Lars Kepler's Joona Linna series is one of the best Scandinavian crime thriller series around and Lazarus is a worthy addition!
Detective Inspector Joona Linna of the Swedish Police is convinced that his archenemy Jurek Walter, the monstrous serial killer, is back from the dead while nobody else, especially Saga Bauer, the young cop who had shot and killed Jurek, believes it. Joona also suspects that Jurek has recruited an accomplice now, and can strike at two places at once. And, the only way he can hope to escape the fate, far worse than death, that Jurek can inflict upon him is to go into hiding along with his daughter. But, is Jurek really back, or has Joona been pushed over the edge by his own paranoia? And, if Jurek has really come back, will Joona’s escape plan work? The answers to these questions lie in this dark, gory, pulse-pounding, cracker of a thriller from one of the best in the business.
The author (I know it’s a husband-and-wife duo in real life, but they have chosen the name Lars Kepler and I will stick to it) has done a fabulous job of creating intense, disturbing characters that will stay for a long time in the reader’s thoughts. The plot grips the reader right from the prologue and never really lets go until the very end. Each scene—even the seemingly normal, peaceful ones—has an ominous feel to it, that something terrible is going to happen, and it does happen more often than not. The villain is one of the most vicious I have encountered in the world of fiction; he does not just take his victims’ life but their soul, the basic essence that makes them human. The novel has a prodigious body count, and a staggering amount of violence to go with it, and is not meant for the fainthearted reader.
The end of this story, though not a cliff-hanger, has an opening that is sure to spawn a sequel, which I am eager to read. Certain important characters, apart from Joona, and some crucial events in this novel are connected to some previous books in the series and it will be better to read those before this one. That said, the author has provided enough explanation at places to make it work on a standalone basis also.
On the negative side, I found the villain(s) to be unbelievably powerful, with an almost mythical ability to beat the police and get to the victims virtually at every instance. And, I felt that the author has been unnecessarily cruel to Saga Bauer, going by the events at the end of this book. Apart from these peeves, I was thoroughly hooked by Lazarus, and would recommend it to everyone who likes dark psychological thrillers and is not put off by the violence.
My original review of the Advance Reader Copy of Lazarus appears here... https://www.netgalley.com/book/193869/review/670189
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