Cell 8 by Roslund & Hellstrom

I usually don't read books that are written by two different people because deep down inside I worry that I won't have a "connection" with either one of them. I am convinced that it will be totally obvious that it was written by two people, and therefore confusing. I was wrong.

This is a book written by Anders Roslund, who is a former journalist, and Borge Hellstrom, who is a former criminal with some tricky punctuation on top of each "o" in his name. So right there I thought this book ought to be good.

This story begins in Ohio, where a man named John Meyer Frey is on Death Row, accused of murdering his girlfriend. He was 17. We get a sneak peak into prison life, we learn a little bit about the other prisoners, the guards and the Death Penalty. We come to like our guy John, so when he suddenly dies from heart disease right there in his cell, we feel sad. Well, I did anyway.

Fast forward six years, and we run into a man who is a lot like John, but this man lives in Sweden and has a wife and a small child, and so now we are confused. This new John gets himself into a bit of trouble with the police, and his life suddenly takes a horrible turn for the worse. And this, my friends, is where the story truly begins, which is quite fantastic really, and full of twists and turns and a whole lot of people.

This is a good mystery, well-told, well-written and quite exciting. These two authors wrote another mystery/thriller before this called "Three Seconds" which I will try to find. I will tell you that this is a lengthy book, but they use their time wisely, and they really develop the characters.

If you like mysteries that are multi-layered and well thought out, you will love this book. I know I did!