The Sandman
Written by Lars Kepler
Narrated by Saul Reichlin
4/5
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About this audiobook
HE’LL STEAL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP
The fourth gripping serial killer thriller in the No.1 bestselling Joona Linna series. Perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo.
HE’S SWEDEN’S MOST PROLIFIC SERIAL KILLER.
Jurek Walter is serving a life sentence. Kept in solitary confinement, he is still considered extremely dangerous by psychiatric staff.
HE’LL LULL YOU INTO A SENSE OF CALM.
Mikael knows him as “the sandman”. Seven years ago, he was taken from his bed along with his sister. They are both presumed dead.
HE HAS ONE TARGET LEFT.
When Mikael is discovered on a railway line, close to death, the hunt begins for his sister. To get to the truth, Detective Inspector Joona Linna will need to get closer than ever to the man who stripped him of a family; the man who wants Linna dead.
Lars Kepler
Lars Kepler is a No.1 bestselling international sensation, whose Joona Linna thrillers have sold more than 12 million copies in 40 languages. The first book in the series, The Hypnotist, was selected for the 2012 Richard and Judy Book Club. The most recent, Stalker, went straight to No.1 in Sweden, Norway, Holland and Slovakia. Lars Kepler is the pseudonym for writing duo, Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril. They live with their family in Sweden.
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Reviews for The Sandman
207 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the best book on the joona linna series
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stockholm. This is the best book of series so far. Jurek Walter has been dead for over 7 years but he shows up with hypothermia. DI Joona Linda investigates and opens a kidnap cold case from years ago. Saga volunteers to go in isolation with Walter to see what she can learn. A creepy thriller with a very surprise ending. Need to read the next book soon! Highly recommend to those who love Mystery Thrillers and #NordicNoir.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great addition to the series. The characters are well constructed.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5It stopped before the bloody end! Hours of not the greatest writing and then the ending cut short! ARGH!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This audiobook is incomplete. It ended on ch. 178, please fix it.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I am very sad and disappoint because the book has no end. Four chapters are missing here. Is it normal? K.Širůčková
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When twenty-three year old Mikael Kohler-Frost, dazed, feverish, and painfully thin, escapes from a captor who held him prisoner for thirteen years, the authorities are stunned. How did this young man get away when so many others, including his sister Felicia, disappeared, never to be seen again? The answer can be found in the mind of a demented but crafty villain, Jurek Walter ("he has committed the most heinous crimes of any serial killer in Swedish history), who is confined in a secure psychiatric facility in L̦wenstr̦mska hospital. He is considered to be so dangerous that he is not permitted to receive visitors or correspond by mail with anyone. One of his most frightening characteristics is his uncanny ability to brainwash anyone foolish enough to listen to his hypnotic voice.
Hoping to find Mikael's sister before it is too late, Detective Inspector Joona Linna and his colleagues decide to send the stunningly beautiful, strong, but emotionally fragile Inspector Saga Bauer undercover. She will pose as a tormented and dangerous mental patient; her superiors hope that Walter will be intrigued enough by Saga to reveal some of his secrets. "The Sandman," by Lars Kepler (the pseudonym of married couple Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alenxander Ahndoril), translated by Neil Smith, is a tale of sadism, revenge, and unspeakable cruelty. As long as Walter is alive, no one whom he targets is safe from psychological and physical torment.
Jurek Walter may be a sociopath, but he is also insightful and intelligent. He knows all too well that when a family's loved ones are suddenly snatched away, those left behind will probably never be whole again. Kepler writes extremely short chapters (this gets a bit irritating) and frequently moves back and forth in time. The authors also alternate points of view, allowing us to observe plot developments through the eyes of various individuals, including the victims, police officers, and psychiatrists. As the body count rises, the detectives fear that they may have underestimated their adversary. This is a graphically violent novel about a superhuman mastermind at war with law enforcement professionals who, unfortunately, lag behind in their efforts to outwit him. By the time Joona Linna understands Walter's motive and methods, it may be too late to undo all of the damage that this fiend has inflicted on his victims. Scandinavian thrillers are frequently dark and depressing, but when it comes to brutality and gore, "The Sandman" is in a category of its own. This book will appeal to fans of complex, unsettling, and dark works of fiction. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ending of these books are always so dramatic, it gets me every time. Recently I was approved for the ARC of book 8 in this series, so I'm trying to make my way through the rest of the books before I need to read that one. I still really enjoy this series. This book deals more directly with an antagonist that has been in the background of previous books. This is pretty common in these long detective series. I usually don't like this; when I used to watch crime shows I would usually stop after the first season or two because I only really like villains of the week stories rather than long-term villains. However, I actually enjoyed it here. I didn't love the Saga plotline. It just seemed like a really bad idea to begin with and it only really mattered at the very end of the book. I'm still not sure if I like her character or not so that may be part of the problem. Overall though, I thought this was a very well laid out mystery and I would have read it a lot quicker if I wasn't in the middle of finals. I'm excited to carry on in this series with book 5!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5ZZZZZZZZZZZ“The Sandman” (SM) by Lars Kepler, actually a husband and wife writing team, is the 4th of six Joona Linna novels. Joona is with National (Swedish) Crime and much of the action takes place in the Stockholm area. I was recently drawn to this book by a NYT Janet Maslin review. In her review she mentions that the series never quite caught on as hoped for in the US back in 2014, and she theorizes it was due to all the competition from better known Scandi authors, Nesbo, Stieg Larsson et al. I’m not so sure that I agree with that. I recall the introduction of the first Joona book, “The Hypnotist” (HY) and the publicity surrounding its release. My recollection was that reviews were mixed and that many critics focused negatively on the gore and torture in the story; I decided to pass. Upon the recent reissue of SM, I read another somewhat favorable review in the Washington Post and decided to give the series a try. Bad decision.The story starts off well enough. A psycho killer, Jurek, is held in isolation in a suite of cells behind quadruple levels of security, ala Hannibal Lecter. One can’t escape several parallels between the two (I am tempted to cite the delicious quote of Senator Lloyd Bentsen but I’ll resist). It is assumed he knows the location of a young girl held in captivity and she is in danger of dying within days. How to get the information? That’s the set-up, and one big problem with the plot is that most of us can do a rough outline of the rest of the story. Don’t believe me? OK, major plot point number two…..c’mon, think about it….that’s right, plant a cop in one of the adjoining suite cells, a female cop right? A gorgeous female cop!Yes, it gets a bit predictable, and gory. And we learn an awful lot about drugs used to treat psychos (and some of us). And some plot points really strain credibility. To the breaking point. As when Jurek whispers to cellmate #3 (a real bad guy brought in with gorgeous cop just to trick Jurek into believing gorgeous cop’s cover story) an order to take a nearby electric cord, sling it over the door, and hang himself. And guess what #3 does? Maybe these authors are a bit too much into hypnotism. So what is hero Joona doing all this time? He is the guy who captured Jurek long ago. He knows Jurek. He can anticipate what Jurek is going to do. So when all the other cops come to a consensus on what their next step should be, Joona jumps in and tells them they are all wrong and they have to do the exact opposite. Joona is a bore and I don’t really care what has happened to Joona. It’s not a good thing when you don’t care for your hero.SM felt to me like a one-set play for most of the story, lots of dialog, monitoring of conversations etc. Then the tail end becomes an action thriller. I can almost see the movie trailers now.Note that I mentioned “re-issue” in the opening paragraph. The first book, HY, has been re-translated, and is in the process of being reissued; the original version does not seem the be available. However, other books in the series are available on Amazon, some in paper, some on Kindle. I mention all this just in case some of you may be drawn to the series and may read other entries. Not me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"Even though Jurek Walter has committed the most heinous crimes of any serial killer in Swedish history, he is completely unknown to the public. The proceedings against him in the Central Court House and at the Court of Appeal were held behind closed doors, and all the files are strictly confidential."Detective Inspector Joona Linna is determined to find The Sandman who held a young boy and his sister captive for 13 years, and the serial killer, Jurek Walter, locked away in a mental institution with no physical contact with other people holds the secret. The young boy, now a young man, has escaped the elusive Sandman and tells a terrifying tale of terror and suffering beyond all comprehension. The boy's sister is still a captive, and Jinna must find her before it's too late. In order to get Jurek Walter to talk, Linna elicits Inspector Saga Bauer's help to be part of a risky undercover operation posing as a mental patient and getting Walter to tell her the place where the missing girl is being held captive.See my complete review at The Eclectic Review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5a great thriller. this book is a real pageturner; the swedish cops know that the serial killer is locked away in a psychiatric hospital, but Joona Linna, the book's hero, thinks otherwise. The serial killer has a twin brother who is emotionally damaged and who does his bidding. the hunt for this person is nuts and joona plants a cop , the redoubtable lady policeman and boxer Saga Brauer in his cell to get some info on the missing daughter of a man whose son has escaped from the twin's capture.