In this new thriller, the sinister tangle of crimes is unraveled by the familiar Commissioner Jona Linna, a talented detective with the looks of a film hero and a tendency toward melancholy. Time magazine named “The Hypnotist” one of the ten most important books of 2010, and a film made from the novel by director Lasse Hallström has been nominated by the Swedish Film Academy for an Oscar.
On a summer night aboard a deserted yacht drifting through the Stockholm archipelago, a drowning victim is found dressed in dry clothes. The next day, a man dies in the wealthy district of Östermalm. How did he manage to hang himself from a lamp hook in a completely empty room with high ceilings where there was nowhere to climb? A chain of grim events unfolds rapidly. Strange connections link them to the violin that belonged to the great Paganini and to a deadly contract bearing his name. And it’s all for nothing: two lovers try to find salvation on deceptively welcoming islands among the fjords—while the cold-blooded killer methodically follows their trail.