I discovered this author via our oldest daughter a couple of years ago. This is book 5 in the Patrik Hedstrom detective series set in Sweden. Every winter I love reading a book set in Alaska or Sweden or elsewhere that is "snowy". This book didn't disappoint. So far it's my fave of this series followed by The Ice Princess (book 1).
Book 2, The Preacher continues to be my least fave so far. Books 3 (The Stonecutter) & 4 ( The Stranger) were also very good.
I have now read 3 books for the month of January.
STORY SUMMARY
Erica Falck is a true crime author and mommy of now 1 year old Maja. Erica is married to Patrik Hedstrom a well known detective in the Tanumshede police force.
Patrik is currently taking his one year paternity leave while Erica, just off from her one year maternity leave, is back to writing in the upstairs office.
She is also going through her mother's old diaries and items she found in the attic. They are living in her mom's old house and there's still a lot of things to sort through since her mom's car accident that killed her about 4 years ago. Erica has a sister named Anna who is living with her boyfriend Dan and her two children Emma and Adrian whom she had with her first husband, now her ex, due to physical and emotional abuse. Dan has custody of his 3 daughters from his first marriage. Now, Dan and Anna are expecting their first child together so Annie is very busy managing her life, her children, her partner, and her new stepchildren. She can't really help Erica sort out their mom's things.
Erica finds an interesting looking medal among the diaries. It's a Nazi medal! Why in the world would her mother, Elsy, have a Nazi medal??
Erica and Anna were emotionally neglected by their mother all through their childhood. Their father Tore did the bulk of the emotional support for them. Their mother did not and Erica is determined to learn why.
Why was her mother so cold and distant??
Her questions lead her to the home of a well renowned historian and retired history teacher. His name: Erik Frankel. But he is very evasive about answering questions regarding Elsy even though they were close childhood friends well into their teens. In fact, his older brother Axel, who was somewhat of a resistance fighter for Sweden against the Germans, was also part of their friend group as was a girl named Britta and another boy named Frans. Britta is now diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and married to a wonderful man named Herman. Britta, Frans, Erik, and Elsy were all friends throughout the 1940s. And there was another friend that comes to light during some of Erica's research into her mother's past. A boy named Hans.
Some of the answers Erik gives Erica are downright bizarre.
Two days later he is found dead. The medical examiner says it was murder.
Patrik becomes involved in the murder case as he just can't seem to stay away from investigations. Who in the world would kill this gentle old man so viciously to bury secrets that are so old?
Soon, Britta is smothered to death with a pillow while napping.
Then, Frans is found dead by an apparent suicide.
What is going on??
Patrik begins to help Martin and Paula with this case. (fellow police detectives) with Mellburg, the chief, overseeing things.
Meanwhile, Erica begins to dig through more of her mom's diaries and soon learns something that reveals a painful revelation about Erica's past. With what little she knows, also become a danger to her husband and baby girl?
MY THOUGHTS
This was my fave book so far in this detective series. I'm glad I have read them in order because each book reveals new things about the ongoing characters of Patrik, Erica, Anna, Mellburg, and their family members/friends. The characters are very well developed.
The author did a great job with the back story of Elsy and her friends in the 1940s. Every other chapter was set in the village of Fjallbacka where the present takes place but with a title of the chapter signifying the town and year (example Fjallbacka 1945). It kept the writing smooth and the pace moving forward. I found my self loving the sub plot as much as the main plot and of course they tie together in the end.
I also loved that in this book there was far less use of the "f word" than in the previous ones. I'm glad. When an author oversues that word, it shows me (this is my opinion ) that he/she isn't very creative with coming up with other expressions that are far less low class.
I did guess correctly some of the plot of this book....the actual murderer of Erik. It was so well done and had a poignant ending with Erica's mom from 1975 reflecting on just why she was the way she was. I don't want to say too much because it would ruin the story for you.
This book is a thick one so it took longer to read than some of the other books I've read so far this winter. But it's one of those fiction stories that has grains of truth in it.
Two quotes really stood out to me:
"it was easy to leave this place that my country had become, but difficult to leave the country that it had once been." ~ (pg 323, The Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg, c. 2007. )
(this resonated with me because if I was ever was to move out of this nation, it would be how I feel about the USA currently).
and this quote:
"Because if you didn't allow yourself to love, you didn't risk losing everything." ~( pg 526)
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
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