IT’S ALL A GAME . . . UNTIL YOU DIE. A brutal killing spree at a home for wayward teens. One girl is dead, another is missing. The police scramble to track her down before the death toll mounts. But as Joona Linna digs deeper into the case, he finds himself on a collision course with a terrifying killer whose past is more troubling than anyone could imagine.
The Fire Witness
By larskepler
amazing and beautiful thriller. it takes a bit of time to get to it height but once it is there it really fly. it is sensitive and deep and touch the nerve with a story that deal mainly with children abuse. even the killer who kills innocent girls is touched by this, been an adopted child with no clear history.
all main characters are wounded ones and Joona the investigator carry the heaviest burden. there are some flaws. i did not like the sex appearance it is a bit forced but it have its function. great writing
4.5/5
The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler has to be my favorite yet of the Joona Linna series, if only for the fact that we finally learn some more about his backstory. I was all ready to rate it a 4 but then we get those end chapters and that bumped it up for me. The mystery was still twisty and great, and even though there are quite a few viewpoints, they all felt more cohesive this time compared to the first 2 books. I did the entire book on audio, and I have to say that I am glad they have Saul Reichlin as the narrator for all of them (at least that I know of so far). He is so fantastic at narrating these books and I never cease to love his enthusiasm when he reads.
The Fire Witness is of course a bit gory, but it is also very suspenseful and layered as all the Kepler books seem to be. It also didn’t really go off on any tangents which I was surprised to see. I love that all the chapters are super short, and even though it takes a while to read, it held my attention the entire time. I love that so much action is packed into this book (and all of them in general), and I certainly didn’t expect the bad guy to be who it was. This was definitely another win for me in this series and I can’t wait to get to the next one!
Interesting mystery and plot
Interesting! Couldn’t put down.
I have been looking for an author I liked as much as I liked Stieg Larsen. Lars Kepler comes very close. This was book three in his Joona Linna series, and I have since gotten one and two. I’m liking book one “The Hypnotist” a lot too. Hopefully all of the books will be as fast moving and entertaining.
I would have given this four and a half stars, but I really didn’t like the present tense it was written, like the whole story happened at the very same time for all the components. It started off slowly, kind of confusing at first, and I thought because of the tense it was written in, I might dump it. It turned out to be a wonderfully written story, a real page turner and masterfully done. On a part with Steig Larsen any day.
This is a great murder story with a wonderful protagonist. I enjoyed all of it, including the final determination of the perp and the tragic chase to capture him. Then, all of a sudden I’m thrown into a rather unbelievable substory of the protagonist’s past and his huge, but unbelievable and unrealistic, sacrifice for his family. That, too, may have been a great story in another novel about that subject. Here, it just irritatingly defocused me knowcking my review down a star.
Couldn’t put this novel down. I found all the characters Interesting. I ordered all the others in the series and have enjoyed them all and hope for more!!!
I liked it until the ending.
I achieved about half what I intended to after starting this book …good story line, great characters and plot kept twisting.
Lars Kepler is enthralling. Moody, unexpected, richly drawn characters