July 25, 2011
This sequel to Läckberg's internationally bestselling The Ice Princess finds Scandinavian police detective Patrik Hedstrom returning to the earlier novel's small fishing village of Fjällbacka, Sweden, where the naked corpse of a recently slain young woman has been discovered on top of the long-buried remains of two other victims. Hedstrom investigates, and when another woman disappears, he focuses his efforts on a dysfunctional and antisocial local family. While Hedstrom's detective work is interesting, the audiobook is burdened with too many unrelated subplots and references to the previous novel. Additionally, some listeners will have difficulty remembering and distinguishing the Nordic names of the many characters. Though David Thorn's accent is unwaveringly authentic, his fluty, melodramatic narration fails to match the author's hardboiled prose. An Avon Pegasus paperback.
July 29, 2013
Swedish bestseller Läckberg's worthy second thriller set in the coastal town of Fjällbacka (after The Ice Princess) opens with a grim discoveryâthe naked fresh corpse of Tanja Schmidt, a German tourist, on top of the skeletal remains of two young women, later identified as Mona Thernblad and Siv Lantin. All three were killed in the same way, but as Det. Patrik Hedström and his team soon discover, Mona and Siv went missing in 1979, and Johannes Hult, the prime suspect in their disappearances, is long dead. The reason for a sadistic killer's reappearance may be hidden among the many secrets and conflicts of a local clan of religious eccentrics. The troubled Hults, from conniving founder (known as the Preacher) to philandering spouses, show a Ross Macdonaldesque love of twisted family relationships, while Läckberg's colorful, diverse police force, staffed with the competent, the incompetent, and the merely distracted, recalls the humanist touch of Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering.