Ildvidnet - Lars Kepler

Title: Ildvidnet (Joona Linna #3) (The Fire Witness)
Author: Lars Kepler
Genre: Crime
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 579
Date read: December, 2014

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.

Slow to start, but when it took off, it did so with a vengeance, and I read the last half in just one day. It was somewhat interesting to read this after having seen so many episodes of "Criminal Minds" though - there were definitely times where I just waited for Garcia to show up ;)

I have no clue how realistic the story is, but my theory is - not very. And the side plot with the internal investigation just annoyed me, as it seemed to serve no other purpose than to give Joona a reason to be insubordinate. There were other issues as well that bothered me while reading the book, but they all turned out to have a reasonable explanation and/or serve a real purpose, so I was cool with those.

But definitely a pageturner, and a very readable book.

Sandmanden - Lars Kepler

Title: Sandmanden (Joona Linna #4) (The Sandman)
Author: Lars Kepler
Genre: Crime
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 524
Date read: December, 2014

During a cold winter night in Stockholm a man is found walking alongside a railway bridge, suffering from hypothermia and legionella. After he's rushed to the hospital, it's discovered that, according to a death certificate, the man has been dead for over seven years. He is believed to be a victim of notorious serial killer Jurek Walter, who was arrested years ago by Detective Inspector Joona Linna and sentenced to a life of total isolation in forensic psychiatric care. As Joona Linna investigates where the "dead man" has been all these years, some unexpected evidence leads to the reopening of a cold case. Danger is imminent, and someone needs to get under the skin of the serial killer--fast--as they are running out of time.

Not quite as good as Lars Kepler's other books, but still very, very much worth reading. Unlike the others, this one cannot stand entirely on its own though, as it ties together events from the third book and leads into the fifth... Not enough to leave a major, annoying cliff-hanger, but enough so that I'm glad I have the fifth book ("Stalker") already standing on my shelves.

Parts of it seemed even less realistic than the earlier books in the series, and I did occasionally get annoyed with people just rushing into dangerous situations rather than waiting for backup, but on the other hand they were mostly life-and-death situations, and I guess I can understand the human inclination to not just stand back and wait if somebody's life is at stake. But especially Disa's lack of self-preservation instinct bugged me.

The side trip to Russia seemed to serve no real purpose, other than to once again have Joona end up in a bind. I didn't think that part was ever properly explained.

So the book did have certain issues which caused me to bring the rating down a notch. But even so I did eagerly finish it in just two days, so it still deserves the three stars I left it with.