''Easy Money'' (Swedish title: ''Snabba cash'') is a 2006 novel by
Jens Lapidus. The paperback was the fourth bestselling Swedish novel of 2007.
The first book in the ''
Stockholm Noir
Jens Jacob Lapidus (; born 24 May 1974) is a Swedish criminal defense lawyer and author known for his books about the Stockholm underworld.
Life and career
Lapidus was born into a middle class family in the Stockholm suburb Gröndal, with a mothe ...
'' trilogy, it was adapted into
a film in 2010 and
a Netflix TV series in 2021.
Plot summary
JW is a young man originally from the countryside who now lives in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. JW feigns the appearance of a ''stekare'' (in Swedish parlance, a lifestyle based on flaunting one's apparent wealth; a jetsetter), actually leading a double life driving taxi illegally to finance his expensive life on
Stureplan. Abdulkarim, who runs the taxi business, offers JW a job selling
cocaine instead. JW accepts the offer and enters the criminal underground of Stockholm. Jorge Salinas Barrio is a Latino who has gone to prison after taking the blame for drug business in which the
Yugoslav mafia was involved. He escapes from
Österåker Prison
The Österåker Prison ( sv, Anstalten Österåker, commonly known as ''Österåkersanstalten'') is a prison located in Österåker Municipality, thirty kilometers north of Stockholm, Sweden. It is a Class 2-security prison with a capacity for 14 ...
with plans to flee the country. Mrado Slovovic is a Serbian henchman who runs errands for the Yugoslav mafia, but secretly he dreams of a normal life with his daughter Lovisa.
The three characters unite in the book through their dreams about quick earnings. Once JW and Abdulkarim have the cocaine sales going they want to expand. Abdulkarim has heard of Jorge, the recent escapee. The word on the street is that Jorge got very knowledgeable about the cocaine trade while he was in prison and thus JW gets an assignment to hire him. Simultaneously Jorge has tried to blackmail the Yugoslav mafia boss. The hitman Mrado has been contracted to dissuade him. When JW finally finds Jorge he is laying beaten-up in a forest, courtesy of Mrado.
External links
Official homepage
{{Jens Lapidus
Swedish novels adapted into films
Novels set in Stockholm
Swedish crime novels
2006 Swedish novels
Swedish-language novels
Organized crime novels
Novels about the Serbian Mafia
Works about organized crime in Sweden