The fire witness

Review by Booklist Review

*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

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

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.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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1 Elisabet Grim is fifty-three years old. Her hair is streaked with gray, but her eyes are bright and happy, and when she smiles, one of her front teeth juts out impishly. She is a nurse at Birgittagården, a state-approved home for especially troubled girls north of Sundsvall. It's a small, privately owned residence. Rarely are there more than eight girls there at a time. They range from twelve to seventeen in age. Many are drug addicts when they arrive. Almost all have a history of self-injury--eating disorders, for instance. Some can be violent. For these girls, there is no alternative to Birgittagården, with its alarms and double-locked doors. The next step would be prison or forced confinement in a psychiatric unit. This home, by comparison, is a hopeful place, with the expectation that the girls can make it back someday to open care. As Elisabet often says, "It's the nice girls who end up here." Right now, Elisabet is savoring the last bite of a bittersweet bar of chocolate. She can feel her shoulders begin to relax. The day started well but the evening was hard. There were classes in the morning, and in the afternoon, the girls spent time at the lake. After the evening meal, the housemother went home, leaving Elisabet in charge on her own. The night staff was recently let go when the company changed hands. Elisabet had sat in the nurse's office, catching up with reports, while the girls watched television, which they were allowed to do until ten. And then she'd heard the yelling. It was loud, very loud. She'd hurried to the television room, where Miranda was beating up tiny Tuula. Miranda was screaming that Tuula was a slut and a whore. She'd yanked the little girl off the sofa and was kicking her in the back. It was not unusual for Miranda to explode violently. Elisabet was used to her outbursts. She pulled her away from Tuula, and Miranda slapped Elisabet in the face. Elisabet was used to that, too. Without further discussion she led Miranda down the hall to the isolation room. Elisabet wished Miranda a good night, but Miranda didn't answer. She just sat on the bed and studied the floor with a secretive smile as the nurse shut and locked the door behind her. Elisabet was scheduled to have a private talk with the new girl, Vicky Bennet, but after the conflict, she found she was exhausted and couldn't face it. When Vicky came by and timidly mentioned that it was her turn for a chat, Elisabet put her off. This made Vicky so unhappy, she broke a teacup and slashed her stomach and wrists with the sharpest piece. When Elisabet checked on her a while later, Vicky was sitting in her room with her hands in front of her face and blood running down her arms. The wounds were superficial. Elisabet washed the blood off, wrapped gauze around the girl's wrists, and put a Band-Aid on her stomach. And Elisabet comforted her, soothing her with sweet names, telling her not to worry, coaxing her until a tiny smile crossed the troubled girl's face. For the third night in a row, Elisabet gave the girl ten milligrams of Sonata so she could sleep. Copyright © 2011 by Lars Kepler Translation copyright © 2013 by Laura A. Wideburg Excerpted from The Fire Witness: A Novel by Lars Kepler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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