THE SANDMAN Joona Linna, Book 4

Saul Reichlin faced some hurdles in delivering this new Joona Linna thriller from Swedish husband-and-wife team Lars Kepler. It's not that they haven't delivered a whizbang with a Hannibal Lecter-style serial killer and their usual machine-gun blasts of harrowing plot. They definitely have. The problem is that Neil Smith has phoned in a translation in which he continually resorts to the nearly meaningless British phrase "carried on" in place of "went," "walked," "hurried," "ran," "raced," leaped," "swam," "rushed," "persisted," or dozens of other possible verbs that could have provided specificity and color. This monotonous repetition may not pop off the page but in the ear, it's a head-banging distraction. To his enormous credit, Reichlin creates intensity, excitement, and tension in spite of the irritating prose. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2018]