It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
He Who Kills the Dragon

He Who Kills the Dragon

Bäckström 2

Summary

In this second installment of Persson’s trilogy of police procedurals featuring the "small, fat and primitive" Evert Bäckström, the grand master’s most appallingly repulsive (and funniest) character is finally given his fifteen minutes of fame by way of his patented combination of laziness, luck, and an unbelievable sense of timing.

A seemingly ordinary murder puzzles Bäckström, who is struggling with strict orders from his doctor to lead a healthier life. His gut feeling proves him right: within days, his team has another murder linked to the first on their hands, and reports of alleged ties to a Securicor heist gone out of control, killing two. The nation needs a hero, and the newly appointed head of the Västerort police force Anna Holt needs somebody to kill the dragon for her. Who better to heed to the task than Evert Bäckström: self-sufficient, ostentatious, devoid of moral, Hawaii shirt-clad, and, latterly, armed?

Reviews

  • He Who Kills The Dragon is written with a humoristic sledgehammer, and Persson has rarely been so entertaining as he is in this novel, where he sends his eccentric nightmare version of Karlsson On The Roof out on new adventures among drunkards, murderers and an acerbic police force.
    Fyens Stiftstidende (Denmark)

About the author

Leif G W Persson

Leif G.W. Persson is Scandinavia's most renowned criminologist and a leading psychological profiler. He has also served as an advisor to the Swedish Ministry of Justice. Since 1991, he has held the position of Professor at the National Swedish Police Board and is regularly consulted as the country's foremost expert on crime.

He is the author of ten bestselling crime novels including The Dying Detective which won both the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award for Best Crime Novel of 2010 and The Glass Key for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of 2010.

During his career Persson has been the recipient of many other prestigious awards including The Piraten Award, The Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award (which he has won three times), The Finnish Whodunnit Society's Annual Award for Excellence in Foreign Crime Writing, The Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel, and The Danish Academy of Crime Writers' Palle Rosenkrantz Prize.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more