Like The Hypnotist, the first title in Lars Kepler's Joona Linna series, The Fire Witness opens with a terrifying scene, then proceeds through several twisty plotlines before the heart-gripping conclusion.
Linna, detective inspector with Sweden's National Police, is summoned to a home for troubled girls where a double murder has occurred, both victims' heads bashed by a blunt instrument. The suspect, a resident named Vicky, is missing and later seen stealing a car with a small boy inside.
Despite the strong evidence pointing to Vicky, Linna is disturbed by certain details that don't add up. He consults a medium who claims to know information not publicly released. Linna's colleagues write Vicky off as dead and the case is closed, but he believes she's alive, maybe even innocent, and continues his pursuit. What he discovers are old wounds and terrible secrets that someone would kill to keep hidden.
After the second Linna novel, The Nightmare, took on political topics, this third installment returns to form with more personal stories. The husband-and-wife writing team behind "Lars Kepler" wreak much tragedy and suffering on their characters, but instead of asking for pity by depicting the girls as victims, the authors paint them as nasty and vicious, somehow making their murder more devastating: What horrors have they endured to turn out this way? Readers also get to see more of Linna's past and learn why the man is such a loner. Everything is revealed with a pervasive sense of creepiness, causing welcome chills during hot summer reading. --Elyse Dinh-McCrilllis, freelance writer and editor, blogging at Pop Culture Nerd