Lars Kepler – the pseudonym that aspires to be the next Stieg Larsson

December 9, 2009 by
Filed under: About books, crime book, Lars Kepler, Swedish writer 

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?

PS: The Hynotist by Lars Kepler is now finally available for preorder at amazon UK: The Hypnotist

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Comments

4 Comments on Lars Kepler – the pseudonym that aspires to be the next Stieg Larsson

  1. a snow-covered god jul post « Scandinavian Crime Fiction on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 6:59 am

    2. [...] Nekkidblogger (brrrr!) predicts that The Hypnotist by “Lars Keppler” will be the next Stieg Larsson-like sensation even though Lars [...]

  2. Coming attractions - new crime fiction authors from Sweden - Lars Kepler and Jens Lapidus | Nordic Bookblog on Wed, 3rd Feb 2010 12:08 am

    3. [...] Lars Kepler is the pseudonym the two people on the image above, authors Alexandra og Alexander Ahndoril. After they had published their book The Hypnotist – a book that got rave reviews and became a bestseller in Sweden – the Swedish media started a huge investigation into the case of who had written the book. And eventually it was revealed. [...]

  3. Emily on Tue, 1st Jun 2010 5:04 am

    4. [...] Nekkidblogger (brrrr!) predicts that The Hypnotist by “Lars Keppler” will be the next Stieg Larsson-like sensation even though Lars [...]

  4. Amy on Fri, 4th Jun 2010 11:54 am

    5. [...] Lars Kepler is the pseudonym the two people on the image above, authors Alexandra og Alexander Ahndoril. After they had published their book The Hypnotist – a book that got rave reviews and became a bestseller in Sweden – the Swedish media started a huge investigation into the case of who had written the book. And eventually it was revealed. [...]

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