After reading John Ajvide Lindqvist’s famous vampire story “Let the Right One In” and several of his other stories, I had the impression that he’s a gifted writer of fabulous, very dark horror stories that reveal the abysmal depths of the human soul. Now finally I know that he’s also a great writer of out-and-out psychological thrillers without any fantastic element. I guess I should mention that this book also reveals the abysmal depths of the human soul, albeit to a lesser extent. Maybe. So far …
After all, it’s only the first volume of a trilogy, which is a parallel to the famous Millennium crime novel series by another Swedish author, Stieg Larsson. This (real) series appears in this thriller, serving as a means of developing the plot when Julia Malmros, the female main character of the story and a successful (fictional) writer who’s supposed to write the next part of Millennium – just like in real life, where there have been several sequels to this pop culture phenomenon, written by two other authors after Larsson’s death.
I must confess that this clever trick of using metafiction to link fiction and reality made me stop for a moment more than once and think about whether Julia and her own (fictional) series protagonist really exist or not.
But I suppose that this is just the author’s smart way of writing about writing with a wink. There are frequent references to other literary works and particularly to Julia’s writing process, too, which may or may not be an indication of Lindqvist’s own writing, but was interesting to read for me as a writer in any case.
Another fascinating part of the book was the unusual couple that we’re dealing here: Whereas Julia is a 51-year-old, self-confident, acclaimed writer, her counterpart Kim Ribbing is twenty-eight and a socially awkward hacker. But love is a funny thing, and there are actually some moments of humor in this story as well.
First and foremost, though, the book is an eventful, absorbing and murderously suspense-packed psychological thriller with captivating characters. Well, the second volume of the series is already out. I can’t wait to read it!
5 stars.