THE MIRROR MAN By Lars Kepler #TheMirrorMan @ZaffreBooks @RandomTTours

Posted on June 8, 2022 by J-LBRBSBLOGS

IF YOU SEE HIS REFLECTION IT’S ALREADY TOO LATE . . .

Book blurb

Seventeen-year-old Jenny is abducted in broad daylight and taken to a dilapidated, isolated house where she is chained and caged along with several other girls. Their captor is unpredictable, and as wily as he is cruel: he foils every one of their desperate attempts to escape . . . and once caught they rarely survive their punishment.

Five years later, Jenny is found dead in a public park, and the police are scrambling to find a lead among the scant evidence. But Detective Joona Linna realizes that this murder has an eerie connection to a death that was declared a suicide years before. And now when Mia, a seventeen-year-old orphan, goes missing, it becomes clear to Joona that they are dealing with a serial killer-and the murderous rampage has just begun.

As the police close in on the killer, Mia and her fellow captives are plunged into ever greater danger, and Joona finds himself in a seemingly impossible race against time to save their young lives.

My thoughts

This is a dark story, well written and I really enjoyed it. It is a story of heartbreaking loss and of traumatic circumstances that lead to horrific events. There is kidnapping, rape, brutality and murder. Whilst it is graphic in places it is not gory and, yes, it is shocking but this story is totally gripping.

It has you wondering how people can do such things to other human beings. More specifically and especially why men continue to treat women as they do. It leaves you desperately hoping that the cycle of abuse that brings this kind of behaviour into the world can continue to be broken if not completely done away with. We see too many of these stories in real life of women taken, enslaved and brutally mistreated. It needs to stop.

Is our need for power so important? We see it in everyday life, at work, at home in so many situations large and small. We call it ‘politics’ or ‘family’ but are we not able to differentiate between right and wrong? To understand that no one persons need is more important than another’s – man or woman – when it come to those simple but vital ‘rights of man’.

“Article I. Every human being has the right to life, liberty and the security of his person. Right to life, liberty and personal security. Article II. All persons are equal before the law and have the rights and duties established in this Declaration, without distinction as to race, sex, language, creed or any other factor.”
AMERICAN DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF MAN

I am not American nor do I live in the USA but this seems to sum up what every human being has a right to, at the very least. There is, of course THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR) established in 1948 and it states 30 rights and freedoms that belong to each and everyone of us.

“A globally agreed document that marked out all humans as being free and equal, regardless of sex, colour, creed, religion or other characteristics. The 30 rights and freedoms set out in the UDHR include the right to be free from torture, the right to freedom of expression, the right to education and the right to seek asylum. It includes civil and political rights, such as the rights to life, liberty and privacy. It also includes economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to social security, health and adequate housing.”
UDHR (Amnesty International)

Sadly, of course, there are countries that have not signed this document and there individuals who ignore or flout laws that have been made to reflect these rights and freedoms.

However, it is the individual that crime fiction so often centres on. Those who are unable to control their bad instincts because they are ill or have themselves been treated so badly they have a warped view on how to behave or, perhaps, are simply evil.

These are the people that such stories as The Mirror Man has it’s initial beginnings from. The people who, for whatever reason, perpetrate the most awful of crimes. The authors have built into this story what drove the terrible events in The Mirror Man and show that crimes are often committed by those who themselves have suffered deep trauma and been damaged by it. They are inflicted by men and women.

From this we have in The Mirror Man a crime fiction book that brings us, the readers, a thrilling, heady and gripping story of one man, Joona Linna, a detective who believes that there is something even darker happening when Jenny Lind, a young woman who went missing years before, is found hanged to death in a playground. This is not going to be a single death investigation he is sure but shows all the signs of a serial perpetrator. But what exactly is happening? How many more women have or will be taken and killed before Joona can understand and track down the perpetrator?

Pamela and Martin have been married for a number of years but when Alice dies Martin retreats into himself with a complicated case of PTSD and has been in a mental care facility ever since. Pamela, an architect, turned to drinking heavily after her daughter died but recently she has been looking to adopt a 17 year old, Mia, who has been in care since her parents died. If it’s going to happen then Martin needs to come home, permanently. Doing so will show that there is a stable environment for Mia. Working to this end over time Martin is finally coming home and if everything goes well adoption proceedings can commence. He is just beginning to settle in, taking the dog for it’s nightly walk, when he witnesses a young women’s murder.

What transpires is a story that will keep you enthralled in this skilfully written, engrossing and unputdownable book.

Even though this is the eighth book in the Joona Linna series it is most definitely a book that can be read on it’s own. Although you may well find yourself rushing off to read the others.

Thanks

Many thanks to Anne at RandomThingsTours for the invitation to join this wonderful BlogTour for The Mirror Man by Lars Kepler and to Zaffre Books for an eCopy of the book.

Blog Tour

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Information

Published: Bonnier Books UK – 23rd June 2022, Zaffre, Hardback, eBook and Audio, £14.99

Originally published in Sweden by Albert Bonniers Förlag in 2020 This edition published in the UK in 2022 by Zaffre, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK.

Bonnier Books UK: is a major UK publisher with sales of £80m. Home to 12 adult and children’s imprints, they publish across a wide variety of genres for different ages. From crime to reading group fiction; memoir to self-help; activity to reference – “we believe every book matters”. Bonnier Books UK is owned by Bonnier Books, a family-owned company headquartered in Sweden. Bonnier Books is a top-15 world publisher

Buy: Waterstones | HiveUK | AmazonSmileUK | Local bookshop | Bookshop.org (affiliate link)

Author

Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of critically acclaimed husband and wife team Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril (b. 1966) and Alexander Ahndoril (b. 1967), authors of the No. 1 internationally bestselling Joona Linna series.

With seven instalments to date, the series has sold 15 million copies in 40 languages. The Ahndorils were both established writers before they adopted the pen name Lars Kepler, and have each published several acclaimed novels.

The Joona Linna Series