Dirty money, no matter where it comes from, will be clean cash after it has been laundered by the right person. JW hasn't wasted his time in prison and he's planning a grand comeback. Jorge is tired of his new, square existence selling lattes and cappuccinos. Life deluxe looms on the horizon as he plans his last heist. This time it will be very big money. But the police are closing in and an undercover officer has got deep into Stockholm's criminal inner circle. Close to Jorge, close to JW. At the same time, someone is out to get the Godfather himself - Radovan Kranjic. People are starting to think about what life will be like once he's gone. Who will be Stockholm's new king - or queen? The methods vary but the hunt for money, power and a carefree life somewhere warm and sunny goes on. The goal is easy money - and life deluxe.

Drug dealer Jorge is just out of prison but already bored with his new existence selling lattes and cappuccinos at a cafe. Who wouldn't be? But big money looms, if he can pull off an audacious last heist. What he doesn't know is that the police are already closing in: an undercover investigator has wormed his way deep into Stockholm's criminal circles, close to Jorge. And also close to JW, the part-time student, part-time cab driver who turned to crime - and got in over his head - in order to keep himself in with a rich party crowd. At the same time, someone is trying to take down the Godfather himself, Radovan Kranjic. What would Stockholm be like with Radovan gone? Who would be Stockholm's new king - or queen - of crime? As the novel unfurls answers will be found amid the voracious hunt for money, power, and a carefree life. The goal is easy - and the life deluxe

From one of Sweden’s most successful defense lawyers comes an unflinching look at Stockholm’s underworld, told from the perspective of the mob bosses, the patsies, and the thugs who help operate its twisted justice system. JW is a student having trouble keeping up appearances in the rich party crowd he has involved himself with. He’s desperate for money, and when he’s offered a job dealing drugs to the very crowd he’s vying for a place in, he accepts it. Meanwhile, Jorge, a young Latino drug dealer, has just broken out of jail and is itching for revenge. When JW’s supplier gets wind of Jorge’s escape, he suggests JW track him down and attempt to win his trust in order to cover more area in the drug circuit. But JW’s not the only one on Jorge’s trail: Mrado, the brutal muscle behind the Yugoslavian mob boss whose goons were the ones who ratted Jorge out to the cops, is also on the hunt. But like everyone else, he’s tired of being a mere pawn in an impossibly risky game, and he’s seeking to carve out a niche of his own. As the paths of these antiheroes intertwine further, they find themselves mercilessly pitted against one another in a world where allegiances are hard-won, revenge is hard-fought, and a way out of it all is even harder to come by. Fast and intricately paced, and with pitch-perfect dialogue, Easy Money is a raw, dark, and intelligent crime novel that has catapulted Jens Lapidus into the company of Sweden’s most acclaimed crime writers.

With the same raw energy and verve he displayed in Easy Money, Jens Lapidus delivers an electrifying tale of Stockholm's vicious underworld. Mahmud is fresh out of jail, but he's forced to work for a brutal mob boss to pay off his debts to a drug lord. Niklas, a mercenary and weapons expert with an appetite for vigilante justice, is back in Sweden and plans to keep a low profile. But the discovery of a murdered man in his mother's building severely threatens those plans. Thomas, the volatile detective on the case, finding his efforts suspiciously stymied and the evidence tampered with, goes off the grid in search of the truth. But as the paths of these three men intertwine and the identity of the murdered man is revealed, crimes and secrets bigger, deeper, and darker than a mere murder will come to light.

A lawyer, an ex-con, and his nephew team up to solve a grisly murder in this explosive crime novel by internationally bestselling Swedish author Jens Lapidus. When a house alarm goes off in Värmdö, an island in Stockholm’s archipelago, a security guard shows up expecting a break-in. But what he finds is far from ordinary: an unidentifiable body, brutally slaughtered. Complicating matters is the wounded young man he finds near the crime scene—a man who police will count as their prime suspect. Emelie Jansson, a newly-minted lawyer at a top firm, takes on the young man’s case. By her side is Teddy, an ex-con trying to stay on the right side of the law as he works as the firm’s fixer. But Teddy has his own problems to worry about—namely his wayward nephew, who’s on the verge of following in his uncle’s criminal footsteps. Who is the murder victim, and who is the murderer? And why do all roads seem to lead to Mats Emanuelsson, a man Teddy once kidnapped? As Emilie investigates, Teddy must confront his past and save his nephew from a troubled fate. Soon, all three get caught in a high-stakes game that threatens to undo their lives.

A number one bestseller in Sweden, Jens Lapidus's Top Dog is a thrilling, character-driven look at Stockholm's drug-and-sex-fueled underworld. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original. Emelie is a young lawyer who's just started her own firm. Teddy is a reformed criminal looking for a fresh start. The first time they teamed up, in Stockholm Delete, they uncovered the secrets of a Swedish sex ring. Though their partnership proved rewarding--both professionally and personally--they haven't seen each other since. But when a vulnerable young client of Emelie's is murdered before she can testify against her abusers, Emelie turns to her ex-partner/lover for help. Meanwhile, Teddy's nephew Nikolas has resolved not to repeat his uncle's felonious mistakes. But the gang-related murder of his best friend sets him back on a trail of violent vengeance--and into the path of Roksana, a naïve hipster whose discovery of a drug cache is giving her a dangerous crash course in Stockholm's dark side. And as Teddy and Emelie's investigation heats up, police corruption threatens to land him back in prison--or both of them in body bags.

Following World War II, film noir became the dominant cinematic expression of Cold War angst, influencing new trends in European and Asian filmmaking. International Noir examines film noir's influence on the cinematic traditions of Britain, France, Scandinavia, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and India. This book suggests that the film noir style continues to appeal on such a global scale because no other cinematic form has merged style and genre to effect a vision of the disturbing consequences of modernity. International noir has, however, adapted and adopted noir themes and aesthetic elements so that national cinemas can boast an independent and indigenous expression of the genre. Ranging from Japanese silent films and women's films to French, Hong Kong, and Nordic New Waves, this book also calls into question critical assessments of noir in international cinemas. In short, it challenges prevailing film scholarship to renegotiate the concept of noir. Ending with an examination of Hollywood's neo-noir recontextualization of the genre, and post-noir's reinvigorating critique of this aesthetic, International Noir offers Film Studies scholars an in-depth commentary on this influential global cinematic art form, further offering extensive bibliography and filmographies for recommended reading and viewing.