(2023) Gave up on this one. Just too grim & gruesome. I like the Swedish style, but this one was just too much. Read 288 out of 475 pages

The Spider is the ninth entry in Lars Kepler's Joona Linna series.

Linna is a Police Detective in Sweden who boasts an unsurpassed solve rate. He sees details that others don't, he's dogged and has faced off with many killers. His sidekick, Saga Bauer has been on leave as a result of their last case. She flouts regulations regularly and puts herself in a sketchy situations. But she too, is a brilliant detective.

This latest case, dubbed The Spider, brings back elements and clues from previous cases that have ties to this new killer. Kepler's crime is dark and unsettling. The path to the final aha moments is clever, devious and can't be predicted.

Kepler gives the characters personal lives that grow and change with every entry in this series. Like the plotting and atmosphere, there's a lot of darkness woven into the the lead two character's narratives.

Another excellent entry in a great series. Definitely not for the faint at heart! If you like Scandi noir, this is a series for you. ( )

In The Spider by Lars Kepler, Joona Linna and Saga Bauer are faced with one of their most ruthless and seemingly unstoppable killers yet. When a badly decomposed body is discovered wrapped in a sack filled with a caustic liquid and, worse, it is someone both Joona and Saga know, they realize it’s linked to a threatening post card Saga received three years previous and that the writer is now acting on the threat. As the bodies pile up and despite each murder preceded by a package containing a small figurine and clues to the next victim, it seems the killer is always several steps ahead.

The Spider is the ninth in the Joona Linna series and it is one heart pounding non-stop page turner. It kept me reading into the wee small hours needing to know what came next. Warning though for those who are not familiar with the series - it is also extremely violent and definitely not for the weak of heart or stomach. Overall, one hell of a wild ride.

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review ( )