Abhiroop Das
Created by Rowan Joffe, Apple TV+’s ‘Nocturne’ takes us to the foggy, sylvan town of Fairhaven, Pennsylvania, which is seemingly haunted by a figure from its past. The infamous, vendetta-driven serial killer named Jurek Walter was put behind bars a few years ago by a cop named Jonah Lynn, and while some peace has been restored since, many questions remain. When a string of inexplicable happenings brings a cold case back into action, many assumed truths get revisited, some less convincing than others. At the heart of this crime thriller series is the dynamic between the killer and his apprehending officer, both of whom have already lived through the cat-and-mouse chase and now have to endure a much more complicated phase, in which truth, reason, and justice are all subject to doubt and inquiry.
Nocturne is a Work of Fiction Based on Two Iconic Crime Thriller Novels
‘Nocturne’ is a fictional tale that brings together two novels, ‘The Sandman’ and ‘Lazarus,’ by the Swedish duo Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. The two books are part of a larger series centered around Joona Linna, a fictional detective in the Swedish police force, reimagined for the series as Jonah Lynn. While much of the crime thriller book series takes on individual mysteries with a diverse set of antagonists, ‘The Sandman’ and ‘Lazarus’ in particular center around the serial killer Walter Jurek, often described as the only person Joona truly fears. This immense narrative weight, then, is brought to the screen by a writing team chiefly comprising Rowan Joffe, John Hlavin, and Øystein Karlsen.
While the story of ‘Nocturne’ doesn’t draw from any specific real-life case or event, that is actually a conscious decision on the writers’ part. In a conversation with Crime by the Book, Ahndoril and Coelho, better known by their collective pseudonym Lars Kepler, stated, “We never use real killers or cases in our novels since they also have real victims and families.” Instead, the twisted narrative gradually unfolds, tracing back to the duo’s subjective anxieties about, and insights into, humanity. That doesn’t mean their work is completely removed from realism either, as they confirmed they spoke with doctors, psychiatrists, caregivers, criminologists, and police officers when crafting the plot and imbuing it with details that feel authentic yet are draped in a fictional context.
Jurek Walter is a Fictional Serial Killer Designed to go a Level Beyond Hannibal Lecter
Given that the story of ‘Nocturne,’ much like the two books that inspired it, is ultimately fictitious, it makes sense for Jurek Walter to also be an invented construct. When asked about the origins of their serial killer during the Crime by the Book interview, Lars Kepler explained that they researched numerous real serial killers from a psychological perspective. Without revealing any names, Kepler stated that such killers often appeared intelligent, had strategies, and communicated with others with the intent to manipulate. All of these traits are dialed up to 1 in the case of Jurek, which makes him both eerily reminiscent of reality and a product of darker imaginations. In the writers’ own words, they “searched deep within our own fears and let Jurek Walter take shape.”
Although no real-life serial killers serve as the direct inspiration for Jurek, the parallels between him and the character of Hannibal Lecter are hard to miss. Arguably among the most iconic serial killers across several mediums, Lecter also famously appears as a psychiatric patient in many of Thomas Harris’ stories, especially ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ This similarity aside, both fictional serial killers show a similar knack for manipulation and brutality, with Kepler acknowledging the role Lecter played in shaping their idea of Jurek.
In a conversation with Neuvottelija, the writing duo ended up discussing ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in depth, mentioning a scene in the film where Clarice Starling, the protagonist, is warned not to let Lecter get in her head. Seeing this, the writers began considering what a killer who can actually get into people’s heads would look like, which is how we arrive at Jurek. At the same time, though, Kepler also emphasized how important it is to truly get into the mind of the killer himself to write him and follow his journey. “Empathy is probably the most important word for a writer. We must understand Jurek Walter. We don’t agree, but we must understand,” they explained. Ultimately, it is this insight into his criminal psychology that makes Jurek stand out among his contemporaries, both as a character and as a novel take on the serial killer archetype.
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