I probably should give myself a little distance between the acts of reading and reviewing Lars Kepler’s latest book, but I won’t. I already am impatiently awaiting the arrival in the United States of THE MIRROR MAN, the next installment in the Killer Instinct series featuring Joona Linna. So why wait to tell you about LAZARUS, as fine a novel as you could pick up and read to close out this crazy year?

For the rapidly diminishing numbers of the uninitiated, permit me to note that Lars Kepler is the pseudonym for the writing team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and her husband, Alexander Ahndoril, who were established authors before combining their considerable talents. Joona Linna was/is an operational superintendent for the National Crime Police in Stockholm, Sweden. He recently has been released from prison when he makes his first appearance in LAZARUS and is professionally paired with Saga Bauer, who is with the National Security Police.

"One cannot read [LAZARUS] fast enough, yet the intensity of the suspense, which Kepler ratchets up well past 11, requires anyone with a pulse to intermittently pause and take a break."

Actually, I am reluctant to reveal any more about this intricate, smart and extremely suspenseful book, other than to note that it comes to us as the result of the impeccable translation of Neil Smith, without whom we might not be reading LAZARUS at all. However, you might need just a bit more prompting, so here we go.

The first several pages consist of a series of increasingly disturbing and seemingly unrelated vignettes, each of which leads Joona to the conclusion that Jurek Walter is still alive. Walter is his most brilliant and dangerous nemesis, a psychotic killer who always appears to be a few steps ahead of the police. It seems impossible, given that some time ago Saga shot Walter point-blank several times and later recovered his body. It also appears that Walter has acquired a new associate in the form of a giant of a man who is given to fits of uncontrollable and homicidal rage.

Saga, notwithstanding her great respect for Joona, believes that he has become obsessed with his obviously deceased former adversary and that the series of bloody killings taking place across Sweden are the actions of a copycat killer. One of them is wrong, and the manner in which Kepler sorts things out is nothing less than amazing and riveting.

Meanwhile, the doer, whoever it might be, seems to be anywhere and everywhere. Walter’s goal was never to attack Joona or Saga directly, but rather to take their loved ones off the map. They both learn quite dramatically how powerless they are to protect those they care about the most. Joona ultimately figures out the method behind the homicidal madness, but they may be too late.

LAZARUS presents a conundrum of sorts. One cannot read it fast enough, yet the intensity of the suspense, which Kepler ratchets up well past 11, requires anyone with a pulse to intermittently pause and take a break. The plotting is airtight, and the writing more so. Instructors at writers’ workshops often admonish the students to write the slow parts fast and the fast parts slow. LAZARUS is a textbook example of this.

Mix in the element of surprise (the book is shot through with plenty of surprises), and you have the makings of cardiac arrest of the best kind. And while Kepler does an excellent job of filling in what has occurred previously, save some time after you have read it to catch up on the backlist.