Series
Genres
Publication
Blue Door (1988)
Description
Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:�??With its tight, staccato chapters and cast of dangerous wraiths lurking everywhere, The Sandman is a nonstop fright.�?� �??Janet Maslin, The New York Times The #1 internationally best-selling thriller from the author of The Hypnotist tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must try to beat him at his own game. Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden's most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman. Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek's capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael's sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before it's too late�??and before he gets insi… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member annbury
a 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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member maneekuhi
ZZZZZZZZZZZ
“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
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.
“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
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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.
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LibraryThing member theeclecticreview
"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
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
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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
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LibraryThing member AKBouterse
The 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
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!
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
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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!
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2014-08-19 [English]
2012 [First edition]
ISBN
0007467796 / 9780007467792
UPC
978007467792
Other editions
The Sandman (Paperback)