The Mirror Man (Joona Linna Book 8) by Lars Kepler

 

The Mirror Man (Joona Linna Book 8) by Lars Kepler.

Published 26th May 2022 by Zaffre.

From the cover of the book:

IF YOU SEE HIS REFLECTION
IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE . . .

Five years ago, Jenny Lind was abducted on her way home from school.

Now her lifeless body is found hanging in a playground. But there is no evidence and only one witness - a man who cannot remember what he saw.

With Detective Joona Linna and the police scrambling to find a lead, another girl goes missing. And as they close in on the killer, they discover that the Mirror Man's crimes are more shocking than they ever could have imagined . . .

***********

Five years ago, teenager Jenny Lind was snatched by a shadowy figure on her way home from school and bundled into the back of a lorry. The police had little to go on, and the investigation turned up no leads. It was assumed that Jenny's case would remain forever unsolved...

But now she has been found brutally murdered in a Stockholm playground. The only witness is a man suffering from complex mental health issues, and he claims to be unable to remember what he saw.

Detective Joona Linna, reeling from his own personal problems, is sure that this is not an isolated case, but it is proving difficult to persuade his superiors that there might be a serial killer at large preying on young women. When another young girl goes missing, Joona seems to be the only one with the skills needed to put the pieces together, but even he is overwhelmed at the sheer scale of the crimes of the Mirror Man...

The Mirror Man is a deliciously complex, many layered, Scandi noir mystery about the search for a seriously disturbed serial killer. This is Joona Linna's eighth crime mystery by the best-selling husband and wife team Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, who write under the name Lars Kepler, but is my first adventure at his side, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole creepy experience. This can easily be read as a standalone, if you bear in mind the Scandi noir pre-requisites of a talented, but troubled detective.

The story revolves around the search for the serial killer the Mirror Man, who certainly has a lot of issues to work through - unfortunately he does this by abducting, holding hostage, and killing young women in a horribly ritualistic manner, with the help of his accomplice 'Granny'. The beginning of the book is a little disjoined, but once detective Joona Linna appears on the scene the story really takes off, and holds you fast, which is a mighty feat considering this book weighs in at 576 pages!

Joona Linna is a knotty protagonist, carrying the weight of his complicated past, and he rather entertainingly channels Sherlock Holmes in more ways than one. His intuitive flashes drive the story along, taking us ever closer to the shocking truth, and the plot twists and turns as the narrative swaps between Joona and a variety of characters - including some of the girls who have been abducted and are being held in appalling conditions awaiting their fate. 

My goodness, this is tense stuff, and I think the most gruesome piece of detective fiction I have read for a very long time. Imagine Thomas Harris, by way of Stieg Larsson, and you might get the picture - with the darkest of slick psychological thrillers; macabre murders conjured from your worst nightmares; and full-on Scandinavian location and weather vibes; all cleverly tied together to elicit just the right level of menace. I was unable to look away from the gritty, beautifully paced action for a second!

As Scandi thrillers go, this is very much on the horror side of the genre, and it certainly is disturbing, with themes of severe mental disorders, PTSD, trauma, abuse, grief, religious mania, drugs, and serious violence running throughout. But it is also a cracking page turner of a read for those of you not afraid to walk on the wild side. I loved it and cannot wait to delve into Joona Linna's past cases to fill in all the backstories!

The Mirror Man is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Zaffre for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

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 No. 1 internationally bestselling Joona Linna series.

With seven instalments to date, the series has sold 15 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.