The Hypnotist

By: Lars Kepler

Published by: Harper Collins

ISBN:  978-0-00-735911-0

Reviewed by: Kylie Fox

Three members of a family are brutally slaughtered; the young son the only survivor left in the house but with multiple stab wounds, his survival was a close call. The case seems personal so grave fears are held for an elder sister who lives away from the family home. Will the killer go after her next?

Detective Inspector Joona Linna takes on the case at his own demand, but with no witnesses, aside from a deeply traumatised and comatose boy, Linna doesn’t know where to start. Obsessed with finding the truth, Linna turns to disgraced specialist Erik Maria Bark for assistance. Bark is The Hypnotist but he’s sworn never to practise again. When he finally relents and agrees to hypnotise the boy, a chain of events that none of them could see coming is unleashed and the consequences are far reaching for all of them.

The premise of this book is fantastic and has all the hallmarks of a great book but, unfortunately, didn’t quite manage to live up to them. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the book, I did, but not as much as I wanted to.

It’s impossible to avoid drawing comparisons to other books as the Scandinavian crime juggernaut continues to roll, but this book is very different from many of its counterparts. The Hypnotist is set in Sweden but, unlike others, the characters and the story are universal – this book could have been set anywhere in the world.

Parts of this book were terrifyingly creepy and the suspense is drawn right throughout but as the intensity builds, parts begin to unravel. Several plot points were left unresolved, info-dumps abound and unfortunately, not a lot surprised me. I had the ending well figured out long before the author was willing to reveal it.

The story is told in present tense which, whether due to translation or the author’s mistakes, wasn’t done quite well enough to pull it off. Too often, an awkward phrase would pull me out of the story and remind me that I was merely reading a book so that I couldn’t fully immerse myself in the world.

The multiple character points of view, though in itself not an issue, were done in such a way that often the reader is left feeling yanked out of a characters head and thrown into another. There is also an inordinate length of time before we’re taken back to the previous character to continue their thread.

The Hypnotist was intelligently written and contained some great, if chilling, insights into the characters psyches and behaviours and the long-reaching consequences of each of their actions but just falls a little flat.

This book has an almost cinematic feel to it and would probably translate better in film than it does on the page.

Despite all this, it was an enjoyable and interesting read and worth taking a look at. Perhaps you’ll see something in it that I didn’t.

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Some of the lines, delivered with utter sangfroid, are just inspired. Occasionally, the series lets itself down with some practical oversights but overall I’m having a fan girl attack. With eight seasons still to watch, it will be interesting to see the turnover in cast/characters. Will I be able to maintain my attachment without Matthew MacFadyen?

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