The Rabbit Hunter

Starred review from November 4, 2019
Kepler (the pen name for a husband-and-wife writing team) manage a clever and intriguing variant on the serial killer theme in their outstanding sixth novel featuring Stockholm Det. Insp. Joona Linna (after 2019’s Stalker). Linna, who’s behind bars for helping a convict escape and assaulting a guard, gets a chance at redemption when he’s summoned to a meeting with his attorney, only to find the Swedish prime minister present. The previous night, Swedish foreign minister William Fock was murdered in his home by a masked man. Fock’s killer left a living witness—escort Sofia Stefansson, whose assignation went bad after Fock drugged her and tied her to his bed. Stefansson overheard the murderer tell Fock that “Ratjen opened the door.” The police believe Ratjen to be Salim Ratjen, a convicted drug dealer who was recorded making a phone call referencing “three big celebrations.” Since the date of the first one coincides with Fock’s killing, the PM fears that two more terror attacks are in the works. Linna agrees to help, but the investigation takes some highly unexpected directions. Kepler has never been better at hiding key clues in plain sight. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

November 1, 2019
More Scandinavian psychopathy from the pseudonymous husband-wife team. Sometimes a boy needs his dad. It being a Shakespearean world, sometimes a boy just needs to kill his dad, even if the paternity is not firmly established--in which instance you can bet on plenty of collateral damage. In Kepler's newest, the bodies stack up quickly. The first to fall is Sweden's foreign minister, who is decidedly not a nice guy and has his eyes shot out for his transgressions. That's not the least icky of the ugly fates visited on the so-called Rabbit Hunter's victims, as when the killer gazes meaningfully at one of them and "decides that he's going to cut his legs off and watch him crawl like a snail through his own blood." Against this gruesome backdrop, only Joona Linna, the ethnically Finnish Swedish supercop, stands a chance of sussing out what's going on. Trouble is, he's in the slammer, having been locked away in a maximum security prison for the last two years for his part in events that unfolded in Stalker (2019). It's only when the prime minister, suspecting that his foreign minister's death has come at the hands of terrorists, intercedes to make Joona "a highly unorthodox offer" that he can swing back into action with Stockholm cop Saga Bauer and figure out why it is that the trail of blood leads to a TV studio by way of a Chicago psychiatric hospital. As always, along with the many bodies left behind by the "spree killer," there's a shoal of red herrings in Kepler's narrative--human smugglers here, Afghan refugees and the FBI there--and all sorts of ancillary unpleasantries, from rape to evisceration and the chilling thought that when the Rabbit Killer's victims finally die, various bits of their bodies removed, "the world becomes completely still, like a winter landscape." Fast-paced and fluent, with all the authors' trademark stratagems. Sure to be a hit, though best read by those with strong stomachs.

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January 1, 2020

The sixth Det. Joona Linna mystery (after Stalker) arrives in the States from internationally best-selling Kepler, pseudonym for a Swedish husband-and-wife writing team. Joona now resides in a high-security prison after helping a convicted felon escape and assaulting a guard. He harbors no hope of returning to his police career, but when the Swedish foreign minister is murdered and more high-profile deaths seem imminent, the prime minister asks Joona to investigate in exchange for his freedom. As the killing continues, he must quickly find the thread that connects the victims. While he scours an elite boarding school in Sweden, security police detective Saga Bauer heads to Chicago, hoping to discover more clues at a psychiatric home. Soon it becomes clear that past horrors have caused this current nightmare, and it will take all of Joona's wits and strength to stop the lethal killer. VERDICT With a captivating detective, a hideous serial killer, and nonstop suspense, this confirms Kepler as a master of disturbing psychological crime novels, showing the darker side of humanity. [See Prepub Alert, 7/8/19.]--Melissa DeWild, Comstock Park, MI

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2019
In his sixth thriller, imprisoned former detective Joona Linna attempts to reclaim the career he was forced to abandon after the events recounted in Stalker (2019). When the Swedish foreign minister is murdered, a witness' terrified statement points to a drug kingpin with vague terrorist ties. Saga Bauer, the Security Police's lead detective and Linna's former colleague, negotiates a pardon for Linna if he agrees to infiltrate the kingpin's organization. After the operation goes sideways, Linna discovers that the lead was misinterpreted: the killer was actually hunting the drug lord's outwardly innocent brother. Before Linna can persuade the Security Police to drop the terrorism angle, the killer strikes again. Meanwhile, Linna is reinstated by her former boss with the national police, freeing him to unravel their only solid clue: the victims' ties to an elite boarding school's secret society. Linna's acts of heroism occasionally strain reality, but the resulting action, combined with the unflinching mood of Scandinavian noir, holds strong appeal for American thriller fans, especially those of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)