Most Popular Books by Lars Kepler

Tumba, Sweden. A triple homicide, all of the victims from the same family, captivates Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the grisly murders -- against the wishes of the national police. The killer is at large, and it appears that the elder sister of the family escaped the carnage; it seems only a matter of time until she, too, is murdered. But where can Linna begin? The only surviving witness is an intended victim -- the boy whose mother, father, and little sister were killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes intended for this boy to die: he has suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and Lapsed into a state of shock. He''s in no condition to be questioned. Desperate for information, Linna sees one mode of recourse: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It''s the sort of work that Bark had sworn he would never do again-ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a Long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A nonstop roller coaster of suspense, taking us deep into the hearts and minds of perfectly realized characters. And, oh, what a villain! ... The definition of a one-sitting read!” —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times best-selling author of The Goodbye Man Sometimes the past won''t stay buried. All across Europe, the most ruthless criminals are suffering gruesome deaths. At first, it seems coincidental that their underworld affiliations are finally catching up to them. But when two of the victims are found to have disturbing connections to Detective Joona Linna, it becomes clear that there’s a single killer at work. Still, police are reluctant to launch an investigation. If a mysterious vigilante is making their jobs easier, why stand in his way? Joona, however, is convinced this is no would-be hero. These deaths serve a much darker purpose. Desperate for help, Joona turns to Saga Bauer. If his hunch is correct, she’s one of the few people who stands a chance at bringing this criminal mastermind down. But Saga is fighting her own demons—and the killer knows just how to use them to his advantage. He continues to strike with impunity, and no one, it seems, is safe. When the killer begins targeting those closest to Saga and Joona, it appears more and more likely that Joona has been right all along, and that tracking down the person responsible will force him to confront a ghost from his past ... the most terrifying villain he’s ever had to face.

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • This installment in the Killer Instinct Series tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must beat him at his own game, Detectives Joona Linna and Saga Bauer. “With its tight, staccato chapters and cast of dangerous wraiths lurking everywhere, The Sandman is a nonstop fright.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden''s most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman. Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek''s capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael''s sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before it''s too late—and before he gets inside her head.

In this sequel to "The Hypnotist," Detective Joona Linna returns to investigate a series of interlinking murders surrounding a suspicious Swedish arms deal.

#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.

Two sadistic murders by a killer who is playing games with the police prompt Swedish detective Joona Linna to seek assistance from trauma hypnotherapist Erik Maria Bark for a case with disturbing ties to a years-old conviction.

The authors of The Hypnotist and The Nightmare deliver their most thrilling novel yet 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. Just as Lars Kepler''s The Hypnotist and The Nightmare did, The Fire Witness has spent months at number one on the Swedish bestseller lists. As the newspaper Dagens Nyheter put it, you start the thriller "on the subway home, keep reading at the dinner table, and then don''t stop until well into the wee hours." Kepler writes with the force of Stieg Larsson and the plotting of Jo Nesbø. The Fire Witness is an unflinching page-turner, sure to join the ranks of its predecessors as an international sensation.

MORE THAN 17 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE The tenth thrilling installment in Lars Kepler''s bestselling series— acclaimed for “smart psychological suspense,” “explosive conclusions,” and “gritty portrayals of human evil” (Booklist)—is tense and terrifying. An emergency call comes in the middle of the night. There is an ongoing burglary at a closed campsite in Bredäng, outside Stockholm. When the police respond to the call, there is a light on in one of the farthest caravans in the otherwise dark area, where the officers are greeted by a horrific sight. The floors, walls, and furniture are completely covered in blood. A person has been killed with an axe and brutally dismembered. In one of the rooms, a young man is sleeping on the floor with a severed arm as his pillow. He is arrested and taken into custody at Kronobergshäktet. There, he is identified as seventeen-year-old Hugo Sand, the son of a famous author. It turns out that Hugo is suffering from a rare kind of somnambulism, which is triggered by nightmares. He is either the perpetrator or a witness but claims that he remembers nothing from that night. When Joona Linna is asked to take on the case, he contacts his old friend Erik Marie Bark to use hypnosis in the quest to find out what happened inside the caravan. This is the start of a complicated hunt for a terrifying killer who has just entered an extremely active phase.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN CRIME NOVELS OF THE YEAR • Another shocking thriller in the Killer Instinct series: It’s up to Detectives Joona Linna and Saga Bauer to untangle one of the most complex cases of their career, and follow a killer’s trail of destruction back to one horrific night of violence. It begins with a nursery rhyme. Nineteen minutes later you die. Ten little rabbits, all dressed in white Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite. Kite string got broken, down they all fell, Instead of going to heaven, they all went to... A masked stranger stands in the shadows. He watches his victim through the window. He will kill him slowly—make him pay. Soon the Rabbit Hunter has claimed another three victims. This predator will stop at nothing to reap his ultimate revenge.

You thought you were alone. Think again. The groundbreaking fifth thriller in Lars Kepler’s bestselling series featuring Joona Linna. Perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.

#1 INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER • A serial killer is spinning a sinister web and Detectives Joona Linna and Saga Bauer are caught dead center. This pulse-pounding descent into the chilling world of The Spider is another shocking thriller in the Killer Instinct series. 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 realize 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. The Spider is shocking and exhilarating in a way only Lars Kepler could accomplish.

‘It may take you a while to sleep after you finish it’ Daily Express The most chilling and terrifying serial killer thriller of the year, from international bestseller Lars Kepler.

It begins with a nursery rhyme. Nineteen minutes later you die... The sixth gripping thriller in Lars Kepler’s bestselling series featuring Joona Linna. Perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.

Playground – en annan sida av Lars Kepler. Under en insats i Kosovo blir löjtnant Jasmin Pascal-Anderson skjuten och hennes hjärta står stilla under fyrtio sekunder. När hon återvänder till livet kan hon inte sluta tala om att döden börjar med en våldsam hamnstad där de styrande håller på att förlora kontrollen över den organiserade brottsligheten. Jasmin behandlas för sin krigspsykos, lämnar det militära och försöker leva ett stillsamt liv när någonting fruktansvärt händer. Tillsammans med sin femårige son hamnar hon i en bilolycka. På sjukhuset upptäcker läkarna en blödning från sonens kranskärl. För att kunna operera honom måste de stanna hans hjärta. Ingen kan svara på om de många vittnesmålen från tillfälligt döda bara beror på att hjärnan reagerar panikartat på syrebristen som uppstår när hjärtat står stilla. Men Jasmin törs inte ta risken. Hon vet att hennes son inte kommer att klara sig tillbaka till livet på egen hand om hamnstaden finns på riktigt. Den andra sidan är en mycket farlig plats och farligast av allt är lekplatsen – playground.

In het vroege ochtendgloren wordt op een verlaten plezierjacht in de Stockholmarchipel het lichaam van een jonge vrouw gevonden. Het water in haar longen wijst op een verdrinkingsdood, maar vreemd genoeg vertonen haar kleren geen enkel spoor van zeewater. De volgende dag stuit de politie in een Stockholms appartement op het lichaam van een man. Hij hangt aan een haak in het plafond, in een verder lege kamer. Inspecteur Joona Linna is ervan overtuigd dat de man zelfmoord heeft gepleegd. Hij krijgt gelijk, maar daarmee is de zaak niet gesloten. De twee doden vormen de opmaat tot een reeks duizelingwekkende en gevaarlijke gebeurtenissen die Joona Linna meesleuren in een nietsontziende jacht op de moordenaar.

Een geweldige nieuwe zaak voor Joona Linna Vijf jaar geleden verdween ze, nu wordt haar lichaam gevonden. Wie was de man die ze zag in het raam? Wie is Spiegelman? Vijf jaar na haar verdwijning wordt het levenloze lichaam gevonden van een jonge vrouw. De enige ooggetuige van de moord is een warrige man, die niet zeker weet wat hij gezien heeft. Joona Linna roept de hulp in van hypnotiseur Erik Maria Bark, zodat de man onder hypnose zijn herinneringen weer kan oproepen.

Kepler-kuume yltyy! Lars Kepler yllättää. Viidennen Joona Linna -dekkarin tutkimuksissa on mukana Hypnotisoijan päähenkilö, Erik Maria Bark. Lue, miksi Kepler on ilmiö. Poliisille lähetetään linkki Youtube-videoon, jolla esiintyy salaa kuvattu nainen. Seuraavana päivänä nainen on kuollut. Tapausta ryhtyvät tutkimaan rikoskomisario Margot Silverman ja hypnotisoija Erik Maria Bark. Jäljet johtavat Rocky Kyrklundiin, joka istuu vankilassa murhasta. Rocky itse ei muista mitään, vain hänet hypnotisoinut Erik tietää, mitä todella tapahtui. Sitten saapuu seuraava video. Joona Linnan apua kaivataan kipeästi, mutta Joonahan on kuollut. Vai onko? Nimimerkki Lars Keplerin takana on ruotsalainen kirjailijapariskunta Alexander Ahndoril ja Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. Suomalaistaustaisesta rikoskomisario Joona Linnasta kertova sarja on ollut valtaisa menestys kaikkialla maailmassa.

De moord op de zus van een jonge vredesactiviste en de dood de dag erna van een inspecteur-generaal die over de Zweedse wapenexport ging, bezorgen commissaris Joona Linna van de rijksrecherche in Stockholm veel werk.