A HUNTED MAN

Author: Hans-Olov Öberg
Year: 2001
Publisher: Pocketförlaget
Language: Swedish

Detectives and crime fighters come in all shapes and forms in literature. Sometimes they are attorneys, at other times ex-cops. We have read about professional assassins turning the tables on their former employers as well as mellow antiquities dealers who would not hurt a fly and yet are tossed into intricate mysteries hidden in the artefacts that pass through their hands. Some sleuths are teenagers that happen to, time and time again, stumble upon the most sinister plots in their own community, whereas others are little old ladies with a keen eye for the unexpected and a mind so sharp you could cut a diamond with it. There are university professors, physicians, navy officers, taxi drivers, cooks, crooks, hackers, slackers, firemen, journalists, priests, and politicians. And last but not least the veteran police inspector who has seen it all and just needs to solve his last case before retirement.  

So of course, we also need a murder mystery in the world of finance. Micke Norell is the protagonist in Hans-Olov Öberg’s novel “En jagad man” (not available in English but a translation might be “A hunted man”. This novel has previously been printed under the title “En gudabenådad bullshitter”). He is a financial professional who has turned to journalism and works for a small but respected business periodical in Stockholm. When the controversial former CEO of a small but publicly traded company that is the target of high-value market speculation is murdered during a hunting trip, Mikael is pulled into a power struggle which escalates to a point where his life is suddenly in peril.

Those of you who follow my reading will know that crime is not my forte. As a Stockholm-based banker with over 15 years of experience from the industry, I was however curious about how a murder mystery might play out in an atmosphere that should be well-known to me. And true enough, there is a certain measure of recognition.  The banter is authentic and the financial instruments and the transactions mentioned are mostly accurate and relevant. Having said that, there are two significant differences between Öberg’s world and my reality.

Primo; the book feels old. It was published several years before the authorities began to aggressively regulate the financial market. MiFID, GDPR, EMIR, Basel I-IV, AML Directives, and a plethora of other rules and regulations have rained down on the operators in the financial industry in the last two decades. It began shortly before the Lehman Brothers-crash and ensuing credit crunch in 2008 and virtually ballooned after that event. A process that is still ongoing and new requirements are being introduced, tightened, or amended all the time. The financial magic tricks that the high-rollers in Micke Norell’s world amuse themselves with are largely a thing of the past.

Secundo; none of the action in Öberg’s book takes place in any of the major Nordic banks at the time but rather in small financial institutions, brokers, financial advisory forms, and independent asset managers. I have no insider experience from what it is like to work in such an environment and what the corporate culture might be. Suffice to say, it seems far removed from that of a major Swedish bank of today.

As a piece of literature, this is a novel that is intended for quick consumption. As a murder mystery, it does not really gain pace. The plot never thickens and the ending arrives all of a sudden without the reader even realising that they have reached the climax of the story. It is obvious that Öberg has a good command of the ins and outs of the financial industry and the premise of the story is reasonably strong, but the delivery, I am sorry to say, is sub-par. Öberg also has a crack at trying to bring his characters to life by dwelling on their private lives and relationships but it works very poorly. The relationship between the analysts, traders, and managers are relevant and interesting but the passages about Norell’s wife and kid constitute a complete waste of time to a point where they become annoying. It is clumsy and irrelevant, as if the writer had heard from others that he ought to add further dimensions to his characters for the reader to care about them but had no clue as to how to go about it.

For a quick reader who wants to broaden their perspectives and add some Stockholm and some finance into their reading, this might not be a complete loss but for more discerning readers, this is a book that may be by all means be left on the shelf in favour of more inspired literature.