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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Stalker is the fifth book in the Joona Lina series by Lars Kepler. I was given an advanced copy in exchange for a review, having not read the previous four books. While it is probably an advantage to have read the previous books to know Joona Lina and his story, Stalker works perfectly fine as a stand-alone novel and actually made me want to read the full series.
Brilliantly written and developed, Stalker follows the police investigation into the brutal murder of a woman who is seemingly the victim of a stalker. When a short video clip is sent to the police with no information, no way to trace the sender and no way of knowing who the woman in the video is, the police disregard it as nothing. When a short time later, the body of a woman is discovered and the police discover who the victim is, they realise they are looking for a stalker who has been watching the woman. When a second video clip is sent to the police days later, the race is on to find the woman in the video and the murderer before it's too late.
The police bring in various specialists to assist them in the investigation but Joona Lina is the one person who they know would help them solve the crime. As the investigation develops and more characters are brought in to assist, the book really starts to gather pace and intrigue.
Stalker is the first Scandi-thriller I've read and it was far from disappointing. The characters are all well-developed and realistic, the plot moves well at good pace and develops with increasing intensity. The short chapters make Stalker an addictive read; one that I didn't want to put down even in the early hours! There were moments that I found myself feeling creeped out and I ended up closing my own curtains/blinds at home or turning the lights on! That eerie feeling of being watched and not knowing whats out there in the dark is brilliantly brought out in the reader as we watch the victims go about their lives unknowingly under surveillance.
Stalker has everything: crime, personal drama, drugs, sex, murder, revenge, hypnosis, I could go on. An action packed, very enjoyable read that will not disappoint, I'd definitely recommend! The remainder of the Joona Lina series is now firmly on my "Want to Read" list!
Thank you to Lars Kepler, NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Brilliantly written and developed, Stalker follows the police investigation into the brutal murder of a woman who is seemingly the victim of a stalker. When a short video clip is sent to the police with no information, no way to trace the sender and no way of knowing who the woman in the video is, the police disregard it as nothing. When a short time later, the body of a woman is discovered and the police discover who the victim is, they realise they are looking for a stalker who has been watching the woman. When a second video clip is sent to the police days later, the race is on to find the woman in the video and the murderer before it's too late.
The police bring in various specialists to assist them in the investigation but Joona Lina is the one person who they know would help them solve the crime. As the investigation develops and more characters are brought in to assist, the book really starts to gather pace and intrigue.
Stalker is the first Scandi-thriller I've read and it was far from disappointing. The characters are all well-developed and realistic, the plot moves well at good pace and develops with increasing intensity. The short chapters make Stalker an addictive read; one that I didn't want to put down even in the early hours! There were moments that I found myself feeling creeped out and I ended up closing my own curtains/blinds at home or turning the lights on! That eerie feeling of being watched and not knowing whats out there in the dark is brilliantly brought out in the reader as we watch the victims go about their lives unknowingly under surveillance.
Stalker has everything: crime, personal drama, drugs, sex, murder, revenge, hypnosis, I could go on. An action packed, very enjoyable read that will not disappoint, I'd definitely recommend! The remainder of the Joona Lina series is now firmly on my "Want to Read" list!
Thank you to Lars Kepler, NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
The stalking scenes and murder scenes are very terrifying. Not sure I like the story arc of Joona Linna. Wasn't my favorite book in the series.
I was recommended this book by my library and I was utterly disappointed by it. I don't know if I had a bad translation but the flow of action wasn't that good and sometimes even confusing.
I found most characters absolutely repulsive and impossible to understand. I don't want to spoil the book so I won't go into details but I found that they all had reprehensible ways of dealing with their families, had extremely bad communication skills and overall made some very questionable decisions over the course of the book.
Spoilers below:
The main investigator is a pregnant woman who barely talks to her partner and when she does it's like it's a huge chore for her. She stays on the case even as she's about to give birth which sounds very unsafe to me. You're chasing a psycho stalker and you're going on the field when you're about to have a baby?
And then the second investigator has to attend an orgy to find someone in relation to the case and he has the stupidity to have sex there when he should be on the job AND that he has a pregnant wife at home? And when she breaks the news that she's pregnant or doesn't want the baby anymore he's just like "oh ok"? That infuriated me, HOW is that a relationship? I can't even.
And then you have the doctor -no doubt the character I hated the most. He makes stupid decision over stupid decision, lies to the police, endangers a blind woman and her daughter, is told NOT to contact anyone while an investigator goes after a lead but NO, he HAS to contact someone. I have no clue why the blind woman still wanted anything to do with him by the end of the movie.
I hated reading this book but forced myself to finish it regardless. Again, I might have gotten a bad translation of the book and maybe I'd have felt more compassion for the characters if I had read the previous books of the serie.
I found most characters absolutely repulsive and impossible to understand. I don't want to spoil the book so I won't go into details but I found that they all had reprehensible ways of dealing with their families, had extremely bad communication skills and overall made some very questionable decisions over the course of the book.
Spoilers below:
And then the second investigator has to attend an orgy to find someone in relation to the case and he has the stupidity to have sex there when he should be on the job AND that he has a pregnant wife at home? And when she breaks the news that she's pregnant or doesn't want the baby anymore he's just like "oh ok"? That infuriated me, HOW is that a relationship? I can't even.
And then you have the doctor -no doubt the character I hated the most. He makes stupid decision over stupid decision, lies to the police, endangers a blind woman and her daughter, is told NOT to contact anyone while an investigator goes after a lead but NO, he HAS to contact someone. I have no clue why the blind woman still wanted anything to do with him by the end of the movie.
I hated reading this book but forced myself to finish it regardless. Again, I might have gotten a bad translation of the book and maybe I'd have felt more compassion for the characters if I had read the previous books of the serie.
Excellent! I always enjoy allowing the author to get to the reveal in their own way. Not much for skipping to the end. The payoff in this book was worth it. The second half is a downhill-no brakes freight train that crashes into a minefield of WTF. OVer the top? A little.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Even though I have not read the other books in this series I thought that this was a really good book in the crime genre. It was so exciting and thrilling, and I had a hard time everytime I had to put the book away.
It was really well written with good charachters and the ending was so surprising, just as I think the ending should be with this kind of novels.
It was really well written with good charachters and the ending was so surprising, just as I think the ending should be with this kind of novels.
dark
tense
fast-paced
There's something about Scandinavian noir that works for me, and this is no exception. A superb mystery/thriller which managed a series of dizzying twists and a dose of exciting action that drew me in more and more as I progressed.
So, I must admit I didn't know this was book 5 in a series about Joona Linna when I started. I came in fresh at this point and that did make a few things in the early stages a little odd. Joona seemed a bit too much of an action hero for no reason, but as things unravelled that little oddity started to make more sense. It does work as a standalone in that regard, although I suspect anyone who has followed Joona through the four previous books will settle into this read much more easily.
It does feel odd thinking of it as a book about Joona though, the strength of the ensemble of characters makes it a book about so many people. Given a bad experience with a recent read I felt so happy having fully developed characters - even fairly minor ones who had brief appearances got treated well. Characters had personalities and lives. Women had identities. This is a book written by someone who is aware that society is made up of people with a whole host of different backgrounds and they can be included in a book.
The clever combination of characters also keeps you on your toes. I felt I cracked the case a handful of times before realising I'd forgotten something glaring obvious and wondering just how I was wrong. Of course, it helps that characters are dealing with drug addictions, traumatic memories, and even brain damage. It's a deft way to make events in the book unreliable. I found myself questioning everything, even things that seemed so clear and sure became vague and uncertain as I recalled another piece of the puzzle that didn't quite fit with my latest theory. Very quickly more and more characters became liabilities in the pursuit of the truth.
But the truth does come out. It is delivered with power. After numerous pages of guessing and double guessing, and at times utter confusion, we find what we need to know. And that's when the thriller kicks in even harder. Many books solve the mystery and rush the ending, but Kepler just ramps up the tension very gracefully. It has power, it proves captivating.
All in all a superb read. I think my lack of backstory from the earlier books did make it start a little slower, but it didn't cause any problems, and once the new story fully kicked in it was enthralling. I'd be curious about the rest of the series now - by the fifth book you can probably be confident of the quality throughout the preceding books so I'm going to have to look them up. I suspect we'll see more of Joona in the future though, so I best get reading.
So, I must admit I didn't know this was book 5 in a series about Joona Linna when I started. I came in fresh at this point and that did make a few things in the early stages a little odd. Joona seemed a bit too much of an action hero for no reason, but as things unravelled that little oddity started to make more sense. It does work as a standalone in that regard, although I suspect anyone who has followed Joona through the four previous books will settle into this read much more easily.
It does feel odd thinking of it as a book about Joona though, the strength of the ensemble of characters makes it a book about so many people. Given a bad experience with a recent read I felt so happy having fully developed characters - even fairly minor ones who had brief appearances got treated well. Characters had personalities and lives. Women had identities. This is a book written by someone who is aware that society is made up of people with a whole host of different backgrounds and they can be included in a book.
The clever combination of characters also keeps you on your toes. I felt I cracked the case a handful of times before realising I'd forgotten something glaring obvious and wondering just how I was wrong. Of course, it helps that characters are dealing with drug addictions, traumatic memories, and even brain damage. It's a deft way to make events in the book unreliable. I found myself questioning everything, even things that seemed so clear and sure became vague and uncertain as I recalled another piece of the puzzle that didn't quite fit with my latest theory. Very quickly more and more characters became liabilities in the pursuit of the truth.
But the truth does come out. It is delivered with power. After numerous pages of guessing and double guessing, and at times utter confusion, we find what we need to know. And that's when the thriller kicks in even harder. Many books solve the mystery and rush the ending, but Kepler just ramps up the tension very gracefully. It has power, it proves captivating.
All in all a superb read. I think my lack of backstory from the earlier books did make it start a little slower, but it didn't cause any problems, and once the new story fully kicked in it was enthralling. I'd be curious about the rest of the series now - by the fifth book you can probably be confident of the quality throughout the preceding books so I'm going to have to look them up. I suspect we'll see more of Joona in the future though, so I best get reading.