Larsson's book inspired me to look further into Swedish culture and inspired both my reading list and desire to start learning the Swedish language. Below I will introduce the Swedish mystery writing couple Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, who publish under the pen name Lars Kepler. Their mystery series that follows Detective Joona Linna is one of my all time favorites and I am constantly recommending it to friends. It has a similar feel to Larsson's series but the books are shorter and have an increased readability. I am never bored when I am reading these books and nothing is dragged out.
This series was originally published in Swedish but the first three books have been translated to English. I can't wait for the rest of the series to be translated because my Swedish is not quite at that level yet. Check these books out! You will not regret it.
Lars Kepler Bio from Goodreads:
Lars Kepler is a pseudonym used by Swedish writer couple Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. Both previously published authors, together they have written five crime novels so far, all concerning the investigations of police inspector Joona Linna.
Title: The Hypnotist (Joona Linna #1)Author: Lars Kepler
Page Count: 503
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis from Goodreads:
In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective
It’s the sort of work that Bark has 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.
An international sensation, The Hypnotist is set to appear in thirty-seven countries, and it has landed at the top of bestseller lists wherever it’s been published—in France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark. Now it’s America’s turn. Combining the addictive power of the Stieg Larsson trilogy with the storytelling drive of The Silence of the Lambs, this adrenaline-drenched thriller is spellbinding from its very first page.
Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.
Title: The Nightmare (Joona Linna #2)Author: Lars Kepler
Page Count: 528
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis from Goodreads:
A drowned young woman is discovered on an abandoned pleasure boat drifting by the Stockholm archipelago---strangely, her clothes are dry. The next day in Stockholm, a man turns up dead, hanging from a lamp hook inside his completely bare apartment---but how could he have hung himself with no furniture to climb upon? As Detective Inspector Joona Linna begins to piece together the two mysteries, he discovers that they are a mere prelude to a dizzying and dangerous course of events. From the internationally bestselling author of The Hypnotist comes The Nightmare, another spellbinding tale of Nordic crime.
Title: The Fire Witness (Joona Linna #3)Author: Lars Kepler
Page Count: 512
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
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