Third Sentence Thursday: THE HYPNOTIST

 Time to play Third Sentence Thursday, a blog game hosted by Proud Brook Nerd.  Here are the rules: "take the book you are currently reading and post the third sentence of the third chapter. Feel free to share one or two of the following sentences, if you’d like."

I'm reading THE HYPNOTIST, by Lars Kepler.

The third of the third:

Erik says the boy’s name, and something passes painfully across the face.

I think it's fair to say that's not a great sentence. I'm only half way through the book, and I haven't pin able to pin this one down. It's the type of novel I was looking for--a creepy thriller that features an evil child. 

However, it's intensely gruesome in a gratuitous way, and unless something changes quickly, the plot is extremely predictable. It is excessively long--some might even say self-indulgently so--and there may be a shocking twist in the next 250 pages.

 But I'm not sure I'll be able to keep reading till the end, as the stilted prose (which may be a problem with the translation) and the predictability are making me rapidly lose interest. I'll update if this novel ends up on the "did not finish" list.

The one thing this novel has going for it is the cover above on the left. It's a perfect blend of elements that intrinsically make the reader fearful--the figure in the shadows,the stairs, the red carpet. It's subtle, unlike the alternate cover above on the right. Unfortunately, I think that the cover on the right is more representative of the novel.