{"id":71,"date":"2025-10-17T14:50:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=71"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:07:19","slug":"the-backflips-of-backstrom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=71","title":{"rendered":"The backflips of \u2018B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!wXkc!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F308c6cdd-59cb-4619-897b-d0bf38ed9479_3840x2160.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Evert B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m is the cleverest cop in the Stockholm police force, having cleared up 99 percent of the murder cases he\u2019s ever investigated during his long career. That record has won the grizzled, bedraggled detective a regular slot as a commentator on a popular television crime-chat show, where he runs circles around his opposite number, a defense attorney who\u2019s now almost as famous as B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m himself. It makes B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m untouchable, even by his skeptical bosses. The supporting evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He\u2019s seen having a glass of whiskey at 10 a.m., without a hint of embarrassment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He\u2019s been caught on a security camera stealing paintings from a crime scene soon after the forensics team vacated the premises and removed the dead body.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He casually steals a bottle of an especially good whiskey from another crime scene, where fellow policemen have found him holding a gun while standing over a dead body, a person with whom he\u2019s had a long-running rivalry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unobserved \u2013 except by us, the audience \u2013 he confiscates cash from a crime and stashes it in a secret compartment in his bookcase.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Everyone knows these things and can\u2019t seem to make anything stick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to world of the lovable, hate-able B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m, which first aired on Swedish television in 2020. It\u2019s based on the novels of Leif G. W. Persson. &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the rest of <a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/the-backflips-of-backstrom\">The backflips of \u2018B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m\u2019 &#8211; Don Nordberg (is\/on) writing<\/a> on Substack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"179\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DNwriting-banner-large-300x53.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DNwriting-banner-large-768x135.png 768w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DNwriting-banner-large.png 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evert B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m is the cleverest cop in the Stockholm police force, having cleared up 99 percent of the murder cases he\u2019s ever investigated during his long career. That record has won the grizzled, bedraggled detective a regular slot as a commentator on a popular television crime-chat show, where he runs circles around his opposite number, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=71\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The backflips of \u2018B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism","category-don-nordberg-is-on-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}