The Fire Witness review

The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler

'Finish detective Joona Linna's third outing is his best so far; brilliantly plotted, not too twisted and long enough to keep you going for a good few days' The Evening Standard

Book Synopsis

One girl is dead

Detective Inspector Joona Linna has been called to a home for troubled girls, north of Stockholm. A young girl has been brutally murdered, her body arranged in bed with her hands covering her eyes.

One girl is missing

Vicky Bennet is the only girl unaccounted for. Did she run away to escape the chaos or does a bloody hammer found under her pillow make her the prime suspect?

One girl claims to have witnessed it all

In Stockholm, Flora Hansen works as a medium, pretending to commune with the dead. When she begins to suffer crippling visions of the young girl’s murder, will anyone believe her?

As Joona refuses to accept the easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent territory, and, finally, to a shocking confrontation with his past.

Shona's review 5 of 5 stars

Let me just start by saying I was offered a copy of this book from Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review. When the email first came through I loved the sound of it, but that pesky first line in the media packet almost put me off... Finish detective Joona Linna's third outing. After all I hadn't heard of Joona Linna let alone read the first two books in this particular series. So I took to Goodreads and one of the first reviews I looked at mentioned that while this is the 3rd book in the 'series' it can be read as a standalone. And having finished the book I can say the same thing. Don't get me wrong, there are details that you may understand better if you have read the first 2 books but it really isn't necessary.

This book starts out the way it means to go on. Dark, gritty and brutal. We have murder, mental health issues and violence.. as well as dealing with the bureaucracy of the police departments. In some ways this book is horrible, there's no sappy moments, no hidden love story so if this is what you're looking for then back away slowly from the book and find something else. If you are looking for some grisly, something that is going to make you second guess your guess and assumptions, a truly well written crime/thriller then this is the book for you. I have seen it compared to Stieg Larsson's novels but not having read any of those i cant honestly compare them myself. It is however one of the best crime/thriller novels I have read.

This story is so well written, not just the storyline but the manner in which it is told, that it is difficult to put the book down, so much so that I read most of it in one day. As I said before, this is my first Joona Linna novel and so it is also my first Lars Kepler novel, but it will NOT be my last. Not only am I eager to find out what happens next I want to find out what happened before.

Praise for Lars Kepler

'Taking Europe by storm' Daily Mail

'Kepler has a direct line to a very dark place in the human soul' Time Magazine

'Commanding, deeply scarifying stuff' The Independent

'One of the best - if not the best - Scandinavian crime thrillers I've read' Red

'A high octane, taut thriller' Marie Claire

About the authors

Alexander Ahndoril (born 1967) has published seven novels and also written plays. His novel The Director, about Ingmar Bergman was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2009

Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril was born in 1966 by Swedish-Portuguese parents. Her first books, the novel Stjarneborg (Castle of Stars), was published in 2003 and awarded the Catapult Prize for the best first book.

Buy links

Amazon UK http://amzn.to/14VRdnw