Release date: March 6, 2018

Publisher: Knopf

Genre: Crime Fiction

Blurb:

The #1 internationally best-selling thriller from the author of The Hypnotist tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must try to beat him at his own game.

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.

Goodreads|Amazon

Ahh I’m SO excited to share my thoughts on The Sandman today!! There’s a blog tour going on featuring some of my favorites bloggers and Instagram accounts so be sure and check them out for all sorts of fun content. You may want to check out my Instagram later today too….😜

Review:

Allow me to introduce you to my first MUST read book of 2018. If you’re a crime fiction fan you absolutely cannot miss this book, it’s extremely fast paced and exciting, the twists and turns are executed flawlessly and the serial killer is one of the most terrifying I’ve ever read about. If you’re at all hesitant please share your concerns with me because I promise you, if you start this one I don’t think you’ll regret it for one second.

This is the fourth book in a series following Joona Linnea but you can definitely read it as a standalone as I did as each book in the series seems to follow new cases with reoccurring characters. Speaking of characters, this book had some of the most complex, interesting characters I’ve ever encountered. They’re all multilayered and have fascinating histories, I fell a little bit in love with Joona and Saga. Jurek scared the daylights out of me, I probably shouldn’t have finished this at one am when my entire family was asleep but no way was I about to put this one down before I finished!

Much of the story takes place inside a high security psychiatric institution, talk about a creepy atmosphere! There were so many intense, heart pounding scenes that took place inside those walls and they were so well written that I was scared myself. Between the extraordinarily crafted setting and the crisp, precise writing style, I just could not get enough of this one. I’ll close by urging you once again not to miss this one, it’s outstanding!

The Sandman in three words: Gripping, Transfixing and Petrifying.

Overall rating: 5/5 (ALL THE STARS)

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

About the Author:

Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of critically acclaimed husband and wife team Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril (b. 1966) and Alexander Ahndoril (b. 1967), authors of the internationally bestselling Joona Linna and Saga Bauer series. With six installments to date, the series has sold ten million copies in 40 languages.

The Ahndorils were both established writers before they adopted the pen name Lars Kepler, and have each published several acclaimed novels.

Alexander and Alexandra married in 1994 and have three daughters together. They live in central Stockholm.

ALEXANDRA COELHO AHNDORIL

Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril was born in 1966, and grew up on the south coast of Sweden. In the early 90s, Alexandra moved to Stockholm to pursue a career in acting though she eventually became an author.

In 2003, she published her critically acclaimed debut novel Stjärneborg (Stjerneborg) about the life of astronomer Tycho Brahe which received the Katapult Prize, Birgitta och Katarina (Birgitta and Katarina, 2006) about the life of Saint Birgitta of Sweden, and Mäster (2009), about the radical socialist August Palm.

In addition to her work as an author, Alexandra has also been a literary critic for two of Sweden’s largest newspapers, Göteborgs-Posten and Dagens Nyheter.

ALEXANDER AHNDORIL

Alexander was born in 1967 and grew up twelve miles north of Stockholm. Alexander studied philosophy, religion, and film at university. His first novel was picked up when he was nineteen.

Before he began writing as Lars Kepler, he had already penned twenty theatre plays, one opera libretto, nine novels including Regissören (The Director, 2006) a novel about Ingmar Bergman. Regissören was nominated for several awards, including the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and has been translated into 11 languages.