#1 INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER • Detective Joona Linna is on the trail of a kidnapper who targets teenage girls and makes their worst nightmares a reality.

“Dark, disturbing, and chillingly relentless. Picture Hannibal Lecter sitting down to channel Stieg Larsson and then dial it way, way up!” —Brad Thor, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Black Ice

Sixteen-year-old Jenny Lind is kidnapped in broad daylight on her way home from school and thrown into the back of a truck. She’s taken to a dilapidated house, where she and other girls face horrors far beyond their worst nightmares. Though they’re desperate to escape, their captor foils everyone of their attempts.

Five years later, Jenny’s body is found hanging in a playground, strung up with a winch on a rainy night. As the police are scrambling to find a lead in the scant evidence, Detective Joona Linna recognizes an eerie connection between Jenny’s murder and a death declared a suicide years before. And when another teenage girl goes missing, it becomes clear to Joona that they’re dealing with a serial killer—and his murderous rampage may have just begun.

Series:

Joona Linna (Killer Instinct)

Book 8

Can be read as a standalone

Book Type:

Thriller

Review: The Mirror Man

Lars Kepler is back with a chilling installment in the Killer Instinct series—Joona Linna must track down a serial killer who abducts and kills young women.

Sixteen-year-old Jenny Lind was kidnapped and despite the case receiving wide-spread attention, she vanishes without a trace until she’s found hung from a winch in a playground five years later.

Joona is determined to track down the perpetrator, especially as he uncovers new connections with an older case. Worse yet, as more women go missing, it’s clear the killer has no intention of stopping.

Alternating point of views proffer perspectives from key players including Joona and the victims, whose harrowing experiences intensify the dark and sinister tone of the novel. Kepler (the pen name of Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril) masterfully builds tension throughout, as they lead us toward a mind-blowing culmination.

Avid readers of the series will delight in seeing Psychiatrist Erik Maria Bark and former Detective Superintendent Saga Bauer appear on the page. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Lazarus/Jurek Walter, Joona descends on an internal exploration of ‘the monster within’ as he grapples with the trajectory of his life and relationships.

As expected, I absolutely loved THE MIRROR MAN. Kepler’s books are not for the faint of heart—they’re dark, intense, and utterly terrifying, but time and time again, theirs are the thrillers I can’t stop thinking about. They have the extraordinary ability to sustain edge-of-your-seat pacing while thoughtfully drawing out nuance of situations, atmosphere, and characters. The result is always an immersive, cinematic, unrelenting nail-biter that leaves you breathless.

I can’t wait until their next one…