When I saw the words "serial killer," in The New York Times review of Lars Kepler's "The Sandman," I was so excited I ran out and bought a copy. What a mistake.
While I cannot judge one hundred percent, as this is only one entry in what is known as "The Joona Linna Series," and Lars Kepler is really a pseudonym for the husband wife team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, and Alexander Ahndoril, the facts gathered demonstrate why the book has problems. It wants to be part of the "Scandinavian noir" genre, but is not as soaring or groundbreaking as, for example, Stieg Larsson's books.
Joona Linna, by the way, is the male detective protagonist of this series!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it ventures into "Silence Of The Lambs" territory, but that is not the problem. The first is that while written collaboration may work great in the theater, it does not necessarily apply to the printed page, which is the case here. The second is the book lacks structure; it has no flow. The authors mistake short, choppy, almost fragmented chapters, as a device for maintaining suspense, but the plan fails miserably. It only makes this a tedious reading experience, within a genre that should be anything but tedious, and it drags out the book to an unnecessary length. The mystery of the serial killer, I am embarrassed to say, I should have seen coming, and the evolution of Jurek Walter into the serial killer he becomes, and the capture of his accomplice and surviving victims, are done, at the end, with no suspense, and as an afterthought.
What a disappointment! Girls, I can honestly tell you to skip this one, and any of Kepler's other books altogether. Don't be mislead by word "serial killer." You get better results with "Miss Havisham."
Now, wouldn't she have made some terrific serial killer???????????
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