Title: The Spider

Author: Lars Kepler

Genre: Thriller

Publication Date: 25th May 2023

Publisher: Zaffre

Rating: 5/5

Cover:

Summary:

Three years ago, Detective Saga Bauer received an ominous postcard describing a gun and nine white bullets – one of which was intended for her partner, Detective Joona Linna. The sender alleged that Saga was the only person who could save him. But as time passed, the threat faded.

Until now.

A sack with a decomposing body has been found hanging from a tree in the forest. A milky white bullet casing turns up at the scene. When the body count begins to rise, the police realise that the killer is sending riddles, offering them the chance to stop the murders before they happen.

But the police always seem to arrive a moment too late. As they begin to close in, the case becomes more and more tangled. Someone is spinning a fiendishly intricate web, pulling Joona ever closer to a trap he may not be able to escape.

Review:

I read The Mirror Man last year, which is the preceding book in this series and I was blown away by it so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read the next instalment and I wasn’t disappointed at all. I haven’t actually read the first seven books yet (although I’ve recently bought them all to read) and I absolutely loved The Spider regardless, despite it giving away details of previous plots. The only consequence being it made me even more desperate to read the series in its entirety! However I don’t want to give away many plot details here, lest I spoil it for anyone!

The Spider is a pretty chunky read, clocking in at almost 500 pages, but it doesn’t feel it. It honestly never lets up from beginning to end and is so engrossing that you will be unable to look away. I do have to say that it is very much not for the faint hearted. It is brutally violent at times, bleak and unremittingly dark. However it is also deeply compelling, thought provoking and totally gripping. The nature of the plot puts events on a ticking clock which draws the reader into the narrative in a way that almost makes it feel like it’s happening in real time. I absolutely flew through it. Relentless, twisted, heart stopping and terrifying – The Spider is not to be missed.

✶✶✶✶✶

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for my place on the blog tour and for the copy of the book. My review is entirely my own honest opinion. 

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon