Lars Kepler – the pseudonym that aspires to be the next Stieg Larsson
The Hypnotist (Hypnotisören) is the latest huge crime novel in Sweden. The first novel by a new and unknown author, Lars Kepler. Big hype, huge expectations about a new series of novels featuring a new interesting heroine, Detective Inspector Joona Linna. The book was an instant best seller in Sweden. The rights to the book has been sold internationally to more than 30 countries worldwide, including the U.S.
The plot is interesting. A father, wife and daughter are all brutally murdered as part of an attempt to wipe out an entire family. The police have to race against time to find the one surviving daughter before the killer does. The only way they can achieve this, is to convince a doctor, against his better judgment, to hypnotize the son who barely survived the killer’s attack.
Then it was revealed by the media that there is no Lars Kepler. Lars Kepler does not exist. Huge sensation. Lars Kepler turned out to be a pseudonym for two literary authors, husband-and-wife Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, now writing under the pseudonym Lars Kepler. They have so far barely been able to sustain themselves economically by their writing. Now they wanted to make money. And in Sweden, crime fiction writers make big money. And, of course, when in Sweden, do as the Swedes. So they decided to write crime fiction, using a cool name.
According to Jan Guillou, they have achieved their goal already: the book and rights have so far netted them 15-20 million SKR. Not bad. Or?
Top 10 suspense books ever?
Filed under: International bestseller, bestseller, book review, crime book, recommendation
It is hard to say exactly which books are the best in any given category or genre. With books, as with many other things, the beauty is in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. However, the books below are generally regarded as top suspense books, they are all very famous and written by well known, world class authors. They are all wonderful. They are my candidates for the top ten suspense books ever.
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1. | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938). The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband,Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel. She has memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before. | Amazon US Amazon UK
(links to order the books) |
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2. | Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988). This is the second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the novel, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them. The book has been filmed. | Amazon US Amazon UK |
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3. | Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1993). This is the first book about Hannibal Lecter. “Red Dragon” is a wonderfully intense psychological thriller, with plenty of obscene violence and “typical” Thomas Harris plot twists. The story of the ex-FBI agent stalking the “Tooth Fairy” or “Red Dragon” is extremely interesting and detailed, right down to forensic and crime scene evidence. This book, too, has been filmed. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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4. | Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975) This book is very fascinating. The plot is about a woman named Nancy whose children were kidnapped and murdered on her birthday. Everyone pointed their fingers at Nancy, but she left the courtroom on a technicality.Seven years later, Nancy is remarried and has two more children. However, one morning Nancy goes outside where her children were supposed to be playing and finds them gone.. A must read! | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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5. | Laura, by Vera Caspary (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp) (1942, filmed 1944). Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms. As a tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead woman. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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6. | Beast in View, by Margareth Millar (1945). A chain of events starting with a crank call from an old school chum sets the lonely, aloof, financially comfortable Miss Helen Clarvoe on a path as predictable only as madness. Lured from her rooms in a second-rate residential Hollywood hotel, she finds herself stranded in the more perilous terrain of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and ultimately murder. |
Amazon US Amazon UK |
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7. | A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell (1977). This novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write“. It has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s, as well being remarkable in its levels of suspense, despite the reader knowing from the first line what is going to happen. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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8. | Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967). The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman, who begins to suspect her elderly neighbors are not the kindly souls they appear to be. Gradually she discovers they are the leaders of a coven of witches. Her husband, a struggling actor, allowed the devil to impregnate her in exchange for a successful career, but she is unable to convince anyone to believe her.A movie based on the novel was filmed by Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes starred in the movie. |
Amazon USAmazon UK |
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9. | The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing (New York Review Books Classics)(1946) . George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking writer for a New York media conglomerate. One day, before heading home to his wife, Stroud has a drink with Pauline, the girlfriend of his boss. Things happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her apartment.This novel was the basis for the feature films The Big Clock (1948) and No Way Out (1987). | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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10. | Brighton Rock, Graham Greene (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition)(1938). Although this is an underworld thriller, the book is also a very powerful exploration of the nature of sin and the basis of morality (Pinkie and Rose, two of the main characters, are Roman Catholics, as was Greene, and their beliefs are contrasted with Ida’s strong but non-religious moral sensibility).This book was filmed in 1947. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
Sidetracked, by Henning Mankell
Filed under: Henning Mankell, Kurt Wallander, Main character, Prize winning novel, Swedish writer, bestseller, book review, crime book, recommendation
Sidetracked starts off with two bangs. First, Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. Then, the next day he is called to a beach where Sweden’s former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has markings of a demented serial killer, and
Sidetracked is the fifth book in Mankell’s series about Inspector Kurt Wallander. It is a highly praised book, and has won The Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction and Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year awards.
“Before dawn he started his transformation. He had planned everything meticulously so that nothing could go wrong. It would take him all day, and he didn’t want to risk running out of time.” This is how Sidetracked begins. A hard, vicious award winning crime fiction novel. The translation of Sidetracked by Steven T. Murray is excellent.
In this book, Henning Mankell tells the story from the perspectives of both cop and criminal. So there are no surprises for us as readers – this is not a who-dunnit but a wonderful police procedural.
The action in Sidetracked is fast paced. Soon, three more people are found murdered and scalped, and signs suggest that the perpetrator is becoming increasingly agitated. Wallander and his crew follow standard procedure and try to link the four victims. However, their lives seem never to have intersected. Using American profiling methods as well as his own intuition, Wallander struggles to make headway in the case.
Kurt Wallander’s investigation is beset with obstacles – a police department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, as well as hiw own tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow.
Mankell’s meticulously detailed descriptions of Wallander’s investigation as well as his somewhat lyrical portrayal the Inspector’s attempts to rearrange his thought processes in Sidetracked are masterful. This, along with his treatment of the deeper phenomena involved in this crime, turns Sidetracked into something much more than an ordinary police procedural. This is another great Henning Mankell, with Kurt Wallander, the fumbling Ystad police detective with the big heart and the great intuition, at his very best.
Prise for Sidetracked:
“Connoisseurs of the police procedural will tear into this installment like the seven-course banquet it is.” Kirkus Reviews
“[A]bove all, the novel stands out for its nuanced evocation of even the peripheral characters. Winner of Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year, this is another terrific offering from the talented Mankell.” Publishers Weekly
“It is Wallander’s anguished voice. . . that captures us….Mankell’s philosophical hero vows to make it up to the coming generation while he still can.” The New York Times Book Review
See more reviews of books by Henning Mankell at ScandinavianBooks.com (and other Scandinavian crime fiction writers as well)!
Lost Souls, by Lisa Jackson
Filed under: Thriller, book review, crime book, erotic fiction
Four coeds have disappeared in less than two years at All Saints College. They were all considered “troubled” girls. So no one has asked too many questions about the missing students.
Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz, the stunningly beautiful, hot wanna-be-detective is lucky to be alive. Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her last encounter was with a sadistic monster in bestselling Jackson’s Absolute Evil. But somehow she is fascinated by the minds of serial killers, and she is ready for another go and wants to write about it.
Kristi by chance rents the apartment of one of the missing girls. She begins investigating the case, thinking it might make a great first book. However, Vlad, the mysterious serial killer, very soon sets his sights on Kristi. And the action starts.
There is a lot of action in this book, but I am not sure I like it much even so. Vampirism is not my thing. But it seems very fashionable for the moment. But Jackson is smart, and has written a book that probably will be attractive to a lot a people – some hot sex, some vampire-stuff, a lot of action, a real crime mystery, and some supernatural powers as well for good measure.
Lost Souls is entertaining. Even though I didn’t like it all that much, it was still somehow a little fun and a little exciting. So if you like pretty well written romantic suspense novels and the campus background, and some hot sex scenes, this may be it.
The Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargas
Filed under: Fred Vargas, French writer, Prize winning novel, book review, crime book
This is not a Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg mystery. The sleuths in The Three Evangelists are instead somewhat unusual – actually a trio of 30-something historians under the auspices of a retired policeman.
This odd group lives together 
The first little mystery in the book is sudden appearance of a beech tree in the garden of Madame Siméonidis. The tree – planted under cover of darkness – worries her, and she doesn’t know who planted it or why, so she asks the historians to dig it up and investigate. Nothing suspicious is found under the beech.
Then Madame Siméonidis disappears, and a few days later her body is found in a burned out car. Now the Evangelists launch a full-scale investigation, aided by Marc’s godfather Vandoosler, the former policeman. There are plenty of possible suspects, but there is little evidence to go by.
This book, with a plot that twists and turns, was awarded the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger in 2006. Even so, The Three Evangelists is a strange crime novel, with eccentric, lovable characters. As usual in Vargas’ books, there are lots of interesting and odd conversations, and the book is intelligently and humorously written. Reading it is a complete delight if you like intelligent, well written mystery novels. If you are looking for fast paced action, on the other hand, this is probably not the book for you.
Praise for the works of Fred Vargas:
“A Vargas novel is as good as a trip to Paris.”
–Daily Express
“Fred Vargas is a wonderful writer. Much of the joy of reading this book lies in Vargas’s wonderful use of language, her subtle characterizations and her superb sense of place.”
–Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
“Joyous, enchanting, amazing, fantastic, unclassifiable, beyond-brilliant. Readers will not hold back praise for Fred Vargas.”
–Elle (France)
“Vargas is clearly an author who will rank alongside Henning Mankell. .. Creepy, sophisticated and wonderfully off-beat.”
–Scotland on Sunday
The Fire, by Katherine Neville
Filed under: Fiction, Thriller, book review, crime book
This is the sequel to the super-hit 
The Fire starts out in 2003, in Colorado, where Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. When Alexandra arrives at her mother’s retreat, she finds that she must solve a puzzle to get into the deserted house. It is the first of many puzzles in a danger-crammed, picaresque narrative involving a legendary chess set.
Many characters from The Eight reappear, but the focus now is on Xie, a 12-year-old chess prodigy who has lost a pivotal game due to Amaurosis Scacchistica, or chess blindness.
En route to a rematch that could make her the youngest grandmaster ever, she and her father encounter even greater dangers: evidence that one of those long-buried pieces may have been unearthed, a discovery that leads to her father’s murder. Ten years later, Xie, now forbidden by her mother to play chess, is summoned to Colorado for her mother’s birthday party, but her mother seems to have vanished, leaving behind a series of clues, among them a chessboard laid out with Xie’s last game. Soon other guests arrive, including both the opponent to whom Xie lost that game and a group of neighbors with surprising ties to the world of chess. There are eight people in all, of course. And The Game is on again.
The Game is a quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past.
It is a book I think many of the fans of The Eight, like me, will want to read. However, it is not a book that captures the same way as The Eight did. For sure, The Fire is written with elegance and sophistication. But the characters don’t catch me the same way. As a literary thriller, this is not quite in the upper echelons of the genre, even though it is good I think I will only recommend this book to people who are already Katherine Neville fans. For others, I am not so sure, but I think it may be a disappointment.
Unspoken: A Mystery, by Mari Jungstedt
Filed under: Anders Knutas, Main character, Mari Jungstedt, Swedish writer, book review, crime book, recommendation
Unspoken is the second in Mari Jungstedt’s series of crime and detective novels set in Gotland, Sweden. The first is Unseen (see review) The main characters, in this book too, are Inspector Anders Knutas and investigative journalist Johan Berg.
Then, well into the investigation of the first murder, 14-year old Fanny Jansson, a volunteer at the local stables, vanishes. Initially Knutas and Jacobsson view them as separate cases. One is a violent murder, the other the disappearance of child.
Painstakingly, they work the clues, assisted by ambitious StockholmTV reporter Johan Berg, who tries to keep his bosses interested in Dahlström’s murder so he can take trips to Gotland to visit his married lover, Emma Winarve. And eventually they uncover a tenuous link between Henry and the missing fourteen year old Fanny Jansson. Before his murder Henry won a lot of money at the racetrack while Fanny cared for the horses at a local stable.However, matters become further complicated when sexually explicit photos of murdered 14-year-old Fanny Jansson are found in Dahlstrom’s darkroom.
The official investigation in Unspoken is cleverly designed by Mari Jungstedt to keep the audience’s attention. It is a great police procedural. And the cast is fully developed and interesting – in this book we also learn more about Knutas’ family and the very complicated love affair between Johan Berg and Emma Winarve.
Unspoken is a book with crisp prose, steady suspense, and flesh-and-blood characters, as well as powerful descriptions of the dark Swedish winter. The narrative is engaging and twisty, and will fool even the most attentive reader.
See more reviews of Swedish crime fiction at ScandinavianBooks.com!
Links to Mari Jungstedt’s books: Mari Jungstedt at amazon US
Have Mercy on Us All, by Fred Vargas
Filed under: Fred Vargas, French writer, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, Main character, book review, crime book, recommendation
This is the third book in the series about the eccentric and very special Detective Commisaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg. And it is a fantastic book. At least, to me it 
is. 
In this book the eccentric, enigmatic and intuitive detective – in an eccentric plot – has been made commisaire principal, head of a new section in the Paris police force. His style of leadership, of course, is as interesting as the commisaire himself!
At the center of this book is the threat of plague – the Black death, no less in Paris. A murderer, or several, creates a panic in Paris while they systematically kill people. But why? How are the victims and murderers related? Why do the use the plague as a guise? And, of course, who are the killers? There are many and complicated questions and very few clues. Even Adamsberg, so famous for his intuition and photographic memory of images, as well as for his unclear, convoluted, sometimes quite muddled thinking, loses track of it all, somewhere in the great sea of his unfinished thoughts.
We meet a number of very interesting characters. There is Adamsberg’s assistant, Danglard, trying to bring an element of order into the chaos of Adamsberg’s thinking. And the town crier Joss Le Guern, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, who is used as a medium of communication for the murderers. There is also the mystical Decambrais, the lovely Camille with whom Adamsberg has a complicated romantic involvement, as well as several other very interesting persons. An engaging cast of very strange yet real characters, often amusing, and usually recognizable as bearing a resemblance to folks we have known. Together they make this a rich work of fiction alongside the wonderful crime novel.
Have Mercy On Us All is a strange, twisted, gothic thriller. It is impossible to categorize. It is also well planned, very thoughtfully written, excellently observed, very human and totally absorbing. It will make you laugh as well as excite you. It is, simply, a fascinating read!
Link: Fred Vargas at amazon US
Stieg Larsson’s books hot in England
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer, book news, crime book, recommendation
The following list, from amazon in England, is quite interesting to a fan a Stieg Larsson!
The most popular items in Fiction at amazon UK. Updated hourly. (Average customer rating in parentheses):
- Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
, by Stephenie Meyer (3.8)
- When Will There be Good News?
? by Kate Atkinson (3.9)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (4.2)
- The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff, (4.5)
- The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson (4.6)
- The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry (3.8)
- The Shack, by William P. Young (3.6)
- The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink (4.2)
- Revolutionary Road
- Wetlands, by Charlotte Roche (3.1)
So, right now Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Both of Stieg Larsson’s books have excellent customer ratings. The only book ranked higher among the current top ten by customers is the extremely remarkable Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. That is also quite a feat by Stieg Larsson. It is very sad that he did not live to see his astonishing success!
Links to Stieg Larsson’s books at Amazon US: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Good Night, My Darling, by Inger Frimansson
Filed under: Inger Frimansson, Swedish writer, book review
Inger Frimansson is well established as a Swedish crime writer, and Good Night, My Darling is one of her best books. It has won the Swedish Academy of Mystery Authors Award for Best Swedish Crime Novel in 1998.
Good Night, My Darling is the first book in a
Inger Frimansson enables the reader to enter Justine’s child-thoughts of being an almost willing victim while she absorbs both the hurt and the methods of cruelty used to hurt her. We sympathize with Justine the child, but as she grows to maturity we become less sympathetic. Now the memories come back to haunt Justine, but she is prepared. It is time for Justine to take revenge on everyone who has done her wrong. Terrible things start to happen.
Inger Frimansson has the courage to experiment with the crime genre. Good night, my darling is not a whodunit crime book or a thriller. This book is a how-could-she-do-it. In her effort to understand this – to peer into the mind of a dark soul – Frimansson has written a deeply psychological crime novel which in several ways reminds me of the Norwegian author Karin Fossum.
Good Night, My Darling takes a while to really pick up speed, but when it does, the tension is almost unbearable. Putting it away does not feel as an option before the end is reached.
Praise for Good Night, My Darling:
“With this book, she stands out as one of the great authors of psychological suspense in contemporary Swedish literature.” – GT
”
.. whereas Mankell often tries to pinpoint the external factors which shape our lives, Frimansson concentrates on what we look like on the inside; what it feels like to be at someone’s mercy.” – Eskilstuna Kuriren
Order Good Night, My Darling by Inger Frimansson from Amazon UK: Good Night, My Darling
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