Camilla Lackberg

THE PREACHER - Camilla Läckberg

Author Information
Book Title: 
The Preacher
Author Name: 
Camilla Lackberg
Author's Home Country: 
Sweden
ISBN: 
9780007253951
Series: 
Patrik Hedstrom
Erica Falck
Categorisation
Category: 
Crime Fiction
Sub Genre: 
Police Procedural
Location: 
Fjällbacka
Publisher: 
Harper Collins
Year of Publication: 
2008

In the fishing community of Fjällbacka, life is remote, peaceful, and for some, tragically short. Foul play was always suspected in the disappearance twenty years ago of two young campers, but their bodies were never found. But now, a young boy out playing has confirmed the grim truth. Their remains are discovered alongside those of a fresh victim, sending the tiny town into shock.

Book Review: 

Second book in the Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström series, THE PREACHER continues the personal story of these two characters, whilst taking the reader into another past / present scenario. I think I'm going to have to start a count of this sort of storyline as it seems to be cropping up all over the place. In this case the present connects with the past when the body of a young tourist is located in the place where the bones of two missing tourists, missing for 20 years, are then discovered. A second young female goes missing and the race is on.

Apart from the locations, and the setting for this book there's not a lot unusual in the plot-line here, nor are there any particular stand out elements in the way that the investigation is undertaken. Focus falls on the local misfits, clues keep leading back to them, but which family member and what is the explanation for the 20 year gap.  

The personal life aspects of this book do seem to take a lot of the focus. Erica's very advanced pregnancy means that she's unable to contribute to the investigation, instead a series of unwelcome guests in the house cause problems in the extreme heat, simply by refusing to leave.

I must admit the personal aspects, whilst amusing for a while, got pretty predictable quickly, and Erica's inability to show all these annoying people the door vaguely bewildering. As are her sisters actions, in an ongoing storyline from the first book. A lot of this wandering around in the personal didn't really seem to be advancing the story anywhere in particular, and I've no idea why on earth most of it was there.

Buried somewhere under all this personal chitchat, there is a plot lurking which was actually quite interesting. The first book THE ICE PRINCESS interested me slightly more than THE PREACHER, and I'd think that readers would be best off starting with the earlier book, as there's a lot that won't make a lot of sense in THE PREACHER without it. Whilst I was a bit disappointed in this book, this is a series I'm planning on continuing with as long as I can still see glimmers of something interesting.

Currently Reading - The Preacher, Camilla Lackberg

Submitted by Karen on

Book Title: 
The Preacher
Author Name: 
Camilla Lackberg

Somehow or other I've got behind with this series.  Urgent catchup required.

From the Blurb:

In the fishing community of Fjällbacka, life is remote, peaceful - and for some, tragically short.

Foul play was always suspected in the disappearance twenty years ago of two young holidaymakers in the area.  Now a young boy out playing has confirmed this grim truth.  Their remains, discovered with those of a fresh victim, send the town into shock.

THE ICE PRINCESS - Camilla Lackberg

Author Information
Book Title: 
The Ice Princess
Author Name: 
Camilla Lackberg
Author's Home Country: 
Sweden
ISBN: 
9780007253937
Categorisation
Category: 
Crime Fiction
Publisher: 
Harper Collins
Year of Publication: 
2008

Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy.  The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning.  Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life.
 
Book Review: 

Billed, somewhat confusingly for me at least, as "the best selling thriller" from "Sweden's Agatha Christie", I was interested to read a quote from the author that said "When I write these stories, it is not the gory and macabre details that interest me; it is the psychology behind the crime.  What makes a person commit the worst of all sins - taking another person's life."  Now if there's one thing that I particularly like it's the exploration of the why behind crimes.
 
THE ICE PRINCESS is set in the seaside town of Fjallbacka, a fishing village beset by the problems that happen when a town goes from a sleepy village to, what we'd call in Australia, a seachange location.  Many of the family homes are now serving as weekenders or holiday homes for the wealthy who live most of the year somewhere else.  There are still some pockets of old-time residents, and then there are people - like Erica - who come back.  Erica is a writer, she specialises in biographies of famous people, and she's back in Fjallbacka, because her parents were recently killed in a car accident, and their house needs to be sorted out.  She's also settling into the house, working, reconnecting.  Erica's sister Anna and her husband Lucas want to sell the house, which devastates Erica.  As well as losing her parents - she could lose the family's history and centre.  Whilst she is in Fjallbacka the body of her childhood friend - Alex is found.  She's lying in a bath of ice, in a house where the heating has failed.  Her wrists have been slashed and initially it's easy to write the death off as suicide.  Erica isn't convinced and neither is Patrik.  Patrik is another childhood friend of Erica's - he has remained all his life in this area and now is a policeman.  When he takes over the investigation of Alex's death - he discovers quickly that there has been a suicide, but there has also been a murder.
 
THE ICE PRINCESS was an interesting book to read - sometimes quite satisfying and sometimes a bit annoying.  The focus switches - Erica starts out investigating Alex's life - there had been a point at which they lost contact as children - and it's pretty obvious that something has happened that may have ultimately led to her death; but as soon as Patrik steps into the investigation, Erica seems to move to the backseat.  She also withholds evidence at one point for no logical reason.  There are also points at which characters in the story discover something - but the reader is never told what that is.  There's also a lot of extraneous stuff happening - Erica's parents; her own relationship with her sister Anna; the relationship between Anna and her husband; Erica and Patrik; Alex and her family; Eilert Berg and his wife; Anders and his mother; other members of the local community and so on.  It all gets very elaborate and complicated.  
 
There are some predictable characterisations - whilst both Erica and Patrik are really wet at points, Patrick's boss Bertil Mellberg is predictably rough on his employees, but he's also mildly funny.  There is, however, a nice cameo from Eilert Berg - who discovers the body and there is Annika from the police department.  There is also some budding romantic relationship building which may or may not appeal to some readers.
 
Where the book failed somewhat is that the plot is overly complicated at points, and it seems to spend a lot of time rushing up and down sub-stories.  Whilst there is some interesting exploration of decisions that are made for all the wrong reasons, it takes an awful lot to get to that point, especially as some of the elements are telegraphed fairly early on in proceedings.  That's not to say that this was a bad book, or that reading it wasn't totally without any enjoyable moments.  It was an unusual book, and I think I can see where the Agatha Christie reference has some relevance.  I'll definitely keep an eye out for the next book - I hope the build up of the characters, their relationships and the background of their lives step back a little, allowing more of the psychological aspects to take the focus.
 

Currently Reading - The Ice Princess, Camilla Lackberg

Submitted by Karen on

Book Title: 
The Ice Princess
Author Name: 
Camilla Lackberg

I think, dear reader, that it might be time I promised to stop explaining I'm running late in posting this - if you'll just take it as a given that I should have done everything a few days ago.  Mostly, this time, because I've nearly finished this book.  A debut novel which is "blurbed" as 'Ice-cold suspense from Sweden's new Agatha Christie'.  Now I'm not 100% sure what that means - but I doubt it will do the book a whole lot of service.  Okay, it's a little bit of a closed community because it's snowing and it's a small town, but it's not really.  It's certainly not a "no sex please, we'r

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