The Hypnotist- Lars Kepler

Hi! As promised here's what I think of Lars Kepler's 'The Hypnotist'. First off, as always, a synopsis from goodreads.com.....

 

In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective 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.

 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

 

So.....

I LOVE thriller/crimey type books, I don't know what it is....maybe it's the fact that I reckon I'd be a pretty good crime fighting psychologist/ detective myself, and so when it was recommended that I read this I jumped straight in! First of all...the cover! Now, I know I shouldn't say this and I will probably be scorned for saying it but I judge books by their covers. There. I said it! I'm sorry, I KNOWWWWW but I do! I can't help it and judging by this cover I immediately thought oooooo, it's gonna b goooooood! and I was (mostly!!) right!!

Straight away I was hooked......I felt like I was drawn into the story straight away and at times was really freaked by the little boy, Josef Elk, who turns out to have killed his family in a pretty horrific way. I must admit, as a lover of this type of book, I'd never been made to feel so scared at the thought of turning over the page! Don't worry I was very brave and continued and really enjoyed it until about half to three quarters of the way through when I became a bit confused! The plot of the story just changed! It was like the authors (a husband a wife pair who write under a pen-name) had randomly decided to write another story and incoorperate it into the book. It just didn't really fit and for the rest of the book I was waiting for the freaky little boy to make an appearance again. Sure enough, he did but it felt as if they had just remembered that he had been the main character of the earlier story and thought that they best write a bit more about him. I wouldn't say it ruined the book but it certainly didn't do anything to enhance it and to be honest, if you decided to skip this part and then rejoin it at maybe the last chapter, you mightn't really feel that you'd missed out!

If I'm going to be realllyyyy picky, which ok...I suppose I will be....the title 'The Hypnotist' doesn't really seem appropriate to me. I mean, yes there is a hypnotist, and yes he does hypnotise once or twice and yes he does make up a lot of the story, but I don't know, after reading it I felt a bit......short changed! I don't know what I was expecting....maybe more hypnosis- type drama, but after reading it I just looked at the title and thought 'hmmmm'. Like I said though, I'm being picky and although it made me think, it didn't affect how much I enjoyed this book.

I've recently become a big fan of Scandinavian authors, such as Jo Nesbo, and can definitely add Lars Kepler to that list now too! One problem I had whilst reading the Jo Nesbo books was that I sometimes found it hard to follow the story due to the difficulty my internal voice has in pronouncing the place or character names! Luckily in this book I didn't find this a big problem and personally, I found the translation pretty good, although I have read other reviews that have complained about this.

Overall despite the random middle section and my pickyness about the title,  I DID really enjoy this book and I'm really looking forward to reading the next book written by the pair. If you like Scandinavian crime books like Jo Nesbo's, I think you'd enjoy this and I would definitely give this a try.....it is worth a read!