love to his wife, and her expression is joyful in a way he’s never seen. He is standing at a podium; people applaud wildly. More corridors, meetings, conferences. He is on TV, showered with admiring looks. He sees himself writing with a white-hot passion, he sees himself read book after book, pile after pile of papers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut when the pain pauses and the rumble of the planes brings him back, it strikes him that all he sees is\u003ci\u003e himself\u003c\/i\u003e reading and writing, not \u003ci\u003ewhat\u003c\/i\u003e he is reading and writing. During those short pauses when he can catch his breath, he wonders what this means.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt is clear now that the descent is starting. The pain no longer reaches him. He is fleeing his tormentor; he will be victorious. He even has the strength to spit on him, and the reply is a crunching sound and a small, slight increase in pain. Out of the darkness comes a roaring dragon, and it becomes an airplane that sweeps a lingering veil over a soccer field where his son is casting nervous glances at the sidelines. He waves to him, but his son doesn’t see; he waves more frantically and yells louder, but his son only looks more resigned until he scores a goal for the opposing team, out of distraction or protest.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThen he sees the young woman next to the bookshelf, her impressed glances. They’re walking along the large street, eagerly demonstrating their generation-defying love. On the other side: two completely motionless figures, his son and his wife, and he sees them and stops and gives her a deep kiss. He’s running, working out. The little needle presses down into his scalp again and again, and finally his glorious thick hair is back again. His cell phone rings during a debate at the book fair—another son. Champagne corks pop, but when he gets home, they’re gone.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd he’s reading again, and in a final burst of consciousness he thinks that something out of all he’s read and written ought to fly past, but the only thing he sees is himself reading and writing, and in one last shining second of lucidity that makes him think he is truly dying, he realizes that nothing he has read or written has meant anything. He might as well have done absolutely anything else.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe thinks of the threat. “No one will be able to hear you scream.” Of how he didn’t take the threat seriously. Because he suspected—a final burst of pain stops his last thought.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd so begins the end. His pain fades away. The images come quickly now. It’s as though there’s no time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe’s walking in the protest march; the police raise their batons above him. He’s standing in a summer pasture, the horse racing toward him. A little grass snake slinks into his rubber boots and winds its way between his toes. His father looks absent-mindedly at his drawing of the enormous snake. The clouds rush by above the edge of the stroller canopy, and he thinks he sees a cat moving around up there. Sweet milk is sprayed over his face. The thick, pale green cord leads the way, and he travels through dark, fleshy canals.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd then he is no longer traveling.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThinks somewhere: \u003ci\u003eWhat a sleazy way to die.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Crime\/Black Lizard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303092211941,"sku":"NP9780307388049","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307388049.jpg?v=1767722099","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/bad-blood-isbn-9780307388049","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}