The first three episodes of the Apple TV series Nocturne are already available, loosely inspired by the novels of Lars Kepler, the husband-and-wife team Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, authors of the long-selling The Hypnotist, their first book written together, published in 2010 and rising to the top of the charts, along with numerous other successful thrillers.
The books that followed their joint debut feature the Stockholm police’s homicide detective Joona Linna, of Finnish origin, who made his first appearance in The Hypnotist. Among these are The Sandman and Lazarus, published by Longanesi (which publishes all of the duo’s books), the titles that inspired the TV series.
Every Friday on Apple TV a new episode will be released, culminating on December 25 with the season finale (for a total of 10 episodes).
From Sweden to the USA
The series transports the Swedish atmosphere of the novels to the streets of a small town in Pennsylvania, where Jonah Lynn, a former serviceman now a homicide detective seeking a little peace after his work in the complex Philadelphia, has relocated. But tranquility is only a wish: the town and his family fall under the gaze of a cunning serial killer, Jurek Walter. Jonah must race against time to locate the only person still missing, while his protegée, Saga Bauer, searches for answers from the killer himself.
The Cast of the Nocturne Series
With Nocturne (the series written and produced by John Hlavin – who is also showrunner – and Rowan Joffe) audiences will witness a psychological duel between two excellent actors: Liev Schreiber (among many roles, the one of Cotton Weary in the Scream trilogy) and Stephen Graham (the father in Adolescence, the Netflix series released in 2025), who portray, respectively, the detective and the serial killer (Zazie Beetz plays Saga Bauer).
Medusa
The Sandman
Lazarus
The Hypnotist
Medusa, Lars Kepler’s Newest Book
While awaiting the upcoming episodes, readers can find in bookstores starting from November 17 the new book by the Lars Kepler duo, Medusa, translated by Andrea Berardini, in which Joona Linna and Saga Bauer face a new and dangerous investigation.
The plot opens at Helix, a Stockholm maximum-security forensic psychiatric institute, where there is a belief that patients are influenced by the moon. In particular those in ward H1, who house individuals deemed extremely dangerous.
It is a night lit by a blood-red moon when one of the operators begins to smell burning, foretelling a horrific scene: the psychiatrist Felicia Kohler-Frost, completely engulfed in flames. Among her personal effects is found a note in which someone condemns her for “lèse-majesté.”
The case, delicate in itself due to the professional secrecy preventing staff from revealing details about patients’ conditions, is tackled from inside thanks to Saga Bauer’s infiltration among the Institute’s patients. Joona Linna is her only contact with the outside world. Before her, another agent had been infiltrated, who then committed suicide, taking his secrets with him.
What mysteries roam the Helix’s corridors and, above all, who is the mysterious “Queen” hiding in the shadows and seemingly commanding a large entourage devoted to evil?
