The Hypnotist
By Lars Kepler
McClelland & Stewart publishers
This is a very fast-paced murder story, that will keep you riveted for five hundred pages. Lars Kepler is the pen name of a literary couple who live and write in Sweden.
The book begins with the very grisly murder of a mother and two children. Later, the fathers body is found in another location, also the victim of a brutal attack. It is known that the father is deeply in debt to unsavoury characters. The only survivor is the teenage son but he is near death with many stab wounds.
Detective Joona Lina believes that though the boy is fighting for his life, he may be able to give them a clue about the murderer, so Lina has sent for a psychiatrist who is an hypnotist.
It is learned that the family also had another older daughter, who did not live with the family. The murderer has killed mother, father and little sister; the boys life hangs by a thread. Its quite possible the other daughter will be targeted next. The police need any hint, however small, obtained if they hope to save the girls life.
The hypnotist is Eric Maria Bark, a trauma specialist and psychiatrist who has used hypnotism in the past, but not for 20 years.
He ended that part of his practice for very good reasons, and has promised his wife and the authorities that he will not use it again. Still, this is a special case, the murder is vicious and violent, pressure is put on him from the top. Surely such a murderer should be caught at any cost.
The treatment is successful in an unexpected way, and the case becomes a riddle of family dynamics and dysfunction.
Eric Maria Bark is married to Simone, who owns an Art gallery and they have a son Benjamin, who suffers from a blood disease and is very vulnerable, should he be injured, even in a slight way. For this reason, and for other stresses in the psychiatrist’s life, he uses drugs quite indiscriminately.
Suddenly the home of the hypnotist is under attack. Benjamin disappears and the doctor is advised to “look for old enemies.” Old files and films are unearthed and the patients of the doctor are revisited. Many of these former patients, treated with hypnosis were far from cured when the doctor was forced to stop their treatment. Some of them have reason to hate him, but kidnaping and murder?
The Detective Joona Lina has enjoyed success in all his cases, he is not one to back down or give up. Simone’s father, a retired policeman, is an effective ally. The plot has many twists and turns and readers may be surprised to find that there is even a Pokemon factor.
Those readers who found they could not get enough of Stieg Larsson will find this just the same kind of edge-of-the-chair read.
This is a sexy, exciting and creepy story.
Peggy Freeman is a freelance writer living in Red Deer.