Neil Smith

Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits. Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of eight strangers hostage. Each...

"Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake. Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there's something about this place...

Oslo, 1970s. Olav, an extremely talented "fixer" whose unexpected capacity for love is as far-reaching as his talent for murder, works for Oslo's crime kingpin, "fixing" anyone who causes him trouble. But it's becoming clear to Olav that the more you know about your boss's business, the more your boss might want you fixed yourself, especially if you've fallen in love with his wife.

"From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel. In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance....

"Late one night, outside Stockholm, an emaciated young man named Mikael is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden's most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman....

"A gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. There's only one surviving witness--the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. The boy was supposed to to be the fourth victim, but somehow he survived. He's suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a catatonic state. Desperate for information, Linna enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to hypnotize the boy,...

"The newest international crime novel sensation: a fiercely suspenseful psychological thriller in which two women--a police detective and a psychotherapist--are faced with the question: how much suffering can one human being inflict upon another before he ceases to be human and becomes a monster? In a Stockholm city park, the hideously abused body of a young boy is stumbled upon. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg heads the investigation,...

On a summer night, police recover the body of a young woman from a pleasure boat drifting around the Stockholm archipelago. The forensics team is sure she drowned. But the boat was afloat, with no trace of water on her body. The next day a man turns up dead in his apartment, hanging from a high lamp hook, with nothing near him to climb on. Joona Linna begins to piece together the two mysteries, but the logistics are a mere prelude to danger.

"One minute, Oliver 'Boo' Dalrymple is next to his locker at school reciting the periodic table from heart; the next he finds himself in 'Town,' an afterlife exclusively for thirteen-year-olds. As Boo works to acclimate himself to his new home, another boy from his hometown--Johnny--appears, seemingly a victim of the same school shooter. A social outcast back in America, Boo quickly finds the friendship and joy that he never knew in life, but as he...

"The latest installment in the internationally best-selling Joona Linna series sees the Swedish detective on the trail of the worst serial killer he's seen yet. Across the continent, someone is brutally murdering Europe's worst criminals. Who can object to taking out rapists, arsonists, human traffickers? But when two of the victims have a direct connection to detective Joona Linna, it's clear to him that somebody's trying to send him a message. His...