MEMORANDOM

His memory erased by a stroke and a violent car crash, Stockholm police intelligence officer David Sarac is pressured from all sides—not all of them as friendly as they appear—to dredge up information pointing to the whereabouts of his top informant.

Janus, as the informant is called, holds the key to bringing down the Swedish mob. And he may have the goods on some dirty cops as well, which makes him doubly targeted. During the two years since Sarac's stroke, four other informants have turned up dead. As he slowly regains his memory, he is tormented by not knowing what is at stake—or, as disturbing facts about his past deeds come to light, who he was and what he did. “Everyone Is Lying Don't Trust Anyone,” someone has scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper. Does that include himself? In a parallel plot, a former mob hit man, Atif, returns to Sweden from his home in Iraq to bury his younger brother, who he discovers was murdered. Someone close betrayed him. Risking his life, Atif goes after the killer, ultimately joining forces with Sarac in pursuit of Janus. For all the book's twists and turns, de la Motte is completely at ease in thickening and expanding the plot. He never forces the action, which is rare in a spy thriller, instead tightening the web in which Sarac seems to be caught. The cast of characters is nicely varied; part of the pleasure is seeing through the bad guys before the protagonist does.

Following up his popular Game Trilogy (Bubble, 2014, etc.), de la Motte keeps the reader guessing in this tale of an amnesiac cop and an informant whose very existence we sometimes doubt.