Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic (m) Kepler, L. 2013 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Kepler, L. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
The authors of The Hypnotist and The Nightmare deliver their most thrilling novel yet
Flora Hansen calls herself a medium and makes a living by pretending to commune with the dead. But after a gruesome murder at a rural home for wayward girls, Hansen begins to suffer visions that are all too real. She calls the police, claiming to have seen a ghost, but only one detective puts aside his skepticism long enough to listen: Joona Linna.
Linna has spent more time at the scene of the crime than any other detective would. The case seems obvious on the face of it: One of the girls at the home escaped in the middle of the night, leaving behind a bloody bed with a hammer under the pillow. But why does Hansen insist that the murder instrument was a stone, not a hammer? And what's the story behind the dark red grain of sand, almost like a splinter from a ruby, stuck beneath the dead girl's fingernail? As Linna refuses to accept easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent territory, and finally to a shocking confrontation with a figure from his past.
Just as Lars Kepler's The Hypnotist and The Nightmare did, The Fire Witness has spent months at number one on the Swedish bestseller lists. As the newspaper Dagens Nyheter put it, you start the thriller "on the subway home, keep reading at the dinner table, and then don't stop until well into the wee hours." Kepler writes with the force of Stieg Larsson and the plotting of Jo Nesb#65533;. The Fire Witness is an unflinching page-turner, sure to join the ranks of its predecessors as an international sensation.
Author Notes
Lars Kepler is a Swedish pseudonym used by Alexander and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. Their works include The Hypnotist and The Paganini Contract. These Swedish authors created the pen name by using two of the people they most admire, Swedish author Steig Larsson and German scientist Johannes Kepler. Alexander and Alexandra are married to each other and live in Sweden.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
While technically on administrative leave, detective Joona Linna is assigned to a case in a Swedish town where a young girl at a residential program has been found dead. He checks and double checks the curious circumstances of the death and tries to find information from the victim's housemates, but Linna is also willing to hear what Flora Hansen, a local medium of questionable skill, has to say. This dark mystery is rendered even more haunting by Mark Bramhall's performance. His deep and crackling voice not only heightens the book's significant suspense but also grabs listeners' attention and refuses to let go. Bramhall practically growls at times, but despite speaking in lower registers, he manages to ably convey a range of voices, including those of women, young and old. A Sarah Crichton hardcover. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Superb, spooky whodunit from the Swedish couple who write as Kepler (The Nightmare, 2012, etc.). Considering the nasty things that the likes of Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson and now Kepler have been turning up underneath Sweden's soft, pine-clad, liberal veneer, it seems surprising that the entire country has not emigrated to safer climes. Some cannot, though, notably the young women who live at a home for wayward youth in the country's chilly north--a place where Very Bad Things are about to happen. The mayhem begins with the extremely graphic murder of a ward nurse ("She cannot see her body lying on the floor or the dog sneaking in and tentatively lapping the blood leaking from her crushed head"), and that's just the start. Enter world-weary detective Joona Linna, whom one of the girls tellingly calls "the Finn" and who really shouldn't be on the case; he's in trouble, it seems, for having leaked information to a leftist group back home in Stockholm, and in any event, he's a little shellshocked, "searching for that mental stillness that will allow him to observe and not give in to the impulse to look away." There's plenty to look away from, though Joona immediately sees things that others do not, even as one of his informants sees a malevolent ghost in the hallways. But why would someone, real or supernatural, go to all the work of killing a nurse and trying to pin it on a troubled kid? Ah, cherchez la chose: Someone wants something, and that someone figures in the worst of Joona's dreams and case files. As the story unfolds, the mad look sane and the sane look mad, and Kepler's novel turns from simple mystery to an intriguing, satisfying blend of police procedural and horror story. A rich, nuanced tale, ideal for beach reading, just as long as the beach doesn't harbor too many shadows.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In Sundsvall, Sweden, police responding to a distress call at a girls' group home discover a brutally murdered teenager posed with her hands covering her eyes. Blood-soaked bedding in an adjacent bedroom conceals a hammer, and that room's occupant, Vicky, has fled through an open window. While police collect evidence, a figure resembling Vicky emerges from the forest nearby and steals a car with a preschooler strapped inside. Joona Linna, recently sidelined by an internal-affairs investigation but still widely recognized as Sweden's premier investigator, is ordered to respond as an observer to the local investigation. When the car is found submerged in a river, both children are assumed dead, and the official scenario paints Vicky as a savage killer and kidnapper. Inconveniently, Linna finds evidence that they're still alive, and he begins poking holes in the police scenario. At the same time, he faces personal dilemmas upon learning that the wife and child he sent into hiding years ago are once again facing danger. This third novel featuring Joona Linna is a knockout example of the thoughtful plotting and character development, genius investigation, and unflinching examination of human evil common in Scandinavian crime fiction. But it's the mixture of relaxed, witty dialogue and raging action scenes that will draw American readers who believe the Scandinavian subgenre is too moody for their taste.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2010 Booklist