Lars
Kepler
is the pen
name used by the two Swedish writers Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra
Coelho Ahndoril, who together have written about five books.
Paganinikontraktet
or, in English The
Paganini Contract, is
the second book with the
Finnish
Detective Inspector Joona Linna at its centre. It is a
well written, extremely suspenseful thriller with a scope that
includes everything from political and international intrigue,
professional assassins, high-speed police chases, arson, unexplained
deaths and a terrifying, unbreakable thread that slowly emerges as
the common denominator tying everything together.
According
to legend, Paganini entered a contract with the devil where he sold
his soul in order to realize his greatest wish: to be able to play the violin better than anyone
else. Those caught up in the modern-day version of this contract are
forced to reveal both their greatest wish and their greatest
nightmare. In the end, both become intertwined with unbelievably
tragic results.
The
background of the novel is Stockholm, but place is not as important
as the characters and the situations in the story. The pace is fast
with the book broken up into short chapters, most of them ending with
a hook or a question mark. It is a book that demands
to be read in one sitting, although at almost 570 pages this could be
a bit of an ask. The criminal side of the book is extremely well
researched and intelligently described; the story is built up in
logical steps, and although it may at times stretch reality to its
most extreme limits it is always feasible. Moreover, the criminal
side of the story is beautifully balanced by descriptions of music
that could only come from someone who is well versed in both musical
performance and theory.
Exploring
both the dark world of the criminal mind as well as the longing
associated with beauty and music, this novel is by no means a
run-of-the-mill detective story. It is definitely worth reading.