Publishers Weekly
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While technically on administrative leave, detective Joona Linna is assigned to a case in a Swedish town where a young girl at a residential program has been found dead. He checks and double checks the curious circumstances of the death and tries to find information from the victim's housemates, but Linna is also willing to hear what Flora Hansen, a local medium of questionable skill, has to say. This dark mystery is rendered even more haunting by Mark Bramhall's performance. His deep and crackling voice not only heightens the book's significant suspense but also grabs listeners' attention and refuses to let go. Bramhall practically growls at times, but despite speaking in lower registers, he manages to ably convey a range of voices, including those of women, young and old. A Sarah Crichton hardcover. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Insanity and evil pervade the pseudonymous Kepler's gripping third novel featuring Stockholm Det. Insp. Joona Linna (after 2012's The Nightmare). At a facility for troubled girls, a resident and the nurse in charge have both had their skulls crushed. One of the inmates, Vicky Bennet, has gone missing, a bloody hammer left in her bed. Although Vicky seems incapable of murder, she becomes the only suspect. Vicky's theft of a car results in the accidental kidnapping of four-year-old Dante Abrahamsson, who's asleep in the back of the car. When Linna discovers the missing car in a river, both Vicky and Dante are presumed dead, and the investigation is closed. Linna, though, is certain that they're both still alive and continues his search. False leads, administrative difficulties, and hints of a case involving Linna's own family keep the pages flying by. Agent: Jonas Axelsson, Bonnier Group Agency (Sweden). (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* In Sundsvall, Sweden, police responding to a distress call at a girls' group home discover a brutally murdered teenager posed with her hands covering her eyes. Blood-soaked bedding in an adjacent bedroom conceals a hammer, and that room's occupant, Vicky, has fled through an open window. While police collect evidence, a figure resembling Vicky emerges from the forest nearby and steals a car with a preschooler strapped inside. Joona Linna, recently sidelined by an internal-affairs investigation but still widely recognized as Sweden's premier investigator, is ordered to respond as an observer to the local investigation. When the car is found submerged in a river, both children are assumed dead, and the official scenario paints Vicky as a savage killer and kidnapper. Inconveniently, Linna finds evidence that they're still alive, and he begins poking holes in the police scenario. At the same time, he faces personal dilemmas upon learning that the wife and child he sent into hiding years ago are once again facing danger. This third novel featuring Joona Linna is a knockout example of the thoughtful plotting and character development, genius investigation, and unflinching examination of human evil common in Scandinavian crime fiction. But it's the mixture of relaxed, witty dialogue and raging action scenes that will draw American readers who believe the Scandinavian subgenre is too moody for their taste.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Superb, spooky whodunit from the Swedish couple who write as Kepler (The Nightmare, 2012, etc.). Considering the nasty things that the likes of Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson and now Kepler have been turning up underneath Sweden's soft, pine-clad, liberal veneer, it seems surprising that the entire country has not emigrated to safer climes. Some cannot, though, notably the young women who live at a home for wayward youth in the country's chilly north--a place where Very Bad Things are about to happen. The mayhem begins with the extremely graphic murder of a ward nurse ("She cannot see her body lying on the floor or the dog sneaking in and tentatively lapping the blood leaking from her crushed head"), and that's just the start. Enter world-weary detective Joona Linna, whom one of the girls tellingly calls "the Finn" and who really shouldn't be on the case; he's in trouble, it seems, for having leaked information to a leftist group back home in Stockholm, and in any event, he's a little shellshocked, "searching for that mental stillness that will allow him to observe and not give in to the impulse to look away." There's plenty to look away from, though Joona immediately sees things that others do not, even as one of his informants sees a malevolent ghost in the hallways. But why would someone, real or supernatural, go to all the work of killing a nurse and trying to pin it on a troubled kid? Ah, cherchez la chose: Someone wants something, and that someone figures in the worst of Joona's dreams and case files. As the story unfolds, the mad look sane and the sane look mad, and Kepler's novel turns from simple mystery to an intriguing, satisfying blend of police procedural and horror story. A rich, nuanced tale, ideal for beach reading, just as long as the beach doesn't harbor too many shadows.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.