Nocturne premieres October 30 on Apple TV, pulling from two novels out of a ten-book series. Joona Linna, the Finnish-Swedish detective at the center of Lars Kepler’s novels since 2009, isn’t in it under that name. Apple has moved the story from Sweden to Pennsylvania and given the lead a new name, nationality, and backstory, while keeping the villain.
Nocturne
Ex-soldier turned homicide detective Jonah Lynn leaves Philadelphia for a quieter life in a small Pennsylvania town. When the cunning serial killer Jurek Walter sets his sights on the town and Jonah’s family, Jonah sends FBI Agent Saga Bauer, his surrogate daughter, undercover to track down Jurek’s last missing victim.
Cast: Liev Schreiber as Jonah Lynn, Zazie Beetz as Saga Bauer, Stephen Graham as Jurek Walter, Bill Camp as Chief Ellison, Rory Culkin as Karl, Chrissy Metz as Ida, Poorna Jagannathan as Quinn, and Gary Carr as Nathan.
- Nocturne (show): Start free trial via Prime Video | Watch on Apple TV | IMDb
Lazarus and The Sandman, books seven and four, are the source material. The setting move from Sweden to Pennsylvania and the detective’s new name are Apple’s inventions. Here’s the full series in order, how it connects to the show, and where to read or listen.
How Much of the Series Does Nocturne Cover?
Two books out of ten. Reading the whole series and reading the show’s source material are two different projects here, not the same one.
| I want the Nocturne backstory | I want the full Joona Linna series |
|---|---|
| Read The Sandman and Lazarus, the two books the show draws from | Start with The Hypnotist (Book 1) and read the series in publication order |
The Nocturne reading order is short: 1. The Sandman (Book 4), 2. Lazarus (Book 7). Jurek Walter, the antagonist Nocturne is built around, is introduced in The Sandman and returns in Lazarus, so that’s also the order the story unfolds in. Lazarus assumes you know how The Sandman ended. The other eight are independent Joona Linna cases, not building blocks toward Nocturne.
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Book to Show Map
| Book | Nocturne Connection |
|---|---|
| The Hypnotist (2009) | Standalone case |
| The Nightmare (2010) | Standalone case |
| The Fire Witness (2011) | Standalone case |
| The Sandman (2012) | Source material, introduces Jurek Walter |
| Stalker (2014) | Standalone case |
| The Rabbit Hunter (2016) | Standalone case |
| Lazarus (2018) | Source material, Nocturne’s original title |
| The Mirror Man (2020) | Standalone case |
| The Spider (2022) | Standalone case |
| The Sleepwalker (2024) | Standalone case |
What Nocturne Adapted, and What It Changed
The source is two books, not one. Nocturne draws on The Sandman and Lazarus, both part of the Joona Linna novels by the husband-and-wife team of Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, who write as Lars Kepler. Those are the fourth and seventh entries in a ten-book series.
The setup comes almost directly from The Sandman. Apple describes the season this way: a victim of Jurek Walter turns up alive, the detective races to find the one person still missing, and his protégé Saga Bauer goes undercover to get answers from the killer. That’s the plot of The Sandman, in which Mikael Kohler-Frost is found alive thirteen years after he and his sister disappeared, and Saga goes undercover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is held.
The detective got a new name and a new country. The show relocates the action from Scandinavia to Pennsylvania and reworks Joona Linna into Liev Schreiber’s Jonah Lynn. In the novels he’s a Detective Superintendent with Sweden’s National Operations Department. In the show he’s an ex-soldier turned homicide detective who left Philadelphia for a small town in western Pennsylvania.
We cover adaptation changes like this on the blog, alongside what’s new across every major service. See what else recently premiered at TaterTV, or get the guide on Android.
Some names survived the move. Saga Bauer and Jurek Walter keep their names from the novels. Beetz plays Saga as Jonah’s protégé and surrogate daughter, an FBI agent rather than a Swedish security agent, and Stephen Graham plays Jurek, described in the books as Sweden’s most notorious serial killer.
It was announced under a different title. The series was originally titled Lazarus, after the seventh novel, before Apple changed it. The rename likely had something to do with Amazon’s Harlan Coben’s Lazarus reaching streaming first.
The rollout is a long one. Nocturne launches with two episodes on October 30, then adds one new episode every Friday through December 25, so the finale lands on Christmas Day. Tim Van Patten directs the first two episodes and executive produces, alongside Schreiber and Beetz.
The Joona Linna Books in Order
Ten books following the same Swedish detective, published between 2009 and 2024.
Tap any title to expand it ▾
The Hypnotist
A family is murdered in a Stockholm suburb and the only surviving witness is a badly injured teenage boy, Josef Ek, who was meant to be the fourth victim. Detective Joona Linna brings in Erik Maria Bark, a hypnotist who had given up the practice after it went wrong once before, to recover what the boy saw. The book introduces the two figures the series is built on, Linna and Bark, and the case widens well past the house it started in.
The Nightmare
A woman’s body is found aboard an abandoned pleasure boat drifting in the Stockholm archipelago, and the next day a man is discovered hanged in his apartment. The two deaths have no obvious connection until the investigation traces both back to the Swedish arms trade. This is the book that introduces Saga Bauer, who becomes Linna’s recurring counterpart for the rest of the series.
The Fire Witness
A violent killing at a rural home for troubled girls leaves a staff member dead and a resident missing. A woman claiming to be a medium contacts the police with information about the murder, and the case pulls Linna into an institution where the official account and the physical evidence keep failing to line up.
The Sandman
The book Nocturne’s premise comes from. Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering a railway bridge outside Stockholm at night, emaciated and seriously ill, thirteen years after he and his younger sister disappeared and were presumed to be victims of Jurek Walter. Mikael says his sister Felicia is still alive, held by a captor he knows only as the Sandman. Jurek is already serving a life sentence in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital, and Joona has always believed he had an accomplice. Getting Jurek to talk means sending Saga Bauer undercover into the ward where he’s held, which is the move Apple’s own season description points to.
Stalker
A short video arrives at Stockholm’s National Crime Unit showing a woman inside her own home, filmed through a window, unaware she’s being watched. Nobody treats it seriously until she’s found murdered. When the next video arrives, the police understand the killer is announcing victims they have no way to reach in time. Detective Margot Silverman leads the investigation and brings in Joona, who in turn brings back Erik Maria Bark from The Hypnotist. It’s one of the longest books in the series, running past 500 pages.
The Rabbit Hunter
Sweden’s Foreign Minister is murdered in his own home, and Joona is unavailable because he’s serving a sentence at Kumla prison for assaulting an officer. He’s granted a temporary release to work the case. The killer’s victims hear a child’s nursery rhyme about rabbits before he strikes, and the connection between them turns out to run deeper than the political targets first suggest. Published in some editions simply as Hunter.
Lazarus
The other half of Nocturne’s source material, and the book that gave the show its working title. Jurek Walter was shot and killed years earlier, and the police have moved on. Then someone starts murdering criminals across Europe, and two of the victims have connections to Joona that read as a message aimed at him. Jurek’s signature was never only the killing, it was burying the families of his victims alive and letting them wait, which is what makes the possibility of his return unbearable rather than just dangerous. Saga carries much of the book, and Jurek is the first antagonist in the series to come back after his own novel ended.
The Mirror Man
Sixteen-year-old Jenny Lind is taken off a Stockholm street in broad daylight and held with other girls in an isolated house. Five years later her body is found hanging in a playground. The only witness is a man whose memory is unreliable after a trauma of his own, and when another teenage girl disappears it becomes clear the killer never stopped. The book runs its investigation alongside a close study of what trauma does to memory, which is also what makes its one witness so difficult to use.
The Spider
Three years earlier, Saga Bauer received an anonymous postcard describing a gun and nine white bullets, one of them meant for Joona. Nothing came of it and the threat faded. Then a decomposing body is found in a sack tied to a tree in the forest with a milky white bullet casing at the scene. The killer starts sending the police riddles that offer a chance to stop each murder before it happens, and the police keep arriving slightly too late.
The Sleepwalker
The tenth and most recent novel, built around a question the series is well set up to ask: what happens when the only witness to a murder saw it while sleepwalking, and can’t rule out having committed it. Erik Maria Bark returns, and hypnosis is back on the table as a way of reaching memories the witness can’t get to awake. It’s the current end of the series, with no eleventh book announced.
Kepler hasn’t announced an eleventh Joona Linna novel.
Want to see what else is on TV? The TaterTV guide keeps an always-up-to-date view of what’s new and what’s next.
Joona Linna & Nocturne Books FAQ
How many Joona Linna books are there?
Ten. The series began with The Hypnotist in 2009 and the tenth, The Sleepwalker, was published in 2024.
Which books does Nocturne adapt?
The Sandman (Book 4) and Lazarus (Book 7). The Sandman introduces Jurek Walter and supplies the season’s central setup. Lazarus, which gave the show its original title, brings him back after the police believe he’s dead.
Is Jonah Lynn the same character as Joona Linna?
Same role, different name and nationality. The show relocates the action from Scandinavia to Pennsylvania and reworks Joona Linna into Jonah Lynn, played by Liev Schreiber. He’s an American ex-soldier turned detective rather than a Finnish-Swedish police superintendent.
Do any characters keep their book names?
Yes. Saga Bauer and Jurek Walter keep their names from the novels, though Saga is an FBI agent in the show rather than a Swedish security agent.
Why was the show renamed from Lazarus to Nocturne?
The series was originally titled Lazarus after the seventh novel, but Apple changed it. The rename likely had something to do with Amazon’s Harlan Coben’s Lazarus series reaching streaming first.
When does Nocturne premiere and how many episodes are there?
Nocturne arrives October 30 with a two-episode launch, then one new episode every Friday through December 25, for ten episodes total.
What has Apple changed from the books?
The confirmed changes so far are the setting, moved from Sweden to Pennsylvania, and the lead detective, renamed from Joona Linna to Jonah Lynn with an American ex-soldier backstory. Jurek Walter and Saga Bauer keep their names, and the season’s announced setup matches The Sandman. How closely the episodes follow the novels beyond that won’t be clear until the show airs on October 30.
Ten books is a real commitment on audio. The Sandman and Lazarus get you the Nocturne backstory, and The Hypnotist is where the series begins if you’d rather read it in order.
Want more shows that started as books? See 11 TV Shows Based on Books and 10 New TV Shows Based on Books, or browse the full TV Shows Based on Books archive.
