A Swedish thriller that's "phenomenal" and an "international sensation." You've heard this before, but it's not PR hyperbole. The Hypnotist truly is extraordinary--a heart-pounding, enthralling story of madness and malevolence.
A 15-year-old boy lies unconscious in a hospital, suffering from hundreds of knife wounds, the only survivor of a vicious attack in his home that killed his mother and younger sister. The boy's father was found dead at a playground, and Evelyn, the older sister, is missing. Homicide detective Joona Linna thinks the killer is after her, and believes the boy would be able to identify the killer. He calls Erik Maria Bark, a physician who specializes in treating acute trauma. Bark examines the boy, Josef, and says it's not possible to question him. When Linna casually suggests trying hypnosis, Bark forcefully declines--hypnosis was a practice he had vowed a decade earlier to stop after being accused of planting false memories in the mind of a woman in a therapy group of trauma survivors. But Linna is determined to find the sister, and Bark finally capitulates. But with the response he elicits from Josef, the puzzle deepens--is it possible that the boy killed his family and mutilated himself?
Two men--Bark and Linna--with pasts they cannot escape, single-minded in their attempt to stop an unspeakable horror, are hurled through a riveting story of obsession and revenge. The Hypnotist is played out against the backdrop of a Swedish winter, where snow falls from a black sky, the trees are bare, and the chilling ice and slush are no match for the searing burn of evil. --Marilyn Dahl, book review editor, Shelf Awareness