Book info

• Title Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All
• Author Jonas Jonasson
• Year 2015
• Genre Contemporary

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START AGAIN. AND AGAIN. It’s always awkward when five thousand kronor goes missing. When it happens at a certain grotty hotel in south Stockholm, it’s particularly awkward because the money belongs to the hitman currently staying in room seven. Per Persson, the hotel receptionist, just wants to mind his own business, and preferably not get murdered. Johanna Kjellander, temporarily resident in room eight, is a priest without a vocation, and, as of last week, without a parish. But right now she has two things at her disposal: an envelope containing five thousand kronor, and an excellent idea...

Thoughts

I was keen to read this as I enjoyed the previous two books by JJ, but if I’m honest, this one didn’t quite live up to its predecessors. It’s a similar concept, in which characters get up to a number of different mischievous adventures either through their own plotting and planning, or simply through being in the wrong/right place at the wrong/right time.

I quite liked the odd things that these characters got up to but what was missing for me was a connection with them. They didn’t seem all that sympathetic, and it was hard to care one way or the other when they were generally being quite selfish and thoughtless.

But perhaps I’m overthinking it. Perhaps it’s not about liking the characters but just pondering what they represent. Pondering the meaning of it all.

Rating: 2 / 5