Hopping along the bunny trail has never been more dangerous
“The Rabbit Hunter” by Lars Kepler (Knopf, 512 pages, $27.95)
Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril were already successful writers living in Sweden when they merged their talents to try writing novels as a team. Now they write under the pen name of Lars Kepler.
The experiment has succeeded — their series featuring the crime fighter Joona Linna has sold more than 14 million copies and been translated into 40 languages.
Their novel “The Rabbit Hunter” has recently been translated into English and published in the United States. Numerous Scandinavian writers are garnering attention since the huge popularity of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by another Swedish writer. Lars Kepler merits a spot at the front of this pack of scary scribblers; their stories are superbly conceived and horrifying beyond measure.
As “The Rabbit Hunter” opens, a shocking murder is about to happen.
The victim is a highranking government official. There’s a witness to the crime and after the police are notified the homicide and the circumstances surrounding it are instantly hushed up by the authorities.
One of the officers at the crime scene is Saga Bauer. She is a counterterrorism expert with the Swedish Security Police. She has appeared in previous books in this series and she’s a close associate of Joona Linna, who is currently incarcerated in a maximum-security prison.
Saga realizes that they really need to have Joona Linna involved in investigating this brutal homicide. The first part of this wonderfully long story relates to the ingenious manner in which Joona is extricated from his cell to begin his incredibly intuitive sleuthing.
Kepler introduces us to another important character, a celebrity chef with a drinking problem. This fellow is in high demand on all the cooking shows but his life is a complete mess. He’s a potential suspect in the murder because he knew the victim at boarding school, although he spends a long time denying it.
The killer keeps killing. Each new victim receives a creepy phone call with a recitation of a nursery rhyme right before the next bad thing happens.
Saga and Joona are racing to determine if there were any links between the victims before this serial killer can take another life.
Lars Kepler are so clever, and “The Rabbit Hunter” is a terrific tale of revenge. While the killer is clearly insane, he earns our sympathy.
Be warned: if you have a weak stomach you might want to avoid these books. The violence is extreme. This story contains a sexual encounter that left even this reviewer feeling queasy. If you can handle that sort of graphic material, then you’ll probably enjoy these books as much I do.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.