Spice Trade

At the start of Swedish author Mauritzson’s tedious sequel to 2015’s Grendel’s Game, a young woman falls to her death one rainy winter night from the icy roof of a building in Weltenborg, a city not far from Stockholm. At Le Gourmand, a restaurant across the street, Chief Supt. Walther Ekman is dining with his wife. When Le Gourmand’s owner alerts Ekman to the tragedy just outside, the world-weary but principled policeman decides he better have a look. The subsequent investigation follows a familiar course. Ekman and the members of his faithful and dedicated team get on the trail of drug-smuggling and human-trafficking criminals connected to corrupt government and big-business officials. This indictment of the breakdown in standards of cultural behavior that seems to be bedeviling modern Scandinavia offers plenty of local color, often illustrated by Ekman’s compulsive gorging on Swedish culinary delicacies like smoked salmon with sliced cucumber. Unlikely plot twists lead to a predictable climax. (Aug.)