by Lars Kepler - Alice Menzies (Translator)
SYNOPSIS
Three years ago, Detective Saga Bauer received an ominous postcard describing a gun and nine white bullets - one of which was intended for her partner, Detective Joona Linna. The sender alleged that Saga was the only person who could save him. But as time passed, the threat faded.
Until now.
A sack with a decomposing body has been found hanging from a tree in the forest. A milky white bullet casing turns up at the scene. When the body count begins to rise, the police realise that the killer is sending riddles, offering them the chance to stop the murders before they happen.
But the police always seem to arrive a moment too late. As they begin to close in, the case becomes more and more tangled. Someone is spinning a fiendishly intricate web, pulling Joona ever closer to a trap he may not be able to escape.
REVIEW
I usually start my reviews with a quick synopsis but as this is Book 9 in a series I don't want to give any spoilers for anyone wanting to read from the beginning. With a lot of crime series it is completely fine to read a book from the middle or end as a standalone but I would really encourage anyone interested to work their way through these stories in order. The Spider in particular references an older case and gives away a lot of the details from an investigation earlier on in the series. Luckily this isn't a problem at all because the whole series is brilliant and there's no doubt anyone would want to read them all after reading The Spider anyway.
One of the characteristics of Nordic Noir is that the stories and police investigations are very dark, but having read a lot from this sub-genre I have to say that the Joona Linna series is right up there with the best (or the worst depending on how you look at it!).
Last year I read The Mirror Man and there is one scene that has stuck with me ever since for its creepiness and for painting such a purely terrifying idea in my head. If I think back throughout the year to all of the crime and thriller books I've read, it's this scene that jumps out at me for being the scariest. I'm pretty sure that the same thing is going to happen with The Spider. There was one scene very early on that made me stop reading for a minute - it was so vivid and horrific.
Lars Kepler's writing process is just fascinating for me. I don't know exactly how they divide the writing but I can picture them egging each other on to make the storyline darker and more alarming throughout the book. The tension they manage to create in The Spider is taken to another level. It honestly rivals any high-octane blockbuster or thriller film I've ever seen. The stress of having a deadline to save someone's life and the struggle to solve the clues in time certainly raised my blood pressure and I think I'm going to need a few days to recover before I start on another book!
The Spider is Nordic Noir at its best. Perfect for fans of Anders Roslund, Jo Nesbo, anyone who loves this type of dark Scandi police procedural or serial killer thrillers.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Lars Kepler is a No.1 bestselling international sensation, whose Joona Linna thrillers have sold more than 12 million copies in 40 languages. The first book in the series, The Hypnotist, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and Stalker, went straight to No.1 in Sweden, Norway, Holland and Slovakia.
Lars Kepler is the pseudonym for writing duo Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. They live with their family in Sweden.
www.facebook.com/larskepler
www.larskepler.com
Thanks to Compulsive Readers, Lars Kepler and Zaffre Books @ZaffreBooks for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Zaffre Genre: Crime Thriller / Police Procedural / Nordic Noir
ISBN: 978-1838777869
Pages: 496pp
Comments