LARS KEPLER, AUTHOR OF THE HYPNOTIST AND THE NIGHTMARE, DELIVERS THE MOST THRILLING JOONA LINNA NOVEL YET IN THE FIRE WITNESS
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** Flora Hansen makes her living masquerading as a medium. Yet when a young woman is brutally murdered at a rural home for wayward girls, she begins to suffer visions that are all too real. She calls the police, claiming to have seen a ghost, but Detective Inspector Joona Linna is the only one who listens. The case seems obvious to everyone: Another girl fled the home on the night of the killing and left behind a bloody hammer under her pillow. But Hansen insists that the murder weapon was, in fact, a stone. Linna refuses to accept the easy answers, and his search leads him into darker, more violent territoryβand to a shocking confrontation with a figure from his past.
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From Publishers Weekly
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)
From Booklist
Starred Review In Sundsvall, Sweden, police responding to a distress call at a girlsβ 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 roomβs 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 Swedenβs premier investigator, is ordered to respond as an βobserverβ 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 theyβre 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 itβs 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. --Christine Tran