The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

Anyone who knows me, knows I hate horror movies, what they might not know, is that I like horror books. My favourite authors are Dean Koontz and Stephen King. So when I saw this book at the store with the creepy boy sitting on the stairs I had to get it.

The book started off strong. There is a brutal murder, and it focused on the police officer assigned to the case, and the hypnotist he contacts to speak to the survivor. The murder involved a mystery killer and I finished the first few chapters quickly, hoping to get clues on who the murderer was. I have to point out to anyone who wants to read this book that the beginning is a little disturbing. The events surrounding the murder were graphic, and the mindset of the murderer was sadistic. 

The thing I didn't like about this book was that the focus changed. I felt as if there were two different story lines going on, the first one (the murder) seems to disappear and the rest of the book is focused around a completely different crime. Yes, the main characters were the same, and the crimes related, but I still felt like I was reading a different story. I lost interest around the middle of the book and had to force myself to get through it. The three characters, the hypnotist, his wife, and the detective, all follow separate paths and the story jumps between them. At one point you jump back in time 10 years, this the point I was wondering where the story was going, but don't worry, it all makes sense later on.

Closer to the end, the story really picks up. All the stuff I found boring in the middle of the book comes together, and starts to make sense. The characters, who had separate story lines before, all joined together. At this point I couldn't stop reading. I read the last third of the book in two days, where the previous two thirds took me over a week. Because of the ending I'm giving the book a better rating then I would have, it all comes together nicely and makes the slower parts worth it. If you were looking for a horror book, this isn't it, but it is a good mystery/suspense novel.  In the end this gets a 3/5 from me.

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P.S On a completely unrelated note, at one point in the book they ate reindeer meat at Christmas. That made me sad, poor Santa's reindeer :(