I consider Lars Kepler to be my favorite authors when it
comes to thrillers and up until now, I’ve never felt disappointed with their
books. For this particular title, I had really high expectations because the
first book in which Jurek Walter enters the scene, that is The Sandman, was one
of my absolute favorites and I couldn’t wait to see how his and Joona’s rivalry
would end.
The mere existence of this book was already a twist in the
Joona Linna series if we consider that all the readers who have read all 7 books
will know that Jurek Walter was supposed to be dead. The beginning of the book
is built as to create doubt and mistrust toward our dear protagonist, who has
spent all his life trying to escape from Jurek and is therefore considered
obsessed with him by his collegues, who refuse to aknowledge the treath. Despite
loving the suspense this moment created, I didn’t like how naive my dear Saga
appeared in this book: she was the only one who should have trusted Joona’s
infallible guts and not only she didn’t, she also took one or two bad decisions
that actually made her differ from the picture I had in my mind. Moreover, she
was one of the few officers who had the advantage of having been in touch with
Jurek and I was expecting a little more cleverness from someone who should have
known how his mind worked. On the other hand, the chapters that were told by
her POV were personally the most emotional, probably because in this book, with
her family being the one threatened, she struggles with being a cop and appears
just as a scared, irrational woman who would do anything for her family. The
vulnerability she shows was much needed in a book where the reader kind of
becomes way too accostumed to grotesque killings and absolute lack of morality.
For the same reason, I really liked the scenes in which we are finally
introduced better to Joona’s daughter Lumi, a character that only emerges in
the last books since we were all led to believe she was dead. Lumi embodies all
the efforts Joona had to make to save his family and to see her struggle
between following her father’s orders and trying to have a normal life was
touching. It was really satisfying to see how everyone who didn’t trust Joona
in the beginning had to reconsider his cunning once again and being really
attached to Joona’s character, I was pleased when all his efforts actually made
sense in the eyes of all those who thought him hyper-protective.
Despite my general liking of the story, I did not feel much
engaged by the narrative as I used to do. There were some things lacking in
this book, for example, the absence of a nice background mystery, which was
always present in the last books: Jurek Walter always being the principal
thread while other psycopaths shared his scene. This time, we have Jurek’s
accomplice as our side story, but his mystery and his importance just lose
completely focus when Jurek makes his entry. But most importantly, what really,
really, really disappointed me was the final round between Jurek and Joona. I
had been dreaming of this moment. The tension was expertly built throughout
almost three books. And in the end, it was not that good. I was expecting much
more from the collision of these two brilliant characters and I can’t accept
that they shared such an intense moment without even saying a word to each
other. You know those thrillers where you have a really bad killer and also a really
good cop kind of shaking their hands for everything they’ve put each other
through? That’s what I was hoping for!
Not the surprising read I was expecting but certainly a book
I would have read in any case, Lazarus is a 3.5 stars for me. I’m really hoping
book #8 (which still hasn’t been translated in English!) will pick up from
where Lazarus ended and will give me much needed answers!
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