Violent, sometimes a bit much, but a very scary book. A creepy killer, some innocent victims and lots of dread. The committed detective traipses across Stockholm despite being heavily pregnant.

At atmospheric mystery, there is darkness that permeates the whole book, and its well written enough to scare me.

It's very strange reading a book set in a city you know well. All of the places, the ways the women walked home are very familiar to me and so this novel, with a stalker on the streets is particularly gripping and chilling.

Kudos to the translator first off - this is  a long novel and the pace never falters and the tension never dims. I am now too afraid to go out and stay in on my own which is quite  a result from a crime novel when you think. Maybe a bookshop would be the safest place? There is a lot of detail and analysis in this novel which could actually be of help to women( and men) everywhere. 

There is a lot of savagery in the novel though - and it can get a bit much at times. Having said that I shall remember the 'quiet' scene when a woman is hiding in her toilet when she hears someone in her apartment  - more than any other. It's the calm before the storm moments that are the worst for me. The terror jumps from the page and smacks you in the face.

Stockholm doesnt' come across particularly well as you can imagine - but there's a fair bit of travel in and out of the city - across to the islands and Katrineholm although it's to visit an asylum so...

Don't read at night and/or on your own but still recommended!

After finishing "Stalker" I was surprised to see that the book format is 640 pages. I tore through this thing like the famous hot knife through . . .

Well, when you finish "Stalker" you'll know what I mean.

With the outpouring about sexual harassment following the Kavanough confirmation, I wasn't sure I wanted to read a book full of women victims, but once I got started on "Stalker" it was impossible to stop. Lars Kepler's books include interesting psychological slants courtesy of the psychiatrist and hypnotist Erik Maria Bark, a badly flawed and deeply interesting character. DS Margot Silverman leads the police search for killer who posts videos of his victims in the moments before he enters their homes. She's days from having her third child, always hungry and very uncomfortable.. She refuses to go on maternity leave until this killer is caught.

So where's Joona Linna, the Finnish detective believed dead? Well, not. Joona reappears. He's another one of those characters who's such a fascinating mess you can't wait for him to show up in a scene. This novel works as a stand-alone but you will definitely want to go back and catch up on Joona's story.

How to do many of these really hair-raising crime stories come from countries with little crime? The two writers who equal Lars Kepler are all in on creating frighting, exciting, and un-putdownable stories. If you get that little frisson of pleasure at a truly chilling story, you'll love "Stalker."