Publisher: Knopf
Published: January 18, 2022
Source: Publisher
Summary:
In the latest internationally best-selling installment of the Killer Instinct series, Detective Joona Linna is on the trail of a kidnapper who targets teenage girls and makes their worst nightmares a reality.
Seventeen-year-old Jenny is abducted in broad daylight and taken to a dilapidated, isolated house where she is chained and caged along with several other girls. Their captor is unpredictable, and as wily as he is cruel: he foils every one of their desperate attempts to escape . . . and once caught they rarely survive their punishment.
Five years later, Jenny is found dead in a public park, and the police are scrambling to find a lead among the scant evidence. But Detective Joona Linna realizes that this murder has an eerie connection to a death that was declared a suicide years before. And now when Mia, a seventeen-year-old orphan, goes missing, it becomes clear to Joona that they are dealing with a serial killer—and the murderous rampage has just begun.
As the police close in on the killer, Mia and her fellow captives are plunged into ever greater danger, and Joona finds himself in a seemingly impossible race against time to save their young lives.
My thoughts:
Without a doubt, Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna series is my favorite series despite how dark and disturbing it is. I just love not only the storylines that this husband-wife writing team comes up with but also the writing itself – it is so completely captivating and thrilling.
This latest book is probably the darkest and most gruesome of the entire series and while I still loved it, I found myself having to take little breaks throughout. It was a lot to take in and very intense at times…yet I could think of nothing else but this story. These books are most definitely not for the faint of heart What I love about these books, as I have found throughout this entire series, is that these books get under your skin. Not only are there the horrific horrors going on here, but there is also the attachment to the main characters that I have seen grow and develop throughout the series.
I absolutely love Joona Linna’s character. He is relentless in his pursuit of solving cases and whether this is a strength or a weakness, he doesn’t give up until there is a resolution. His stubbornness at times gets in his way, but at other times is his greatest asset. But as much as I love our protagonist, I also love that the authors fully develop their villains. This allows us to really know them and possibly even feel empathetic towards them at times.
I loved all the twists and turns that this book takes. It definitely has all the elements of a great NordicNoir that I’ve come to love and expect – there’s the serial killer, the violence, the atmospheric nature, and of course, there are flawed characters – and there were even a few elements I wasn’t expecting that really enhanced the story.
I cannot recommend this series enough. It is a fast-paced and complex story that totally delivers on every level. The tension remains high throughout, and the final chapter will leave you once again eagerly counting down til the next book…and I have no idea when that will be. But I do know that at least there will be another one. In the meantime…grab this one – you won’t be disappointed!
Books in this series:
- The Hypnotist
- The Nightmare
- The Fire Witness
- The Sandman
- Stalker
- The Rabbit Hunter
- Lazarus
- The Mirror Man
