False Note - David Lagercrantz - ★★

AUTHOR: David Lagercrantz

TRANSLATOR: Elizabeth DeNoma

SERIES: Alibis Collection, #3

GENRE: Short Story.

PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2025

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: The third story in the Alibis collection and the weakest one so far. The whole story struck a false note in all aspects except for pacing. My feelings are hence quite discordant.

Plot Preview:

William’s father is a renowned opera singer in Stockholm. Since childhood, William has seen not just his father’s fame but also his secret side: his vanity, his temper, his alcoholism, and his physical cruelty towards women. As an adult, William finally has a life and a love of his own, but even now, his father casts a long shadow over him. When William’s girlfriend Ebba decides that they ought to meet his father and settle the issues of the past, their lives change in an unexpected direction.

This is the third standalone story in the 'Alibis’ series, described on Amazon as “stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with.”

As far as I know, this is just the second time (the first being Fredrik Backman's "The Answer Is No") an Amazon Original story is a translation, with this being translated from Swedish by Elizabeth DeNoma. However, I don’t think the issues I had were translation-related as they stem more from the plot and character handling than from the language or writing style.

Woohoos:

🥳 Fast pace. Easy to read the 41 pages in a single setting of 20-30 minutes.

🥳 Despite the issues I have listed below, I wasn’t bored by the story. Annoyed with the characters, yes. But definitely not bored. I was invested enough to want to know what would happen next. (Even though much of the main plot was guessable.)

IDKs:

😐 Not much of a resolution at the end. But it was still an ending I didn’t see coming, so I did like it, I think… .👀

Mehs:

😒 Flat main characters, none of whom are likeable or even relatable. It’s tough to understand why they behave the way they do with such poor detailing. Worse, none show growth or self-realisation as the story progresses.

😒 All characters have some serious daddy issues. Including the “daddy”. 🤐

😒 Unreliable first-person narration. Hate this trope.

😒 Mentions Stockholm multiple times but barely even uses the location. The plot could have occurred anywhere. (Ooh, unless it was hinting at ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, which does fit the plot to a teeny extent…? 🤔 Or it might just be because the author lives in Stockholm… Let me not overthink this.)

😒 0% mystery. 0% thrills. 90% predictable. (The balance 10% belongs to the ending.)

😒 Limited number of characters, so it is not very difficult to pinpoint the culprit. No subtlety or suspense.

😒 Man writing woman – ugh!

Overall, the potential in the story is amazing, but with barely any detail to the characters and minimal suspense, it is tough to like the story more.

I haven’t read this author before. I knew his name only for being the author chosen to continue the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. After how this went, I think I will stick to Larsson’s original trilogy and not continue the series beyond that.

Might work as a quick one-time read but not at all a must-read.

This standalone story is a part of the ‘Alibis’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.