The Hypnotist

Starred review from May 30, 2011
The brutal slaying of gambling addict Anders Ek, his wife, and his younger daughter propels this outstanding thriller debut from the pseudonymous Kepler (a Swedish literary couple), introducing Stockholm detective Joona Linna. Only Ek's 15-year-old son, Josef, left for dead at his parents' house, survives. Realizing that the vicious killer is likely to also target an older daughter no longer living at home, Linna asks Erik Maria Bark, a trauma physician who practiced hypnosis before being banned from using the technique 10 years earlier, to hypnotize the seriously injured Josef in the hospital. When Josef later escapes from the hospital and Bark's teenage son, Benjamin, is kidnapped, the ensuing frantic search raises the ante. Flashbacks to Bark's hypnosis therapy group reveal that one patient became suicidal in the course of revisiting her past. A well-integrated subplot involving a gang of terrifying boys and girls adds to the suspense. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Linna in what one hopes will be a long series.

It's official: There's no one left in Scandinavia not writing a thriller/horror novel. This entry in the Stieg Larsson sweepstakes should go off at very, very good odds. It's taut, it's interesting, and it has about twice as many amoral and murderous lunatics as its competitors. What's not to like? The hypnotist is a psychiatrist who has pledged never to use hypnosis again and then does so in order to save a life. Why he took that pledge, and what psychos will come out of the woodwork when he breaks it, plays out like a three-ring circus, camera-ready at that. Mark Bramhall's Scandinavian voices and accents ring so true you forget he's acting, and the all-important pace he creates is utterly compelling, controlled, and irresistible. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine