The Hypnotist

A Novel

By: Lars Kepler

Narrated by: Saul Reichlin

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • The first of the Killer Instinct series featuring Detective Joona Linna: a triple murder, the one surviving witness—a boy with no memory of what happened—and the hypnotist hired to help uncover the truth.

“Full of surprises and more than enough twists to keep those pages turning well into the night.” —NPR

The police are desperate for information on the triple homicide. Detective Joona Linna enlists the help of hypnotist Erik Maria Bark. But when Bark unlocks the secrets in the boy’s memory, he triggers a terrifying chain of events that will put all their lives in jeopardy.

©2018 Lars Kepler (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Full of surprises and more than enough twists to keep those pages turning well into the night.” —NPR

“Compellingly grisly.” —Vogue

“A gripping series of twists and turns.... A natural successor to the Stieg Larsson series.” —Parade

Nonstop suspense

I recently discovered this author. I am hooked on the characters. Great story line, keeps you wondering.

Great detailed story

I love that this author gives many little details and ties them all up neatly by the end. There is nothing left unfinished. Excellent reading amazing characters. Loved it.

It is an OK story...lots of fluff. Unnecessary erotica. Good for a B grade TV series.

The story is meh. The narrator has a strange accent. Specially when it comes to pronouncing T, V, W. It gets worse when he tries to imitate a Finnish person speaking Swifish with an accent in English :)
All in all 6 out of 10.

Gripping and fascinating

What a treat! A brilliantly narrated, fast moving and chaotic story involving a multitude of fascinatingly complex, seriously flawed characters.

The book was pretty good

I enjoyed the narrator and the story was decent. I usually listen to Pendergast or The Oregon Files so I didn't really care for all the affairs and fighting between eric and Simon. Boring! If you like drama you will enjoy this story.

Great story

Great thriller, good story, psychological thriller , gave me a moment to think about hypnosis, keeping me to listen all the time.

I tried…

I’m not giving up. Alexa and I are looking forward to giving this Audible listen another chance. Will write more later. Over and out for now. Carry on.

A plain old good detective story.

What a relief this listen was after a series of horrible books. It was had a reasonable amount of suspense. My only criticism is that the women in the story are clumsy and weak.

Storyline was lacking

The Hypnotist could have been a fantastic story. I'm aware it was a really long book, however, it FELT like a really long book. It was like multiple books inside one, there is almost 3 storylines going on and I'm not sure it worked for me. I kept listening and I liked the story but there was just so much extra that didn't feel necessary and for me that was the issue. Also, I felt like the husband and wife had the worst communication that I have ever seen. I have no idea how their relationship continued as it was and how they never talk to each other throughout the book. It all felt off, wrong.

Tee-Dee-Us

Is it me or was this book way longer than it needed to be? The story had a promising start, the narrator was fine. I managed to finish it...surviving a convoluted plot, bizarre twists, plodding flashbacks and a chapter with an odd switch from third to first person POV. The characters were loose sketches, but the dialogue did help me rank the least likeable among them. (Did anyone not find Simone unpleasant and annoying?) I'm less harsh than I'd be otherwise because of my more positive experiences with Lars Kepler crime fiction. For anyone wanting to wade into the Joona Linna series, sorry but I don't suggest beginning with this one.