The Andalucian Friend, Alexander Soderberg's debut novel, begins with a chance encounter in a hospital between a nurse, Sophie Brinkmann, and her patient Hector Guzman. Sophie and Hector's relationship continues past his stay in the hospital. As Sophie finds herself drawn in by Hector's charms, she also finds herself pulled into the unfamiliar world of gang warfare--Hector is the head of a powerful international crime ring smuggling drugs and weapons out of South America.
When members of a German crime ring target Hector, intent on stealing his smuggling routes for themselves, Sophie begins to question their relationship. Then she is confronted by the police and asked to spy on Hector, becoming the center of a major investigation. Sophie, used to a quiet life with her son, is suddenly unmoored, facing a world full of uncertainty, and must choose her way carefully or risk her life--and her son's.
Soderberg has packed The Andalucian Friend with everything a thriller fan could want: deranged cops, gang warfare, gun smuggling, drugs, bribery and even secret romances. With so many characters and storylines, it can be hard to keep track of everything without taking notes--but it all comes together in the end, resulting in a satisfying thriller that is successful because of its convoluted concepts, not in spite of it. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm