Slow and repetitive start
Debbie felt the novel took quite a while to get going, finding the early hours repetitive before new narrative developments emerged.
Reviewed
Updated
Read Time
8 min read
Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.4 · 4,771 Amazon ratings
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Our review
The Sandman
The Sandman by Lars Kepler Review: A Nordic Thriller Worth Staying Up For
by Lars Kepler
Lars Kepler's The Sandman, the fourth Joona Linna novel, sends Linna and Saga Bauer after a killer who can implant thoughts in his victims. Critics at Kirkus, Bookmarks and The Real Book Spy praise its terrifying villain, with Kirkus judging it a solid but not standout Swedish mystery.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who want a fast, cliffhanger-chaptered Nordic serial-killer thriller built around an undercover mission on a psychiatric ward, and who can handle graphic violence.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want a thriller that largely succeeds as a compulsive, frightening page-turner thanks to a villain reviewers keep singling out, and you don't need the plot itself to be fresh.
Skip if
Skip it if you want nuanced prose or a plot that departs from genre convention: Bookmarks calls the prose and characters conventional and the pace too fast for reflection.
What readers & critics say
Reviewers lean positive but not uniformly so. Kirkus gives a measured thumbs-up, judging it a satisfying thriller that works as Swedish mysteries go. The Real Book Spy is warmer, praising the villain while conceding the plot is familiar. Bookmarks splits on the speed, calling it both the book's chief attribute and its biggest shortcoming.
“as Swedish mysteries go, it does the trick”
— Kirkus Reviews4.4from 4,771 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Debbie from Debbie B reviews The Sandman
Debbie reviews the audiobook edition of Lars Kepler's thriller The Sandman.
A BookTube review by Debbie B, 2025 · 200 views · 585 subscribers · Watch on YouTube ·
Their views, not ours. The points are our AI summary of what they say, each playing from where they say it.
Undercover storyline
The plot strongly picked up once Saga went undercover into a secure psychiatric unit to gather crucial information from an imprisoned killer.
Content warnings
Debbie advises readers that the story depicts vulnerable undercover situations, attempted sexual assault, and graphic scenes involving swallowing and throwing up a wire microphone.
Audiobook narration
Debbie praised narrator Saul Reichlin's South African and English RP delivery, finding his voice wonderfully suited to the thriller.
Ask LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
The Sandman is the fourth Joona Linna thriller, built around a killer who whispers to his listeners and programs them for violence. LuvemBooks' verdict: a fast, gory page-turner anchored by a villain critics keep singling out, best for fans of Nordic noir who don't need a fresh plot. Kirkus calls it solid rather than a standout.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers who like this kind of thriller, yes, with caveats. Ryan Steck of The Real Book Spy rated it 8.5/10 and called it Nordic noir at its best, while Kirkus says fans of the series won't be disappointed but judges it only fine as Swedish mysteries go. Bookmarks counts the speed as something readers either love or hate, so the reaction to the pace is the real dividing line.
- Similar books
- Kirkus measures it against Jo Nesbø's The Snowman and Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Readers who like Hannibal Lecter-style antagonists will recognise Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs as the archetype. For a modern, creepier take on a killer who gets inside people's heads, try Alex North's The Whisper Man, or Freida McFadden's Never Lie for a faster, more claustrophobic read.
- Who should read this?
- It suits readers who want serial-killer thrillers with cliffhanger chapter endings and a Hannibal Lecter-style antagonist, who can handle graphic violence. It is a weaker match for anyone after refined writing or an unfamiliar plot, since characters and prose are reactive and conventional and The Real Book Spy says the plot resembles similar stories.
- What age is it for?
- This is an adult thriller. Kirkus describes a violent resolution and Washington Post coverage called it a thriller so graphic it leaves you asking, 'what's up with those Swedes?' We found no official age rating, and the violence and a villain who programs victims for mayhem make it unsuitable for younger readers.
- About Lars Kepler
- Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of husband and wife team Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, authors of the Joona Linna series.
- Do critics agree that the villain is the draw?
- Largely yes. The Real Book Spy, Kirkus and a Really Into This blogger all single out Jurek Walter, and Really Into This says even his quiet scenes made them clench their jaw. The Real Book Spy goes further, saying the villain is what lifts a plot not very different from other stories.
- What is the most distinctive part of the plot?
- The undercover storyline. Saga Bauer infiltrates to reach Walter, giving the investigation a confined, high-stakes centre, and a Bookmarks reviewer praises Linna as a hero with intuition and vulnerability. Reviewers disagree on how far the book excels at character: characters are called conventional overall, while another Bookmarks review argues it can top the characterization of Larsson's Millennium books.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
What age is it for?
About Lars Kepler
Do critics agree that the villain is the draw?
What is the most distinctive part of the plot?
Summarize this book
Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering outside Stockholm thirteen years after he and his younger sister vanished, and he says she is still alive, held by someone called the Sandman. Detective Inspector Joona Linna suspects the imprisoned killer Jurek Walter has an accomplice, and young Inspector Saga Bauer goes undercover to get him to talk. The story is told in 181 very short chapters, per Bookmarks, and resolves in a violent finale.
Follow up
Does the summary spoil the ending?
Is there a screen version?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
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Our Review
We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.
Worth it if you want a fast, blood-soaked Nordic thriller with a genuinely frightening villain; skip it if you need a fresh plot or a series standout. Kirkus's verdict is that fans of Joona Linna won't be disappointed, even if the book falls short of Jo Nesb\u00f8's The Snowman.
Why does The Sandman's villain unsettle critics?
The strongest claim made for Lars Kepler's The Sandman is its antagonist. Ryan Steck of The Real Book Spy argues that Jurek Walter may be the most cunning and maniacal villain to terrify this generation of thriller readers, and says reading his scenes feels like the killer jumping inside your own head.
He rates the book 8.5/10 and calls it Nordic noir at its best.
Kirkus supplies the mechanism: Walter whispers into the ears of anyone who will listen, programming them for mayhem, so much so that his jailers and psychiatrists wear earplugs near him. Called the book a thriller so blood-soaked it leaves you asking, 'what's up with those Swedes?'
Really Into This, a book blog, said the book captivated the blogger and that Walter, who does and says little, still made them clench their jaw in every scene where someone approaches him. That blogger also put the book down for the night after a guard's nightmare scene starring Walter.
What happens in The Sandman?
Late one night outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier he vanished along with his younger sister, and both were long assumed to be victims of Sweden's most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital.
Mikael says his sister is still alive and held by someone he knows only as the Sandman.
Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who made a painful personal sacrifice to catch Walter, becomes convinced Walter has an accomplice. The only route to the sister runs through getting Walter to talk, so young Inspector Saga Bauer goes undercover in the psychiatric ward.
This is the fourth Joona Linna novel; The Real Book Spy notes it was the first published in the U.S. By Knopf, and Really Into This says it can be read without the earlier books. Kirkus lists it as translated by Neil Smith.
The edition under review is a Vintage Crime/Black Lizard paperback reprint dated January 8, 2019.
Does The Sandman's pace help or hurt it?
The book is built from very short chapters. Janet Maslin of The New York Times, as quoted on the Penguin Random House page, called it a nonstop fright thanks to its tight, staccato chapters.
Bookmarks, a review aggregator, counts 181 chapters, many under two pages, and says the effect is to keep things moving.
Sources split on whether that is purely a virtue. Bookmarks calls speed the book's chief attribute and its biggest shortcoming, saying the pace leaves no room for reflection and that the characters and prose are reactive and conventional.
Kirkus likewise says the pace is occasionally off.
The Real Book Spy offers a related caveat: nothing about the plot is really that different from other similar stories, and the villain is what lifts it.
How does The Sandman compare with other Scandinavian crime fiction?
Bookmarks credits a reviewer who said Kepler doesn't pull any punches and that his care with characters makes readers invested in their fates. The same notice calls the resolution satisfactory if blood-soaked, then adds that the yarn isn't as spine-tingling as Jo Nesb\u00f8's The Snowman or as action-packed as Stieg Larsson's original Millennium trilogy, but does the trick as Swedish mysteries go.
That wording also appears in Kirkus's own review, so the call is consistent: a strong page-turner, not a standout.
On the other side, a Bookmarks review argues that if any Scandinavian crime series can top the characterization and action of Larsson's Millennium books, it is this one, praising Linna as a hero with intuition and vulnerability.
No source in hand assesses whether the clues are fair-play or how the final reveal lands. The publisher's page also notes the Apple TV series Nocturne draws on the book.
Who should read The Sandman, and who should pass?
Reader reactions run warm but not uniform. The book is a good fit for readers who like serial-killer thrillers, Hannibal Lecter-style antagonists and cliffhanger chapter endings; Kirkus says fans of the series' detective won't be disappointed.
It is a weaker match for anyone wanting nuanced prose or a less familiar plot, given Bookmarks' and The Real Book Spy's comments above. Gore is part of the package, with Kirkus describing a story that resolves in a blood-soaked manner.
Kirkus's framing, that it does the trick as Swedish mysteries go, is a fair summary of the middle ground.
Quotes the publishers supplied
The Penguin Random House page and Lars Kepler's official site present endorsements from Janet Maslin, Ken Tucker, the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly and Paste Magazine. Lee Child's 'sensational' blurb, a Publishers Weekly line and a Shelf Awareness line also reach readers via publisher-supplied pages, so weigh them as marketing rather than independent verdicts.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
books.google.com
- Further reading
- 2
Lars Kepler, LuvemBooks
- 3
washingtonpost.com
- 4
larskepler.com
- 5
- 6
bookbrowse.com
- 7
- 8
penguinrandomhouse.com
- 9
kirkusreviews.com
- 10
Really Into This
Age & Reading Level
Our age band
Adult
Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
graphic, blood-soaked violence
serial killer who programs victims for mayhem
child abduction
Best for: Adults — graphic violence and a blood-soaked resolution
Skip if you want hopeful, gentle fiction or a plot that breaks from serial-killer thriller convention
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