Hegemony - A Political Thriller
By Luz Bergersen, Oslo
Luz Bergersen (left) with writer Elizabeth Ferido-Bohlin (right), Filipina-Swedish writer and author with roots from Vigan, Ilocos Sur, studied Political Science and Law at the University of the Philippines. She was accepted at a one-year diploma course in international relations at the University of Stockholm, awarded a two year guest scholarship by the Swedish Institute for a masters in political science, then joined the PhD program. She spent two years at Oxford University for her doctoral work in international relations and politics, and to write this «political thriller». Elizabeth lives in Ostermalm, Stockholm.
I cannot put down this book, all at once thrilling, exciting, overwhelming, compelling! Well researched, as the author is also an independent research consultant. I was transformed into the world of James Bond! I pinch myself for having read this delightful «thriller»only recently. Indeed I have read some years ago of Elizabeth and that she has written this book. However, I managed to meet the author only a year ago, and asked for a visit when I was last in Stockholm.
Elizabeth Ferido-Bohlin, graciously welcomes us into her stately apartment decked in warm reds and antique furniture in Riddargatan, one of the most venerable addresses in old Stockholm. Seating me by the warmth of an antique tiled fireplace she generously pops a chilled bottle of Pommery Brut and pours into crystal champagne glasses. Paired with chilled caviar in tiny puff pastry shells, I felt honoured...»She got style, she got flair».
With her academic background, interests and pursuits; her respected Swedish family, elegant surroundings, and brushing elbows with who’s who in Swedish society, government, and academe, the author has a familiar ground to work around this novel.
Albeit fictitious, one can deduce the persona of the author in the main female characters:
Isabelle Blanche de Forte, daughter of an Ambassador and Oxford PhD candidate. Young, beautiful highly educated, proper, and thoughtful. We also see the author in the steely reserve of the Crown Princess of Sweden, HRH Princess Kristina Elizabeth Alexandra, young, very highly educated, independent-minded, monarch in waiting,
The story unravels from the moment an object encrypted with a Master Plan for terror at the EU Parliament, brought to Stockholm by a Saudi royal entourage, went missing. Prince Fareed’s mission: To sign the Gripen Arms Sales with Sweden, negotiated in Riyadh by government officials, and address Turkey’s membership to the EU in Brussels. Amidst the 113th Nobel Prize Awards ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall, the Saudi Ambassador is murdered, and a Swedish prostitute is beheaded, while sector collaterals to the Gripen Agreement, securing Islam’s dominance in Svealand are exposed.
Dubbed, The Ostermalm Crime Mystery, government ministers, Saudi and Iranian islamist terrorists, the young Swedish crown princess, a PhD candidate, a neophyte police superintendent, an Iranian nurse/code breaker grapple with each other in Stockholm City and Oxford University for control of the impending terror in Brussels. Time span of the novel: 13-22 December 2014.
I am mightily proud of the author and her work, and look forward to the sequel!
The book is available in Xlibris LLC www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk in hardcover, soft cover, e-book, and at Amazon books.