Review of The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg

The Andalucian Friend is heralded as being the next best thing to come out of Sweden and it is being compared to the global phenomenon The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson. I for one don't see how they are similar besides the location of each title being in Sweden. With that being said, I move on to my review of The Andalucian Friend.

The Andalucian Friend begins with Sophie Brinkmann meeting a man named Hector Guzman in the hospital she is a nurse for. They begin a relationship outside of that hospital and this is where the trouble starts. Sophie is not anyone special. She is simply a widowed nurse who is taking care of her teenage son Alberto yet she is a main focal point for almost everyone in the novel. The cops want her to inform on Hector who is a boss in an international crime ring. It doesn't take long for things to spiral out of control for Sophie and her quiet life.

Enter many characters and then some more characters and you have Soderbergs latest novel. There are so many characters that I used notes to separate them from each other. Besides them all being primarily gangsters or rogue cops, there isn't much else in the way of describing them or their backgrounds until farther down the line in the book. Thankfully Soderberg at least provides a character list that at least helps to maintain their country of origin and who's side they are possibly on in what turns out to be a huge turf battle amongst rival organizations.

Although I didn't find many redeeming qualities about many of the characters, I still found myself taking sides. Besides Sophie the whole lot are mainly comprised of people who are murderers, arms dealers, insane cops, and crime lords. Not the norms who are worthy of any sympathy. The beat cop that is introduced in this novel has a lock on insanely deranged people. I will not forget his drug addiction or his weird obsession with the novel's heroine. He is crazy with a capital C.

Ultimately, The Andalucian Friend is a well-written quick read. It's not what I would generally think of as a thriller but it does have the element of suspense in the background. The many storylines and their relationships kept me invested in this novel and guessing until the end.  I was interested in finding out which one of these greedy, guilt-ridden, sociopaths were going to escape with the money and power. The ending did not let me down and I was actually pretty happy with it. I look forward to reading the next book in this series. Hopefully it goes a little deeper into the psyche of the characters remaining after this initial battle. ****

The Andalucian Friend Update...

I'm exactly 45% in The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg and I must say that it's pretty interesting. This Scandinavian thriller isn't a typical thriller in the sense that there's danger lurking around every curve, but there's a lot of tension building up to what we want to assume will be a battle of epic porportions by rival gangs. The Spanish vs. The Germans. Both attempting to seize control and maintain what is rightfully there's. Unfortunately for Sophie, she seems to be brought along for the ride in this battle for turf and power.

After meeting Hector Guzman in the hospital, Sophie agrees to see him outside of the hospital. She's attracted to his kind eyes and good looks. Between coping with her husband's death and raising her son on her own, Sophie hasn't really made time to put her self back on the market. The irony  of it is that once she does, it's with a man who has some unsavory business prospects. Before long, Hector's criminal world comes crashing down in a bizarre way and sweeps Sophie in as well.

Although there aren't any deranged psychopaths, besides one of the cops that's stalking Sophie, this novel does possess a certain background tension that keeps me reading on. I want to know who's going to be victorious in this battle for turf. I also want to know if Sophie will be okay. She's a likeable enough character. Who wouldn't like a widowed mother, who works as a nurse. So far the author hasn't given us any reason not to hope for the best for her. I even want things between her and Hector to be all right. He seems like a good enough guy when he isn't killing people or laundering money.

My biggest concern so far is this rogue, drug addict cop that also seems to be on Sophie's tail. He's really disturbing but I guess that's the point. I mean this guy really needs some help and the other officers don't seem to notice that this guy has taken a turn for the worse. It's even worse for paid professionals not to notice when another paid professional is in need of professional help... I hope that last sentence made sense. Anyway! I will continue to read on because I do find this book to be pretty interesting as well as the characters that have been introduced thus far.  

The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg

I begin work today with The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg. A lot of the blurbs and jacket covers say this novel is comparable to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo meets the Sopranos. I'm not sure how true this is since I haven't actually seen one episode of the Sopranos nor did I find anything so amazing about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It was an all right novel but I'm guessing because of this novel's location, it automatically may fall under that category. We'll see... Let's Read!

Synopsis: An explosive debut thriller about a woman--a single mother and nurse—who becomes the pawn of two warring international crime syndicates.


Sophie Brinkmann had no idea her former patient was an international crime lord. Hector Guzman had a Latin charm and easy smile she couldn't deny, so she agreed to a date...

Jens Vall is in Paraguay facilitating a delivery of very dangerous weapons when he's attacked by angry Russians. They think he stole their drugs...

Lars Vinge is a beat cop with a nasty drug habit he thought he kicked. He's given an important assignment that soon turns into deadly obsession...



All of their paths will collide in this turbo-charged, action-packed, highly sophisticated debut thriller that will set the world on fire.